46, 47 thousand lbs loads

That and all the crap people have in those things you see a double bunk Volvo and every time it looks like there's about to be an avalanche onto the floor.

 

You know those 2 foot by say 4 foot green plastic totes with the big lids that clamp on ends?

We kept three of them in the upper bunk. Each was secured by a standard one inch ship rope of the old tradition in a sort of a webbing.

Usually nothing rides in the top bunk when truck is moving.

Usually a team is just two people... maybe 400 pounds or so.

USUALLy not too heavy for loading.

We managed to be 2000 over tare with our team, our food and water and STUFF in those three boxes, under the lower bunk in the cabinets and in the side boxes on that Century. Sometimes we either run half tanks or not at all giving the load to solo or another team without all that crap.

The two big advantages were two.

First. No truckstop except fuel and shower now and then (Ugh... if you went by what the spouse would detect from time to time, you really needed to be careful where you went to shower.) and second, we could and did sit somewhere in any old spot at any time to wait for a load or unload or whatever.

There is a THIRD thought. All that food crap, fluids and so on (It's not crap, it's just a manner of speaking when you eyeball all that stuff in our tractor neatly put away and ask yourself how did you get all that crap in there?) follow me?

Can come in handy when there is a winter storm that closed a pass or something kids would get hungry or thirsty around us in the cars. Occasionally we share what we have. Not too much but we do share a little. I think the public loves that very much and are properly grateful but... it's not always good to have all that weight.

Finally my thoughts turn to trailer skirts, wheel coverings, little fairings that go between drive wheels and so on so forth etc beyond reason. Why do they even bother when a say a swift driver crushes a building that erases any potential fuel savings for years.

And that skirt in wyoming is a huge liability to me, I don't want to be tipped over in some of those winds and rather not have it at all.

I hate to be whiny. I hate to be complaining, I hate to be... whatever. But I have to be because the People making decisions inside trucking companies today think that they know what's best.

THEY> DO NOT. KNOW WHAT's BEST. I do.

 

Yea I just can't stand all kinds of stuff everywhere in my truck. I'm guessing the average swift "incident" erases most of their fuel savings from all their aero add ons.

 

I'd imagine a spread axle would help too. Maybe tridem trailers but I have no idea if or where a tridem would be legal in the US.

 

Everywhere you can get permit I'm actually permitted for 90 gross in the 4 states I run the most with my hopper.

 

I worked for a company where none of the owners or managers had CDLs and would be amazed if any had ridden in a truck, but during orientation they could tell you why it was so great to run 62mph (they were restricted to 64).

 

Morons the lot of them. You shouldn't be allowed to get numbers for your company unless you have a cdl.

 

Flats and steps also tend to be spread axle which allows for 20k on each axle instead of just 34k for the tandems, resulting in being able to haul more weight. I routinely haul 45-48 k with no problems.

 

I drove an ultra light Cascadia at my last job with a slightly shorter sleeper, fixed aluminum skid plate and I hauled 46,000 pound loads frequently in a reefer. I could really load a lot of weight on in the nose of the trailer.

 

A flatbed don’t weigh any where near a refer.