Can scale houses actually tell if I’m overweight on spread axles

H

Indiana used to. Steer and each of your drives were on their own scale plate. You couldn’t afford to run a Pete across there until you got the shims out of the steer. The tickets would eat you. Learned that the hard way with my 359. They used to shim the front end up to force more weight to the steer. As a result they put more weight to the rear drive.They rode like #### til you got those shims out of there anyway. The forward drive and power divider bouncing like a basketball would blur your vision til you did.

 

Harrisonville MO scale does each axle, and is why often best avoided.

 

Illinois still splits the drives (jack booted thugs)!

 

Wyoming will split weigh also.

 

They sure can, and will. VA will axle out your spread too. All depends on what they're looking for when you roll through.

 

And they’ve been known to tell you to pull up and split your trailer tandems!!!

 

After thinking about it some more, I was kind of curious. What are your steer and drive weights, if that is your spread axle's weights? Curious because, unless you're really heavy on your drives, that might explain that difference, and you also don't mention if it's a flatbed or step deck. Reason for that is, if it's a flatbed, and you have that variance of weight, either your drives are loaded and trailer is like beastr123 shows in his diagram, or you have a defective levelling valve, perhaps.

If it's a stepdeck, similar possible defective levelling valve, or..and this is always a problem, not enough load balanced between upper deck stop (if it can't be loaded on top of the upper deck) and spread axle. I had a load like that of RR rails. Took 3 weighs to get it loaded right because they wouldn't let me take any less and that actual total weight, was legal. Just getting it positioned properly between the upper deck, and the lower deck was the pain. Some long pieces, some short..but almost all, long. It was a pain that I had afterward, avoided. Previous answer still holds though. Yes they can detect it, and it's still up to you to make sure it does. Was just wondering what the other variables are conditions were that could cause that kind of imbalance, and perhaps, give you a place to look for the culprit if it is the levelling valve. Had that happen.

 

your spread should never be that far apart. you have a ride height problem

 

Get your trailer sitting level and they’ll equal out. My guess is the nose of your trailer is lower than the rear and your leveling valve is on the front axle.