My new adventure with Gordon Trucking

Well...headed down to Pontoon Beach this morning to remove all my stuff from the truck....interesting in that they have already purged me from the system.......

 

Dude had a nose heavy load. They usually load that way when you are going out to Cali. If it's legal leave it alone, and watch how much fuel you put in the truck. Not rocket science.

 

To everyone that answered my question a big THANK YOU. That's why I asked here.

 

Also you guys.. gti steer axles are rated at 12,360 lbs.. it is printed on the sticker inside the drivers door.

 

Chowick. .did you get my pm

 

Go to ktvb.com and watch a gti truck get smashed on the tracks in payette, id after bottoming out while crossing. New driver out of indy...there is video

 

In most western states, steer axle cannot exceed 12,500. With an axle rating at 12,375, exceeding that is going beyond the rated limit of the axle. However there is another rating that needs to be considered...tire rating! On the sidewall of the tire will be the single tire rating, multiply by two for the combined axle rating gross amount.

As to 5th wheel positioning, center the king pin on the rear edge of the rim (3 o'clock position on the forward drive), you will most likely never have to adjust the 5th wheel for dry box loads. On heavy freight, steer axle will run between 11,700 and 12,300, then your issue will be getting shippers to load correctly (most do these days)....single on the nose and double back. Remember tandem (trailer) positioning will effect the tandems and the drives, 5th wheel positioning will effect drives and steers. Tandem positioning has little effect on steers.

Also, you should determine your percentage of fuel weight distributed between steers and drives. With an empty box, and 1/2 tank levels or less, get a scale weight, then put on 100 gallons and reweigh. Make note of the percentage of weight that goes to the steers. 100 gallons of diesel weighs approximately 735 pounds (7.35 pounds per gallon, most drivers just round fuel weight up to 8 ppg for easy determination), how much of this weight went to the steers, and how much went to the drives. Most newer trucks have the tanks located farther forward than in years past, so 98% of fuel weight is going to steers. It is a good thing to know with each truck you drive...no two trucks are identical....close but not identical!

 

Holly Shnikees!

 

What did he bottom out on? The landing gear get caught? At the end of the video I thought I heard one of the guys say something about a hole in his radiator.?? I may be wrong though.

Now on to the next thing if you're a business near a railroad track you should have an emergency contact number for said RR in your office. At crossings there is a MM post, should be a box with the electronics for the arms and lights in it. There should be a number on a plaque on the outside of the box. Unmarked or private crossings should have a marker post in the ground as well. Write it down and if something happens where you need train traffic stopped call their emergency contact number and have them stop traffic in that area/crossing and give the mile marker #. I'm not a driver but work at a business that is next to the RR. We have had to call the RR from time to time and have them stop traffic in the small town I work in. The reasons are for emergencies. Employee or customer needs to be transported by ambulance from getting ill or injured. It's the second call that gets made after 911. Never once has the RR said no we aren't stopping traffic. Once the emergency is taken care of we call them back and tell them they can resume train traffic. I'm sure they'd rather stop traffic for a short time than deal with a mess like this. The time lost by stopping the train traffic would have been far less than what it is now. With the backhoe sitting there I'm wondering if they tried to pull the truck off the tracks??

We have had to call in the winter time a couple of times for vehicles getting hung up on the track due to deep snow as well but that didn't look to be the case here.