Ideal Height of Fifth Wheel when hauling Chemicals/Tanker......Your input??

some tanker yankes. put square tubing under the slider plate to raise it up. and it works fine. that way if it doesnt work out you can take the tubing out and have a regular fifth wheel again.

 

Interesting concept. Thanks for the idea and I'll make a note of it, but I'm sure you would have to weld it or make sure it's secure in order for it to work.
But I can understand why you would use square tubing as opposed to round.I've got a contact in Houston, I'm going to visit and he's supposed to be
a wizard with metal and welding.

 

That price that the dealership gave you is what I wrote about earlier, if I remember right I replaced both legs on mine for less than four hundred dollars, I did the work myself in less than two hours. You would be wise to check with the comany that you are going to go with before you make any changes, you don't want to have to do it twice, tank trailers do not have sliding tandems, the only way to get your weight right is by raising the front of the trailer up and down, two inches up or down at the fifthwheel could be the difference in 1000 lbs over or under on the drive or trailer axles, and there will be no way for you to correct it once you are loaded without removing product. I would find out first before I made a move with that.

 

Thanks for the info. Well I certainly understand the logistics of sliding the fifth wheel as I've done it before but it does seem that DOT is more concerned about the weight on the drives over anywhere else. I think I need to scale out a load before I go for fixing the FW. But it would be frustrating to find I'm under gross and yet be over on my drives and can't adjust it by sliding. That's what I don't want.
My buddy also says fixing the FW would give me a better ride, but that could well be his personal preference. YMMV
All of this may not be as bigger issue as first anticipated. Time will tell. Good luck and thanks again.

 

What kind of trailers will you be pulling? True rear, conical, belly unloader? Our trailers are either a true rear or a center unloader with a belly line for a rear unload. Also size of your wheels and tires will make a difference.

 

Most of the trailers are unloaded in the belly region and a few at the back, but those are not as popular. They are just classic chemical trailers, cylindrical, just like food grade. Some straight bore, some have 3 compartments. My tires are 22.5 so I can't mess with those as they are pretty new. I'm going to check out a couple of shops that are willing to do the job. The consensus seems to be around a minimum of 50" or 51" Thanks for your input.

 

I'm on with QC, mostly rear unload, straight bore, 5th wheel at 51". I have a ProStar 236" wb and I can barely scale 79,000. I'm usually over on my drives, if there is more than 44,600lbs in the tank, but under gross. Haven't had a problem on the scales ..... so far. If you keep the product gently surging back to front and back again, they usually get tired of waiting for a number and green light you.

I try to keep the weight down by running with less than full tanks of fuel, figuring out mileage to next scale, what I burn off etc. Most of the places I load are pretty good and work with you on the weight.

 

Thanks for the info. A friend of mine is leased on with QC. He had his done at the local Peterbilt store in Austin. Cost him $1600 which seemed a bit steep
but I guess his rationale was that the Pete store would do it right. He even extended his wheelbase in order to get a nicer ride. The problem I have is that Texas DOT can be a bunch of hard ##### at times so you have confirmed to me that 51" is a good number to work with and I agree with you that around 45000 lbs seems to be where the plants like to load you at. I guess the tare weight will influence their decision. Your truck maybe a little lighter than my Pete 387, so time will tell. As my Fifth stands at 47" right now, I do feel I need to make a move and get it higher before I hit the road. I've only myself to blame if I ignore the sound input I've received on this thread, so I do appreciate all of the good info I've read. Of course I can slide the Fifth if needbe.
Good luck and thanks