Excavator chaining while I'm bored.

Looks like I missed all the action when I went in for a shower huh?
The only time we haul with no blade, is when the factory (Cat) is trying to get the OD charges down. That will make it 10' - 11' wide, instead of over 13 or 14. A few states stipulate the blade has to be rear facing, and that's about it as far as that goes.
I haul a lot of the snow wing equipped graders out of Ks to Wa or Or, and they have the OEM blade, plus a V plow and side wing. As long as it is part of the machine, you're good to go pretty much. Obviously, a machine can get broken down to reduce weight and size, but that is up to the shipper, unless it's a 992 or D11 etc.
As far as weight goes, different states allow different weights. Mo now allows a 5 axle combination to be up to 100k lbs with permits. Ia and Ne are 92K lbs, and so on. I am registered for 117k lbs, but will still pull the odd 3 axle stretch as well as my trusty old 2 axle. The same rule applies to size, meaning that is must be a "non divisible" load. In basic terms, you can't put 2 or 3 machines on a trailer and get an overweight permit, and you cant put 2 - 5' crates side by side and get a 10' wide oversize permit.
And I agree, over chaining is always the safer way to go, especially when you consider it normally takes a whopping 10 minutes to do.
Martin

 

A couple of years ago, Wyoming was getting really stupid with their overweight permits.
They would tell you that nothing else can be on the trailer, or they will deny the permit. No tarps, blocks, chains, nothing. Needless to say that didnt last long....Thank God, as it was getting old me having to hide my tarps under machinery

Martin

 

It will depend on the states you are going to run in, but if you keep it at or under 12 - 40 - 40 you will be pretty much covered everywhere, except in Mn when they have the frost laws in effect.
I just use my load gauges on the truck and trailer when I am on level ground. For the stuff I haul pretty regularly, I measure from the front deck to the machine and make a note of it in a book I have. You wouldn't believe the amount of fone calls I get from our other drivers asking me where to put a machine....

Martin