Help with wide load!!

Last summer I had the same go go mindset... chasing sunset to make sure I had a spot to park. After some frustrating moments... I decided to pre-plan each day the night before instead of hour to hour making sure I followed the route. That worked out much better. Knew where I should be.. where and when I should be fueling/parking for the night. Much less stress.

It was a fun learning experience. But much happier doing step loads with my little small machines and freight. Having to split 2 lanes on a 2 lane bridge with no shoulders with a 13ft wide load so cars didnt try to pass was an experience. Several happy drivers saluted me as we finally reached the end and I merged over to let them pass.

I think dealing with 4 wheelers was probably the most frustrating thing for me.

Hurst

 

I used to pull modular and mobile homes all over, ran 8 trucks. There s a quirk in Ga law with is permits, but no one would believe me, so I ai nt even gonna go there.

 

Ahhh come on, before the thread dies....LOL

 

If you do enough of them splitting lanes gets to be second nature. The fours really look at you funny when you do it with a legal load.

 

I do about 80% OD loads mostly wide but some are long. Most of ours are under 12' wide so pretty easy and straight forward in the areas we run. However for the past few weeks I have been running 14'6" loads requiring escorts. The four wheelers show much more curtesy than a large portion of the other trucks. I guess they are so hellbent on go, go go they can't even show a little patience.
Oh well, kicked one off today, 10 wide tomorrow and will be 14'6" again on Thursday and home on Friday for a 3 day weekend.

 

11'4 and 11'8 are the widest I've done on my step.

Almost took a 15' wide John Deere sprayer, broker canceled load when he discovered how much the escorts would be to go 3 states.

Would easy to load and secure. The arms for the spayer were right at 15' and that was folded up. I remember wondering why they couldnt have designed it so the arms folded in more. I dont think it weighed more than 8k lbs.

Hurst

 

13'-11" wide next week into downtown Toronto. Skinny streets and lots of people. Yuck.

 

Its probably at least 90 ft when unfolded. Maybe 120.

 

Read EVERYTHING! There are some states that require you sign the permit in red ink.
Take your time and if in doubt stop and think about stuff like JSA.

 

You want to get the exact dimensions of your load. You need to know what you gross and axle weight, your starting place and final. Pay strict attention to your permit instructions including routes and time restrictions for states, bridges, etc. DO NOT divert from the route on the permit. If you violate the permit in any way you could be heavily fined and in some cases taken to jail.
Also, don't skimp on the true dimensions or weights because if you get inspected at a scale house and the information is wrong, you will have to leave the load there until you have the correct permits. Trust me on this. It has happened to me and this can take days to correct.