Heavy Haul Vs Regular Haul

Only a couple 1000s of pounds, but you don’t have to tarp it..mostly
Weight is weight more axles, helps to know weight of load, not going to cat scale that one

 

Not sure if your question is clear enough mate that's probably why your getting some fancy comments and if your needing advice best show a nicer attitude as well. Just to put a spanner in the works In the USA they run 80,000 lb or 40 US Ton with 5 axles combo, if that was in Aussie land we'd run 39 metric tonnes on the same configuration which is 39000kg or x 2.2 to get your pounds which is 85, 800 lb we run 6 axles though so its an extra 4 wheels so thats 42.5 tonne which of course is 42,500 kg or 93,500 lb. So that's only 6500lb below what your calling heavy so i'd be pretty safe to say 100,000 is not a hugely heavy load for sure its heaver than 80,000, it just depends on your overall understanding of what is considered heavy i consider all loads above 5 tonne to be heavy which means they take considerable time to make a vehicle stop.

 

I don't know (or care, honestly) what is considered "heavy haul". In the states, anything over 80k is going to be considered by most to be "heavy" and so I'm going to assume that is what you mean.

With weight comes more axles and eventually more length. That means more truck to manage and more things to pre/post trip and watch for things to go wrong with. Some setups are going to be long and rigid and need a lot of room to turn (and off-track) and other setups will be broken over multiple trailers and turn a lot like a 53'. It just takes time with whatever setup you are pulling to get used to it. Like going from a car to a standard 53' you just get used to it after driving it for a while and it feels normal. Unless you are talking oversize stuff that is going to change what you can see in your mirrors or your reliance on pilot cars or other special conditions.

With the added axles you get added brakes so on flats where you are braking lightly you won't notice that it takes much more to stop...more brakes to keep up with that added weight. On the downhills though you will outrun your jake if you don't choose a lower gear and you can heat up your brakes quicker (in my opinion anyway, don't know the physics of it all because again, you have more brakes to manage that weight). Provided you have the right number of axles for the load and all of your brakes are working like they are supposed to you will still have all the brakes you need. My crude truck stops better with 129k on then some of the body trucks I drove in the past with 60k on them.

Accelerating obviously takes longer and you are putting more strain on your engine, trans and drive train components so you have to be even more careful about smooth shifting, smooth throttle application, not spinning your drivers out of mud and snow, things like that unless you want to break something.

But overall the same rules apply for hauling 129k that applied at 80k. Don't lug, don't race the motor, don't grind the gears, don't dump/ride the clutch, don't come off hills so fast you have to ride the brakes, remember your vehicle length and make sure everything passes the pre-trip, stay alert and don't drive like a jerk The usual stuff.

Don't know if things change over 136k, that's the heaviest I've been.

 

Anything over 140 I consider heavy since thruway doubles are what, 137-ish somewhere in the 130 range. Honestly i cant tell the difference between 80 and 100k.

Set up proper 100k rides like a cloud

 

The biggest difference between hauling your every day 80K load and anything above that weight (or over dimension) is that you now have to haul under a permit. Get used to reading and understanding your permits and provisions.

It will mean taking an hour or more to plug in specific turn by turn directions in your GPS, plugging them into Google Maps as a backup, writing them down and taping them to the dash, AND by doing so memorizing the #### out of them.

Gawd help you if you get caught out of route. The tickets begin in the mild four figures and can quickly escalate to substantial five figures. You DO NOT want to get out of route.

For over dimension you can't just park in any old dime sized Love's. You have to plan ahead for WIDE and easy to park places.

Hauling permitted loads is a "load" of fun. You have to be on top of your game. There's NO room for daydreaming. On the first day of a multi day OSOW run I plan to the "T" to my first stop, hopefully where I can take a 30. Then I plan the #### out of the rest of the day, with at least two backup plans for where I will shut down for the day.

That first 10 will feature a lot more planning for the next days.

By the way, pay particular attention to your provisions. Especially pay attention to curfews. OSOW loads aren't allowed in certain counties during rush hour. You DON'T want that ticket.

 

Good post. Permit violation fines can get ugly and it's also possible to have your operating authority suspended or revoked entirely.

 

Let's be honest here, come to the pnw, where 8 axles give you 105000 lbs (which is a lot less than other states) and you see the eight axle fleets referred to as heavy haul on a regular basis. It's not pretending to be a 19 axle super load, it's simply a way of differentiating between them and those of us on five axles who need to be able to scale legal down south. California specifically. Some call it the maxi fleet, some the heavy haul fleet.

It is what it is, since heavy haul has no real, official definition.

 

You're talking 8 heavy, divisible permits I'm assuming. Generally it's not that different, but it does take more to stop and more to slow down.. You also have to pay real close attention to bridge weight laws in some states, for example Oregon can get people who don't pay attention. If you have drop axles you need to learn how much pressure to give them to get the weight where you need it, after loading the trailer just right to get the weight where you need it.

More to deal with, more to think about.

 

Let's be honest here...if a driver works for one of these pretend companies that convinces him that softball is baseball, and he runs to a minor league team and tell them about how many home runs he hit in baseball, and he's never even seen a real baseball, he's going to embarrass himself. "But in California, the baseballs were bigger, and the pitchers didnt throw as fast."

 

Don't worry. Nobody running 8 axle "heavy haul" in the PNW has any illusions about what it is and what it isn't. It's just a term, that virtually every company running those trucks uses.