First Trip to CA, any advice?

Speed limit for truck's in California is 55. Also, if there are 2 or more lanes you must stay in the right lane unless you are passing. I found this out from a state highway patrol. Thankfully he was nice and just gave me a warning.

 

Make sure you have a Commiefornia compliant truck.

 

Do your pretrip. Anything not high and tight, get it fixed. Get your truck washed before going in.

 

Scale your load before leaving the shipper -- or as close as possible after leaving; slide tandems (within Calf limits, of course) as necessary. If the load won't scale out properly -- take it back, & have them rework/redo the load to remove the excess weight. Too much weight at the DOT scales will then be YOUR problem -- NOT theirs.

If you don't already have it -- download the "Catscale" app to you cellphone.

It's incredibly easy to use. It will help you find nearby Catscale locations, as needed.

Also -- don't leave clutter/paperwork on your truck's dash area.

-- L

 

You treat California like you would any other state except for the kingpin rule, speed limit and being in the right lane. Drivers always talk #### about the rules, well majority of them apply to the other states as well. I can tell you having been in trucking for over 15yrs, a California native and been to every state except Maine. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been stopped at scales here my entire career. Meanwhile I’ve been stopped at least five times in one year in Nevada and Arizona. That’s also while running hazmat tanker.

 

Like other post said once loaded scale truck and set tandems for CA bridge law. If not legal go back and have them reload trailer. California doesn’t play game with bridge law. They probably write you a big ticket. I was told it better to be overweight on trailer tandems vs going over the bridge law. The overweight ticket is less.

A little trick to load a 53 trailer for CA. Tell the shipper to load your trailer like a 48 foot trailer. You need 5 empty feet in back of trailer to be legal. You can check the trailer at shipper once loaded. If you wear size 12 shoes then you need 5 foot steps from last pallet to end of trailer.

 

Aside from the bridge law and the speed limit, there is the problem with a place to park in that area.
As in, there are not many, and they are not very nice.
Deliver as early as possible and try to have a load out of that area as soon as possible. One headed east or north is best.

 

Now you have to stay in the farthest right lane??

I remember years ago we were restricted to the right two lanes, and that was bad enough.