Tandems Confuse Me - Please Advise

At least with most vans you have the option of sliding the tandems. Being overweight with a pup and it's back to the dock for you to get it reworked...........

 

Sliding the tandems forward takes weight OFF the tractor.
Sliding them back puts weight ON the tractor.

 

The way I learned it was "slide the tandems towards the problem"

 

That's how I got it thru my skull. It was confusing at first

 

This is true. But a driver must first know how/when to scale a load to make the determination if there is a problem. Then they need to "learn" sensible slide amounts rather then spend a few hours just sliding around willy nilly in radical amounts with no sense of what they are doing other then playing roulette and hoping it lands on red 9 at some point.

 

Oh, yeah. I remember a few of those.

 

Ugly some info for ya. New, but I got some info for ya. I heard tandems have two different spacing sizes I.e. Between the holes. Some are 4 inches others are 6 inches. The 4 inch shifts weight 250lbs. The other, meaning tandems with 6 in long spaces is 400 lbs. over and out!

 

What I do is slide the tandems so they are under the last pallet. I it's a heavy load, but this can also depend on how it's loaded. If it's a heavy load or I'm not sure I'll take the time to scale it. Then if I can I'll even it out between the drives and tandems.
But stop sliding the tandems all the way forward. I've picked up many relay loads from other drivers that do that. Then I have to waste my time trying to get it legal cause they just drove 150 miles with 36k on the trailer and 30k on the drives. Guess they couldn't feel something was wrong?

 

For many loads, all it takes is for a loader to mis load, and put a single in one row too early or too late and you are being set up for a problem. It doesn't happen often but the fact it CAN happen means it's a big gamble to ASSUME the load is "like the last time".

Tractor bag pressure guages are so invaluable once you know what the numbers mean and where the "critical" line is, and you can then do basic math to determine if there is any wiggle room.

 

know how you want the trailer loaded
and getting off your phone and onto the dock helps
with my reefer they aren't going to go single double single unless i am staring at them