Does DOT allow for fuel weight

Correct that it won't change steer that much, but in this case where he is close to being overweight on the steers, it is doing the opposite of what he needs to do.

 

It also depends on how the trailer was loaded. Worse case scenario next time he might have to reduce the amount of fuel to take on. Very rarely have I seen anyone move the fifth wheel to adjust weight(maybe only once). And as I said before some companies (like mine) have fixed fifth wheels so sliding is not an option which means you either slide the tandems or reduce your fuel load or at the worst, get the load reworked. In addition the OP stated he drives a Cascadia, the 100 gallon fuel tanks on those tend to be mounted slightly closer to the drives on the frame (with exception to the short range 80 gallon tank trucks). Sliding the tandems back will put the majority of the weight on the drives, and take some of the weight off the steers (think "pendulum effect").

@Jdm5jdm5 Do you pull dry van or reefer or both?

 

Unless your fifth wheel is behind the drive axles, your pivot point is ahead of the axles. Putting more weight there will put more weight on the steer, not less.

 

Depends on the tractor and any other additional equipment.

 

Elaborate please

In my experience if you have say 12500 steer and 33000 drive totaling 45500 you can move it forward to say 13000/32500 still=45500 or backward to 12000/33500...still 45500.
How does equipment on the truck or any other factors come into play? Other than the 400 pound seat cover moving from the sleeper to the front seat while you are also adjusting 5th wheel.

 

Unless you're going off on a tangent, the op is heavy on the steers. I don't know what kind of setup you have, but I have yet to see one that is heavy on the steers, and the 5th wheel is slid all the way back. Unless it is some wierd setup, to do that, the fifth wheel will be ahead of the center point between the driver axles. In that case, taking weight off the trailer, and putting more on the fifth wheel will put more on the steers.

 

It depends on how the tractor specs out sometimes. As I stated previously at least with my employer, our fifth wheels are fixed they can't slide because we use a pneumatic king pin release. With our Cascadia fleet we have 100 gallon fuel tanks on each side(except for the short range midroof models and daycabs) a 400 pound Thermo King Evolution APU and Bambi bumpers on the front. Depending on the model year the powertrain is either a Cummins ISX 15 with a 10 speed or Detroit DD 15 with a DT 12 automatic. Of course I pull reefers with a 75 gallon fuel tank all the live long day.

 

So in your case your only variables are drives and tandems.... if they add up to more than 68000 you aren't going to slide your tandems and get them to 34/34
Yes you will put a small amount to the steer tires but not much. In that case you would have to rework the load.
Other than that I don't follow how you figure any of the fixed items on your tractor make a difference when adjusting axles or 5th wheel

 

As I said previously sometimes you can't take on too much fuel. There have been loads where I've only taken on just enough fuel to keep the truck running and get thru a scale house at the same time. And our company's trucks (in particular the KWs) are notoriously "steer heavy",even with only 26,000 pounds in the reefer sometimes the steers would be close or over 12,000 pounds.

 

So then we are talking about 2 separate things...
You are talking more about weight distribution when fuel is added ...I'm talking only about how shifting 5 or tandems transfers weight balance like a teeter totter.