Split Axle Weight on a 5 Axle?.... Why?

If you look at the actual regulation, it's a mess. The summary DY posted is just that, the short version. Take a look at §32-6-26 (hint: make sure your calculator has a fresh battery and grab your tape measure too). It's Georgia code, but does quote the Federal version exactly for STAA routes (that I didn't bother to look any further for).

A single axle ticket (in Georgia anyway) would be most likely less than $200, and cheaper than traveling to the local courthouse to waste a day and still not win. Not to mention the opportunity cost of not driving that day.

 

I figured you'da pointed at his gut and accused him of stepping on the platform while you were weighing..

 

If you're in a typical OTR rig of 70+ feet -- you don't need to worry about bridge formulae because you'd be over gross long before you exceeded bridge.

As for GA code, they say 16,000lb + 13% per axle and 8,000 per wheel (I include the later because a super single wheel would exceed weight by 2,000 lb).

But the GA code also says:

"(3) If at any time federal law authorizes any weight greater than that authorized by this subsection, such
greater weight under federal law shall be authorized on the national highways within this state"

 

Aren't super singles only good to something like 9780 per tire? Thought I saw that somewhere and wondered why in the hell they would not rate them at the full 10,000

 

I don't believe "does not specify" is the same as "is greater than."

Remember the "barrier states"? Maybe you'll be the pioneer that gets the Federal code amended to specify the max single in a tandem group. It won't be me.

 

Poor trailer design and/or poor trailer bag valves and tuning can result in spread axles having LARGE differences in weight (not spread equally) between them. If the bag system is properly tuned and all valves are working properly and keeping the system balanced, spreads are rarely a problem and are usually within +/- 3% of each other, but when something goes wrong or fails in the spread air bag system, all bets are off in states that split axles when weighing.

Trailers that can "lift" an axle are the worst for having issues/failures in the system causing wild weight differences between the axles.

 

My line energy D's are 10,200:

I don't remeber the barrier states, but the fed code is pretty clear that 20,000lb is the maximum for an axle. You could try to say that they don't specify the maximum for an axle in a tandem grouping, but I think you'd be grasping at straws.

But hopefully it won't be me either, but I do plan on eventually running a wide single front axle at 20,000 lb and a narrow single rear axle at 14,000 lb so I'd have lots of issues with their screwy law. I mean maybe they catch some broken frames or bound-up suspensions, but they should be writing up those tickets and not weight...

But they're not the only state -- I think Arkansas only recently relented on ticketing interstate trucks for being over 12,000 lb on steer axles. And my home state of California? No defense offered there...

 

The axle weights in an axle grouping has been something that California, at least, has done for ages. That's why if you're not running a trunion axle set up in Cali, you're going to have walking beam suspension to keep the axle weights close to one another on the grouping. If you're permitted to 60,000lbs on the tridem, and you're say, 24,000 on the nose axle, 20,000 on the middle, and 16,000 on the back (slightly exaggerated, but, a couple thousand pounds difference isn't unheard of) you're going to get a ticket, even though you're legal to 60,000 on the grouping.

Just another way to get money.