A quick rundown on a sliding 5th wheel?

Except for that..

 

+1 on the gauges. On my first few loads, I scaled and checked the psi. Wrote that down, and now I have a good idea of what I'm weighing. I also know the psi on my gauges for when tandems are at 34k, and spread is at 36,500. So I know before I even leave if I'm too heavy on something. Haven't scaled since.

 

always good to tell scale officer your load shifted, get yourself a ticket for unsecured load.

 

We pull different trailers all the time. When we hauled cement out of Chesapeake VA I had to slide my 5th wheel all the way forward in order to fit on the scale, depending if I had a 3 or 4 hopper bulk tanker. The air release is so you don't have to get out of the truck, just flip the switch and slide. Unfortunately it isn't that easy when you're loaded. I always had to lower my landing gears to the ground, then dump my tractor air so no weight was on the 5th wheel.

 

This^^^^^^^^^^

 

That's how you should do it anyway. Makes it nice and easy on your equipment.

 

My first Trucks slider was rusted up so bad, it wouldn’t move. We tried everything. The Truck had been used as a spotter, for quite a while. I eventually put a new fifth wheel on it, along with new inside rails. Had to cut the old one out of the frame brackets with a cutting wheel.

 

I keep my 5th wheel back of center a few notches. Maybe 4-6 inches back from centered Rides better that way and we hardly ever load more than 42-43k so no need to have 12,000 up front. With 40k on im 8800-9000 on the steers.

If your constantly up against 80 don't listen to this you'll never be able to do 45k loads. The only scale i have to worry about is the water gap in jersey and I roll threw there before they open most days. Send it how it is Lol and the tandems don't move. If I was running OTR I'd be more careful but i stay local