Box Truck w Airbrakes....Concerns weight capacity

My understanding that is the axles could take 29,000 but the truck is only good for 25,999. The axles are rated for more then the truck. If you had something heavy in the back of the truck you could put 19,000 lbs on that axle if your steer axle only had 6,999 lbs on them it would be legal to drive because that would be 25,999.

The truck really weights 17,000 empty so you can only carry 8,999 lbs so when they built the truck they probably figured to make sure no one overloads the axles and the brakes. Just put bigger axles on the truck so the only way overload them would mean someone would have overload the truck.

Just like on a semi the truck and trailer axles can take 12,000 40,000 and 40,00 for a total of 92,000 lbs but the legal limit is 80,000 lbs

 

The image of carrying 9000 pounds as licensed is too small of a truck or rather limited to volume freight that cubes out such as say Popcorn. It's real light.

 

I did some looking. Now I think I see what sort of vehicle we got here. Wow what a big box. Lets see, I hate to pull on Wiki but it comes close with the family.

International DuraStar - Wikipedia

I was thinking in Tandem terms where I am comfortable. I have driven two axle trucks before and frankly the last one I had a international Dump would be very close to or smaller than this one we are dealing with here. We just threw down say 5 ton into the back maybe a bit more. It never complained Overweight? Certainly. Eh... It was for getting into small homes to make driveways you see.

This truck can carry a little more than your rating. It will help to know what axles you got under there.

Now that I understand within a range what we are dealing with my next question is this...

WHAT are you hauling with that thing?

Remember, I am just a passive observer here, I have no interest in details that are intimate to your specific situation, just a ball park. Such as I use it to run moving furniture shuttle from big Mayflower 18 wheeler truck into small homes.. that would be one idea... Nothing that would really involve weight scales requiring exact information.

YOUR local dealership should have the VIN. Your VIN on that truck is actually a living being. Unique to that specific truck. Once your truck is crushed in a junkyard or rendered beyond salvage the State will "Kill the VIN" making that particular vehicle forever dead. And not registerable. With that in mind your dealer can access the computer and MAYBE should tell you what you can or cannot do with that truck legally in terms of your weight.

A alternative is to contact your State's Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Board. Or similar. They will welcome you with questions and happy to HELP you understand what you can haul with that thing before they catch you too heavy and make a angry ticket against you later. You follow me?

That's all I have for now. Your licensing at 25xxx seems to me a way of saving money. If a truck can haul more why not just have it as such? Is it really that much more a year to do that?

I enjoy these questions if I can hold true to the final objective, to understand what you can put in there by weight.

 

Ive hauled full mail for the US Post Office under dispatch to Springfield Mass from Mid Atlantic. A whole 53 foot pines trailer or wabash 53 foot stuffed with US Mail is hardly any weight. Maybe 9000. The tractor I had that month was a very fast tractor extreme speeds and so on and that mail was the hottest dispatcher telling me are we there yet kind of really serious be there on time or lose the account and get fired. So... what a ride.

There is several small post offices in my area, all of them get a truck very close to your kind but with tandem. Maybe you can get into smaller places if that is what it is.

Im pretty sure you can fill that thing with mail. Never mind the weights. Unless it's package kind with bricks in every one. Im thinking piles of envelops of bill paying or cards.

Paid for? Yer golden. Take good care of it as much as you can and it should run a while. Put away the excess money against the future whatever it is. Your post about mail pretty much finished my thinking here. You will learn what axles you have under there and what exactly you can put on it and maybe learn from the board what you can gross with that thing. 28000 would not be too far off, unless that's a 20K axle under there.

 

Everything being talked about here doesn't matter. The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is what it is at 25,999. It cannot be increased without major suspension modifications and a certification that is not cheap or even possible in some states. If you want a vehicle that can handle more weight, you're best bet is simply buy one.

Go talk to a local up fitting shop and see what state laws are about increasing gvrw

 

Alot of scales eh?

Two things.

FIND a CAT scale near you, preferably the loading. If you don't that one, then hunt for a Stone, blacktop or materials loading plant for your area, they have a company scale you should be ok to use for a askance and a small gift like coffee and doughnts for the people. The good will will save you a bunch.

You MUST learn your empty weight full fuel and YOU in the truck.

Then you need to know how MUCH you can hit the DOT scale on the interstate with that truck weighing full load. (For it specifically.)

Then be careful putting mail onto that thing. A part of me says it's too bad it's not a tandem, but eh...