sliding the tandems?

For not knowing what i mean, you gave me exactly what I was looking for. Opie is having trouble. There is a science to loading and getting the axle weights right. Your original post was excellent. I just wanted you to explain WHY you do it that way. Maybe it will help another driver.

 

OK, thanks dude.. Loading and then scaling for legal weights when there is a limit on the kingpin to axle length required is usually counter productive. Many drivers have gotten themselves in hot water while being completely legal on the axle weights.... but too long on their drive axle to tandem axle "bridge". Being a couple of hundred miles from where you loaded the trailer and now being "over-bridge" with no recourse is just a crummy (and expensive) way to learn.

 

One more thing about this. I was getting live loaded in Effingham Illinois a while back. I was the last one to load and it was 5PM on a Friday before a 3 day weekend. The guy driving the forklift placed a very heavy pallet right on the back of my trailer. I knew I was close on my weights. I should have never allowed that pallet to stay but it was late and the boss over the dock was getting grumpy and I was at my 14 hour point. I cat scaled at the PETRO and could not get my trailer tandems right while maintaining being legal bridge law wise. The shipper had closed by then. According to my company bridge law handbook if I remember correctly my tandems were legal for Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas but not Illinois. I was headed for Dallas. I got through OK but swore never again. Any new drivers that don't fully understand bridge law and sliding tandems need to contact your company and get remedial training. ASAP. In some places the fines are severe. At one point in Missouri being overweight came to about $100 bucks per thousand pounds over. I remember talking to a Crete driver one night at a truck stop in Missouri. He had been hauling big rolls of paper. En route because the rolls were not secured correctly and the rolls "walked" forward and he got nailed in Missouri for being almost 8,000 pounds over on his drives. That's an $800 fine. Bottom line? Like others in this thread have said, get legal and make sure your load is secured correctly.

 

The way to fix that is to get going about 40 mph and slam the breaks on. Do this 3 or 4 times then go scale gain lol.

 

Just don't slide them as far as this!