would I get a ticket?

Different drivers and different trucks/setups will like to travel with weight differently.

My personally,.. I like to have my drives heavier than my trailer (If the load will allow it). I feel it gives my tractor more stability and traction, allows for a smoother ride and less wear and tear on my trailer tires.

Lets say I'm picking up a 35k machine. Theoretically I can set that almost to the end of the trailer and be legal. How ever,.. my drives would be so light,.. I'd probably be slipping/spinning the tires from every stop.. the ride would be pretty hard and bouncy. If I had to do a hard stop with perhaps a swerve to avoid hitting someone,.. I would have a greater chance of jack knifing as the trailers heavier weight would be pushing me. Personally I'd set that machine right at the head of my step. Get my drives right at about 31k with maybe 12k per axle on the rear.

You always need to know how much weight they are going to load you with. Thats always my first question,.. what does it weight? How tall are you going to stack me? From there you can figure out how he should load you.

Most of those guys have been loading trucks for a long time. They are pretty good at it and will load you evenly. Even so,.. you can not take them for granted. You need to make sure they are loading that trailer how YOU want that trailer to be loaded. You are the one going down the road with it. Its your livelihood once you leave the shipper.

Hurst

 

I apologize,.. I used the word "Rule" loosely.

How ever,..
34 and 34 = 68.
80 - 68 = ??

This is assuming a perfect world with an evenly loaded trailer.

I understand different states allow more on steers than others. I had to get weight off my drives once and the officer suggested I put the weight on my steers as they allowed 20k. I had to remind him that my steer tires were only rated up to 13k.

I picked up a man lift that I was told only weighed 23k. I had it at the head of my step. Turned out it weighed much more and had me at 37k on my drives.

He was cool about it,.. he let me move the man lift on my bed. Said as long as it didnt touch the ground and I got the axle weights right,.. he let me go with just a verbal lashing. He was right,.. I should have scaled the load.

Hurst

 

I'm the same way...prefer to be evenly distributed between the drives and trailer, but if one is going to be carrying more weight I'd prefer it to be the drives. My experience has been, though, that loaders know "you can carry 40K on the trailer" and they load heavy to the rear. I TRY to tell them to center the load between the front trailer axle and the rear drive axle...but once they get the load up to the landing gears, they stack the rest on the tail. I've made them move it forward a few times just to get my point across that I told them where I wanted it, and that's where I expect it to be. If they didn't want to rework the load, they should've loaded it like I had instructed them to do.

 

Exactly how it should be done.

I've had them tell me thats how they load all their guys. Then as politely as I can,.. I let them know that its my truck and my license on the line when I leave the shipper. I know my trailer,. I know my truck. I want it loaded a specific way. If he wont do that then dont load me at all,.. I will find another load.

For example,.. I went after some PVC pipe that needed a load leveler off my upper deck. He put a 20ft bundle on one side that met my leveler perfectly. Then he hung a 15ft bundle beside it that didnt even meet the leveler. It was hanging in the air. He said it would be fine once he stacked the other pipe on top of it. I explained that I would not be strapping the whole stack,.. but splitting the stack in half when I secured it,.. and that it would be impossible to secure the lower 15ft bundle next to it. No way was I going to sling straps over 4 bundles of pvc pipe with out strapping the first 2 layers of bundles first. He wanted to stack the two 20ft bundles in a row on the same side of the trailer.

It was one of the few times I have ever been rude with the guy who loaded me. I told him he was an idiot,.. then I got so pissed I told him to take it all off,.. I was leaving. As he was unloading me his manager came out. He tried the same "Thats how we load our trucks" schpeal with me. He then asked for my companies phone number,.. I gave him my cel number. He dialed it,.. I answered my phone right in front of him. Thats right,.. Not company driver son. It was funny,.. my wife almost pee'd herself. I told my wife to get in the truck and then as I was heading for my door he said Ok,.. how do you want it loaded?

Sometimes you have to be a prick in order to get it done. I really didnt want to lose the load,.. but I wasnt going down the road at 13' with pipe tilting to one side of my trailer either.

Hurst

 

"That's how we load our trucks"

"Well that's all fine & dandy, but you're missing one very important detail: This ISN'T your truck...it's mine...and that isn't how you're going to load MY truck."

 

If you come to me over weight and aware of it , and then you inform me you were told to run it by a boss , you and the boss got problems now and in the future . Dam straight , i'm gonna pull you in every time . If the boss tells you to drive it off a cliff or run that low viaduct at 50mph you gonna do it ? THINK DRIVER THINK it's your livelihood not his !
Plus once a scale master knows you are naïve enough to run overwt because boss man says so , you will become a regular visitor to the coops. Not to mention a company's safety rating takes a hit each time they do that and the more that ICC # flags red the more you're pulled in.

 

Bingo

 

Yeah you keep on rolling with that , school of hard knocks is waiting on ya slick. You are allowed 12,000 , 34,000 and 34,000 .... and an APU frame mounted in front of the drives will allow for and extra 400lbs. You're required to have the waiver with you or you were 3 yrs ago anyway. If you have and extra leaf spring up front , as I do and have a 13,280 rated tire your okay up to that weight on the steer providing you're still under 34,000 on you sets and under 80k.

It's not rocket science , go across 68 in MD Capt. and run into the Finzel scale near Cumberland 35,600 see if they give ya the green.