Gross weights

Ive got a noob question for you guys.

I run legal loads on a 48" spread with a 260WB sleeper truck now. Knoxville chicken house leaves the scale on even when its locked up, so i get a lot of free weights there overnight to correlate for my air gauges and to be sure im legal for all the other scales. Few weeks ago i slide my 5th wheel from all the way back to all the way forward for a tight drop i was headed to. Reweighed the load, approximately a 12" slide added about a thousand pounds to my steer. All axles were still legal.

Im guessing if i unhitched that truck and backed a 190" daycab under it, the steer would be overweight and the load would have to go back?

With a 260wb 5axle spread 48 i can scale 44k almost anywhere on the deck and 47 to 48k if we put some thought into it. Would going to a short truck still scale easy or would the loads need to get lighter? Is it move a pallet back, or take a pallet off?

 

Why would a lighter truck make your steers heavier? Unless you bought a stupid heavy truck a day cab will be lighter on all axles, and so long as you can slide the fifth wheel as needed, you shouldn't have any issues.

 

If i knew the answer i wouldnt be asking. I slid 12" forward and a thousand pounds more went on the steer. Putting the steer 70" closer to the kingpin [by going to a short daycab] must add a lot more to the steer by my logic, but i have no experience.

 

No. If you have your fifth wheel centered between your tandems, the trailer weight will not affect your steers. If you move it forward, it transfers weight forward, as you experienced. If you move it one foot forward, it is true that it will transfer more weight on the shorter wb truck, but probably not enough to make up for the weight difference between the truck trucks. Anyway the shorter wb should mean that you don't have to move the fifth wheel forward as much, if at all.

Big difference between moving the fifth wheel forward, away from the drives, and moving the steers back.

 

Does a 190wb truck struggle to scale 48k on a spread?

 

Again, if the truck is lighter it will be able to scale it even easier.

 

You’re going to have a lighter tare weight and it’s all in the truck. Let’s say you load with your sleeper truck and you’re right at 80,000. For some reason you have to hook on to your day cab, you won’t be grossing right at 80,000 anymore. There is a chance you’ll have to mess around and figure out how to load it differently just to get it to balance out, but you won’t be heavy on your steer axle just because you went to a shorter truck.

 

say the truck is NOT lighter. Just has a setback axle and a short WB.

I did haul rock on a daycab/48 spread for a few weeks at first terrible job but never knew what was on the trailer and evaded all scales. I couldnt get out of there fast enough.

 

Then your 5th wheel will be farther back, simple as that. You can still go 12/34 on the truck.

Each truck is different, but you’ll be able to find the 5th wheel position that puts you at 12 or a little over on the steer. On a short truck that could very well be almost centered on the drives while on a long wheelbase long hood you could maybe dang near be up to just behind center on the front drive axle. As long as you’re 32000 or under you can scale 48000 no matter the truck or the wheelbase.