Sliding tandems

Heavy on Trailer go FORWARD

Heavy on drives go BACKWARD

 

This is if you're thinking in terms of tractor movement with locked trailer wheels. Some think in terms of which direction to move the trailer tandems in which case the above advice is exactly wrong.

 

^^^ That's just how It was explained to me when I first started driving. It works for me

 

glad i could be of help.

 

You could've asked a driver at a truck stop, at the shipper, or on the radio. Any of which would have been a lot faster than this process. I look at things like this as riding a bike, once you learn you always remember.

 

44 posts on how to slide the tandems. New question: how many truck drivers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

 

LTL or OTR? Tanker or dry van?

 

So...

... how DO you slide the tandems on a split axle?

 

I turn the airbag lift/brake valve counter clockwise. Then I pull the air pin release. Put her in reverse until the rig stops and do the opposite. Voila! If you would have asked earlier I would have made a video for you.

 

In general, you take the trailer tandem weight and subtract the drive tandem weight to find the difference. Then divide the difference by 2. Finally, you divide that answer by the weight that each hole moves to get how many holes to slide the trailer tandems.
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. Here is the problem you may encounter. What if you don't know how many pounds each hole moves?
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.My shortcut method is to take the trailer tandem weight and subtract the drive tandem weight. Now divide that amount by 500 to find how many holes to slide the tandems. Why divide by 500? Because if you divide a number by 2 and divide again by 250, that is mathmatically the exact same thing as you divide the number by 500. Don't worry it is a law in mathmatics.
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.If the answer is a negative number [the drives are heavier than the trailer tandems], you shorten the trailer wheelbase that number of holes. .
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If the answer is not negative then increase the trailer wheelbase that number of holes.
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To find out how much weight each hole moves, take the amount of weight that moved and divide by the number of holes that you moved the trailer tandems.