KW t660 overweight on steers

After a simple thing called "research"....I have the reason you know so little about this industry!

You "learned" at CRE....you brag about accidents you have been involved in....and it appears that every post of yours is an attack on another poster.

You expect perfection from all around you, yet in return you don't show any....and your spelling is atrocious!

From public school....CA style.... and graduate to CRE!

You have no room to criticize others....in fact...you should be reading and trying to comprehend what is written....that way you might learn something of this industry and profession!


__________________

 

I have a 13.2 front axle and I am always around 12.3 to 12.4 on the steers. I have NEVER had any problem with that weight running 48 and Canada. But just to be careful and paranoid, I went from LP to 11R just to gain the weight capacity, since the smaller tires I was right on the edge of their capacity.

 

Shine him on, Otter.


He did start with CRE. So he already knows everything. We all know what an outstanding training program they have.

What our lil buddy here seems to ignore is the experiences we have had apart from Swift....and who we choose to surround ourselves with. While he is pushing the voices of reason and experience away, you and I are absorbing what they say.

 

If you take weight off the drives by sliding the trailer tandems then you have less total weight on the tractor..... get the trailer legal then the you can slide the 5th wheel to get the steer where you want it.

To the OP.... I sure wouldn't sweat 600# in the steer axle....

 

I really don't like to argue, but argue I must.

1. The weight of the trailer is supported by the tandems and the 5th wheel.

2. The 5th wheel is supported by the drives and the steers. The proportions will vary based on the placement of the 5th wheel,

3. Sliding the tandems will add or subtract from the weight supported by the 5th wheel depending on the direction moved.

4. The increased or decreased weight supported by the 5th wheel will change the load on the steers and the drives in the same proportion that they supported before moving the tandems.

5 If any of the above statements are incorrect, then hooking to a loaded trailer will not add any weight to your steers.

6. I will concede that there is one exact theoretic balance point, however, placing the 5th wheel behind the balance point will take weight off the steers while having the 5th wheel forward of the balance point will add weight to the steers.

If you disagree with any of the above points, please state which point and your basis for disagreement.

PS: Mathematics does not require holding a CDL

 

Krooser: He has a fixed 5th-wheel.


Why companies insist on ordering these abominations is beyond me. It takes away 1/3 of the tools drivers have to make legal weights. A sliding 5th-wheel really isn't that much more expensive than fixed, but saves so much in time, headaches and possible scale tickets.

Some States, like MO, have been checking steer weight vs. rated tire capacity. In most cases, steer tire capacity is 12,350#. That's roughly 30 gallons of fuel our O/P needs to burn before he's legal...then fuel very carefully to remain beneath that threshold.

Regarding the movement of steer weight by way of the trailer tandem. The amount of weight moved by setting the tandem is not enough to make a big difference. That's why, in most cases, it is best to just say it won't move any. Set your 5th-wheel. But, our O/P can't.

I'm glad I work with a company that trusts its drivers with sliding 5th-wheels, johnny bars and suspension air dump valves. I'm seeing more and more trucks on the road without one or more of these tools.

 

No...we can start the disagreement right here!

I have seen your posts...on all subjects....argue you must, and you seem to like it!

Technically the weight of the trailer is supported by the tires...trailer and tractor, which are secured to the axle assembly on wheels, which attach to axles which are attached to ......see where I'm going?!

No...the 5th wheel is attached to the frame of the tractor which rides on the ....see above!

You're batting 0/3...but I'll play along with ya!
The "proportions"...what proportions...the 5th wheel is under the forward third of the trailer...the 5th wheel is bearing approximately 1/3 of the freight weight! Give or take a few hundred/thousand pounds depending on the placement of the freight on the trailer bed surface.

HAH...you see, you keep swinging you're bound to get a hit!

You are almost correct in this statement. If I pick up one pallet, or even two or three pallets...the placement of the pallets over and in front of the 5th wheel, will not add or subtract weight the tandems are bearing (depending on the rail availability to slide the tandems forward beyond mid-point of the trailers length)...there is not enough "span" of weight to produce any "portion" of the weight to be carried by anymore of the trailer than approximately 8 feet from the nose. From center to rear of the trailer, there is no bearing weight produced from the small load! If the pallets are heavy enough...a very minuscule percentage...maybe 0.3% will transfer to the tandems.

This statement makes no sense whatsoever! The first half of it is true...but when you start that tripe about proportions and tandem changes...you lose any and all credibility. You lost it after the word "drives"!

In your definition...you didn't add any weight...either to your argument or to your steers.

If you hook to a "loaded" trailer, with two pallets over the tandems (full forward at say 39ft king pin setting, what part of the weight is transferred to the steers? I'll give you a clue....NONE!

How can you have "one" balance point with 3 weight bearing pivot points? If there is one, then the majority of weight would be about 3 feet behind the 5th wheel...one problem....with 2 movable pivot points, and one set pivot point, along with air bag "give and take"...your "exact theoretic balance point" is constantly changing with every up and down, or every bump in the road.

The true "center of the trailer" which would be your so called "balance point" is far away from the 5th wheel unit. Technically the 5th wheel would be called the "center forward hinge point"....by sliding the 5th wheel, you are changing the weight bearing pivot over the drive tandems creating a "bearing/gravitational" change...and changing the amount of weight from the nose and front 1/3 of the trailer to bear on rigid frame arms.

I did....your serve!

We aren't talking mathematics...we are talking physics, both structural and pivotal physics, and weight displacement! None of those are offered at any CDL school...but they should!

 

We've got several with fixed 5th wheels. The reason......."sliding" 5th wheels only slide if you actually use them. Being that we mostly pull spread axle trailers they NEVER get moved. Also we never pay for cat scales, so while you think every truck should have a sliding 5th wheel I think every trailer should be a spread. That way you would eliminate the need for the sliding 5th wheel and almost all scale charges. Think how much easier things are when you don't need to weight, slide axles or 5th wheels. Load and go, and not to mention the ride quality.

 

The problem is a sliding 5th wheel is one more thing these rookies can screw up...

I've seen guys pull a trailer with a 48" king pin and slide the 5th wheel forward then take out the aero tin the first time they turn the wheel.

I can't blame these outfits for keeping things simple.

I put a slider on my FLD because I thought I had to have one... I moved it once in 5 years... of course having a 10' spread on the trailer helped a lot.

 

Excuse my foolishness, since I was doing so much adding and subtracting I mistook it for math.


PS: Whoops, I put my responses inside the quote. My bad