Oversize load PA to OH

SJ had a "pilot car" meet me, a guy in a pickup truck, to escort me the final few miles. With that long and wide trailer I took the entire road to make turns on residential areas, it definitely helped knowing if I had an "all clear" or had to contend with oncoming traffic. The smaller unit would definitely be the better fit in the NE.

 

By the way, grilled minced garlic and sauerkraut make a great side with a ribeye. Time to sleep.

 

As I said before I had fun with this load, in spite of the delay getting new permits. Some thoughts and lessons I learned:

1. MEASURE THE LOAD before leaving the yard. I put myself at risk of a ticket.

2. Dial in the route with "via" on the GPS, review the route completely with Google Satellite View and Street View, and write down the permit turn by turns on paper and tape it to the dash. I didn't do all that the first day and it created stress. The second day went smoothly after I did all that, even in spite of going through Pittsburgh area rush hour.

2. Having perfect lane control on a wide load is essential. On I-376 I had to hold the middle 11' wide lane with an 11' load. Going through tunnels I held 4-8" clearance to the concrete wall and was at or slightly over the line to the other lane. Yankee Doodle Steering will get you in trouble in a hurry.

3. I stopped more frequently with this load to double check my route and make sure all banners and flags were still in place.

4. Even though a road is paved and dry, you should engage the interaxle differential lock when pulling a heavy load up grades steeper than 20°. I turned a corner and was looking up what looked like a cliff of a road and gunned it in 6th (10 speed). That was a mistake. Lost rpm's quickly and barely caught 3rd and felt the tires start to spin. I engaged the IADL as I downshifted to 1st and barely made up the last 100 yards. I should have engaged the IADL and downshifted to have at least 2000 rpm's BEFORE getting to the bottom of the cliff.

4. Leave a generous tip for the cute waitress. You never know...

 

Uh oh, did I fail one of the provisions? I'll read them again. I slid into I-376 about 2:30 pm and traffic was already stacking up at the interchanges. Not a lot of places to be able to pull over. I kept plenty of space in front and let traffic flow around me.