While I have been driving a few years me and another driver the other night about states with bridge laws and there views on axle or gross weight. While my co works view makes sense, my cubical view of government believes they would not make it that simple.
In the state we were talking about that night (Florida) their view on things seems to be as long as your at or under 41' and not over gross being over in axle groups are ok. So long as your not over gross. We both agreed on this. Agreed on that and agree rolling through state similar to Georgia with no bridge law we would have to adjust to be legal.
The real question came on the following. Are all states with bridge laws loose on axle weights so long as your not over gross? This is where my co worker and I disagreed. Mostly because I dont believe that differwnt states can be that efficiant and that aleast one of them wouldnt set us up for over weiggt tickets knowing how other states operate.
That being said we run regional route delivery so we don't venture out of the south east.
Thoughts?
RC
41' king pin to center of rear axle group
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by RichardCranium86, Apr 16, 2017.
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Kool-Aid anyone?
Discuss the issue any way you want, but the law is the law.
If they pop you for being overweight in any way, it is on you.
And no state 'sets you up' for an overweight ticket.
It is up to you to ensure that you are running legal in any state you drive through.scythe08 and Dave_in_AZ Thank this. -
Bridge law limits how close you can go, in other words how close you can get. 4 axles at 68000 pounds can't be closer than 39 feet. So you have to look at the most restrictive state you are running through, for example, CA says no more than 40 feet kp to center of rear axle, then make sure that you aren't closer than your 39 feet from center of front drive to center of rear tandem, and you will be ok in all states.
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And over axle in ANY state is illegal and you WILL get a ticket if caught, even Florida
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Yea, but FL allows you to be over 34k on tandems as long as you are at/under the 41' bridge and are anal about being over 41'...GA says 34k, but most scales will let you slide a pin over 41' as long as you're at/under 34k per tandem.
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Your interpretation is wrong, can't be more than 40 feet..you can be 38, 36 feet if over 40 feet you are in violation.
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Do they teach anything in truck driving schools?
Yet another TTR poster has Kingpin laws confused with bridge weight laws and has the whole concept of both of them conflated.
FL allows 44,000lbs on a tandem is where you get that notion of allowances for FL's kingpin law. Most states do not allow that high of a weight regardless if they enforce a kingpin law or not.Bean Jr., TripleSix and RichardCranium86 Thank this. -
Just to add I have only ever run regionally, for the same company since I started. Weight is rarely even a issue. On the runs that it was our equipment we cant get past 41' due to our lift gates so its something I've never had to deal with going OTR. So still green on a lot only learn so much in 2 and a half years. Plenty left to learn.Toomanybikes Thanks this.
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http://www.bigtruckguide.com/kingpin-to-rear-axle/
might need to be updated.
info can be found in the "Motor Carriers Atlas".Last edited: Apr 17, 2017
RichardCranium86 Thanks this. -
Oh no. Leaving aside the kingpin measurement issue for the moment, the Bridge Formula is regarded as quite the cash cow. I've gotten many tickets on that basis back when I was pulling a dump trailer.
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