DOT allow over weight when pulling reefer?

No. Last week I got pulled into the scale house in Roanoke Va. I was over on my tandems. I told the officer I scaled the truck at the shipper and my weight was good. He said the shippers scale was wrong. I said yes sir your right. He said can you fix your weights. I said yes sir. I pulled my tandems back two holes rescaled and was on my way. If your over they will give you a chance to fix it. If you cant fix it your hit.

 

Kind of handy if you drive a Volvo 770 or 880.

 

Maryland does not give you a chance to make it right. They just write a ticket and send you on your way. They don't care about why there's bridge laws, or why their roads suck. They just want the money

 

This was not my experience there in 2011. I had picked up another drivers mess and crossed the I-95 scales near the toll booths. I was stopped and told I was OK gross wise but over on my drives. I asked how much parked then slid my tandems forward some, went back through and sent on my way. This goes back to Ridgelines comment. Depends on the scalemaster working and if they are a prick or not.

 

I have never had any luck in Maryland. To be fair, there's not much I can do with fixed tandems. But I do have a sliding fifth wheel, and that alone would have saved me a ticket a time or two, as I'm usually heavy on the drives and have some wiggle room on the steers.

I guess I could go to a CAT scale for every load, but that would cost $30 a day per truck. Not worth it.

 

To be fair sometimes depending on the name on your truck those targets are large with some carriers and not so large with others.

 

They LOVE dry bulk haulers in MD....

 

Even thought he still only gets 80,000 gross, he should check his axle ratings to make sure he's loading them correctly and he may have steers he can load heavier than 12,000.