Relay weights different on my truck?

By the time you get to Kearny, you are really close to being home free...Up thru West Chester, NY the only scale is in Danbury, CT. and I doubt they will be open at night.

 

Did you know that if you just pull out the yellow knob that only the brakes on the tractor’s drive axle(s) are applied, the steer and trailer axles are free to move and won’t cause any binding on the scale.

 

Those back tandem weights are different! This is not because of fuel. Either A first driver slid a tandem after weighing. B load shifted or C somebody either did not weight correctly or the scale was off. I don't see any other way the weight on a back trailer tandem can change like that.

 

In Post 18 is the answer.

 

Move the tandems toward the front of the truck two holes. That should have you 1000 off the drives and back on your tandems. Remember, the trailer is a seesaw sitting on the tandems.

 

Not just DOT. Local cops do as well. Thread drift! NEVER discuss anything wrong with your truck or load on an open CB channel. Don't do that cute thing about masking channel numbers either. NEVER tell a driver they have lights out. I can't tell you how many times I have heard cops laughing about hearing CB chatter and investigating later. You see a driver with a flat tire try to get even with him and get his attention and point back. Most drivers will stop and go look.

 

Hand, hopefully by now you have resolved this issue. Yes, you were a bit overweight. Just remember there is OVERWEIGHT and then there is OVERWEIGHT 600 pounds is not a lot and in some places, well within the tolorance, the DOT will allow. There are a lot of dangers with repowers/relays and this issue is one of them. Sometimes when you get bored and are taking a 10 at a truck stop where the cat scale has a short run up look at how some drivers are parked while scaling. I can't count the times I have seen drivers have a section of their tires off the scale. Heck, I have come close to doing it many times. It takes watching and making sure you are on the scale correct before pushing that button. My guess is one of you screwed up the weigh.

Back to the weigh tolerance subject a minute. It is a nasty little secret that most scales can be off as much as 1500 to 3000 pounds. Trucks are hitting those scales day and night, that constant hammering causes calibration errors. This subject goes back to other subjects debated on this website. While illegal most DOT cops know the limitations of their equipment and allow some overweight. The problems come when you encounter a prick DOT officer. And of course, this applies to almost all encounters with DOT!

Personally, I would run 600 over and not worry about it too bad. Even if busted for overweight 600 pounds is not a lot of money.

 

Logically speaking the only possible answer is the OP set the brakes and in post 18 he admits that.

If it was a tanker and 1 truck had a lower 5th wheel then the liquid would be more to the front and cause that,
but not in a van.
Was he overloaded, we don't know for sure as the OP hasn't confirmed.

 

The problem is that setting the brakes thing is not an absolute. I agree most likely is the cause, just can't say it is the only cause possible. So many different variables when it comes to scales.

 

Three things are at play.

First, the load shifted. There was space in between the pallets - say 1/2 inch, and you have 10 pallets on each side, so the freight has moved up 5 inches or so. It happens a lot with dry vans.

The second thing is tractor/fuel. Different trucks weigh different amounts. Your gross weight looks 300 lbs or so higher than his.

The third is 5th wheel placement. If his is all the way forward and he is at 1/2 tank, and yours is all the way back, you will have an issue. Ideally you would run with your 5th wheel as far forward as possible to have your steers just under max with full tanks -best fuel economy, best handling, smoothest ride. It can make it harder to Jack around in tight spaces, but there are trade offs in like