driving w/ tandams all the way back, '53

its the only way they can back up

 

With the tandems all the way back you are putting more weight up on the drives and removing it from the trailer........

 

This is from having the tandems all the way back?

Seems to me that the trailer in the picture already had a weak spot in it that resulted in it caving in on itself.

 

I'm sure it's been covered a few times, but I've drug a 53' closed tandem bullrack all over, and with a 280" wb 379 Pete to boot. Overlength permits for states that require them, and keep on truckin. I haven't been stopped due to length, even when coming into scale houses. I can scale perfectly fine, 11.8xx on steers, 33,8xx on drives and 33,6xx on the trailer. And I can't slide anything, or shift the load around, it just balances itself out just fine. NOW, I will say...pulling a cow trailer, worrying about weight is usually the last concern, because even if you are legal weight, it is a moving load that may be legal weight on one set of axles, and 200 miles up the road, it's not.

 

california is the only state that will enforce the bridge law. the other states dont worry about it.

 

^^^ what are the odds someone so close to me would post here too? I'm right up the road in Crawford.

 

The pins on some of these tandems are so rusted out and stiff
you need to be Superman to pull it out (particularly containers).
A lot of drivers say @#&% it and leave it where it is.
If carriers did any kind of routine maintainance on their trailers
this wouldn't become a problem.
But - as they say - thas tha truckin biz thar bud...

 

Probably off topic but this podst reminded me of a trailer I was supposed to pick up a few years ago.
I was driving a pumpkin truck at the time, and was to drop an empty and hook to a relay at the dropyard in Louisville Ky.
The bills said there was 39000 in the box and it had been loaded i San Antonio Tx., and I was to take it somewhere in Pa., can't remembe where now.
What blew me away was that only one of four tandem pins was still installed! The other three were gone. Not there and not in a hole. They and all mounting hardware was gone. The only thing holding the one remaining pin in was that it was wedged in the egged out hole it was in.
Of course weekend dispatch wanted me to hook and go. Which I politely refused to do! Had to wait 2 hours for a service truck to get there, an escort car showed up while the tech was wrapping chains aroud the cariage rails so I could drag the thing to their shop, slowly with an escort.
How the dropping driver got it to Louisville from San Antonio I haven't a clue. And I'd sure like to meet that driver face to face so he can explain to me just why he felt it was ok to drop that junk for someone else to deal with!

 

I got a written warning in Northern California for my tandems being at 41 feet. Two other times they have come out and measured my tandems at other California chicken coops.

 

I wouldn't pull anything with just one of the four pins...let alone 40k lbs+.
Yer just asking for those tandems to go flying out the back.
Most of these loaders don't even glance at the trailer to see if it's up to snuff.
I've seen trailers loaded with flat tires, missing mudflaps, missing tandem pins,
broken door hinges, leaky brake chambers, leaky airlines, electrical shorts,
,,,the list goes on and on.
And amazingly I sometimes see drivers taking these loads without question.
I saw a driver pulling a trailer across I-80 into New Jersey last week with no mudflaps.
Somehow he made it out of PA without any trouble.
Ten minutes after he crossed into NJ he was pulled over by the cops.

If you think yer going to sail on thru yer trip without a hitch pulling trailers like that
you had better think again.
Besides the risk of hitting an open scalehouse and getting red-taged/fined, cops,
you also run the very real risk of causing a major accident.
And who do you think they're going to hang when that happens??
And hang you they will....and from the highest tree.
This is why it pays to carry a good digital camera with you at all times.
Take lots of pics of equipment failures like this during yer pre-trip.
Include the trailer number, liscence plate, inspection sticker, etc.
And in your case, pics of the rail showing the missing pins on each side of the tandems.
If they fire you for refusing a load like that you have evidence to show your attorney.