ADVICE FOR THE BEGINNER

Your never going to get any weight on the front axle anyway. You would have to have the 5th wheel a foot in front of the front drive axle to move that extra 2k lbs anyway with that long wheel base. Leave it alone and roll.

Wait a second, are those Pete lights on a Kenworth?

 

Have you weighed that truck empty, I find it hard to believe that it’s not close to 12,000 on the steer bobtail.

 

If you get the kingpin rear of the center of the drive group - loaded it will start to take weight off the steer

Load heavy and you can reduce the weight up there enough to not be able to steer

 

Agreed. But disagree at same time. The drives are on suspensions independent of each other so the pivot point is not the center of the group. Maybe in the heavy haul segment it makes a big difference but when dealing with a 3 axle tractor grossing under 100k as long as the king pin is in front of the center of that rear axle, even an inch, its going to keep it from doing the teeter totter thing and lift up the steer. At least that's been my experience but the most weight I've ever pulled was just over 120k gross. Start talking heavier than that and i have no clue.

 

With a legal weight load I generally run about 14-14.5K on the steers with my KP about 3" ahead of center of the drives. If I slide it all the way back that weight will go close to 12K.

My empty weight on the steers is 13,800 will full tanks regardless of fifth wheel setting. Having the fifth wheel behind center of the drives will lift weight off the front.

All these numbers are with a 48x102 Aluminum step w/ 18" KP

 

I blame my brain fart on the sun. But still as long as its in front of the rear drive its never going to lift the steer axle up to where you can't turn. You got to get into super load territory weights for that.

 

I still want to know the empty weight of the steer.