Scales

Always get a scale.

Colorado likes to screw with you and say you're overweight. Could be other states too.

 

Next thread -

" I listened to a DOT and didn't scale my truck. Now I'm out of service. "

 

Get a cat scale and read the print at the bottom....

"If you recieve an overweight ticket and have a legal scale ticket , CAT scale will cover the cost."

Dont listen to them dang dot officers and their dumb statements like that. Next thing u know hes gonna tell you "dont worry about doin a pre trip, just come to the scale house and we will do an inspection for you"

Never trust them guys. EVER

 

Seems to be a common theme out west

 

Utah POE on I-80 west bound coming from Wyoming, I've gone through there several times, and twice it read my trailer on the display as being more than a thousand pounds overweight. They've never called me in, but it did show me as heavy when I know I wasn't. And yes, Colorado can be a real PITA.

 

Not sure what he means by "calibrate the truck"?

Maybe he's looking to get an accurate tare weight? Calibrating onboard scales?

 

On board scales or air gauges. When you first start using them you need to check to see what they read or dial them in if electronic. When I first started driving my truck I did several weigh checks. Now I know just by looking at my load gauge even though it’s not accurate. It reads about 5k lbs heavy. I’m empty and should be about 12k or 13k lbs. There is no adjustment on mine but some of them have an adjustment screw.

 

Just because your truck weighs 12 to 13.

The scale isn't going to read 12 to 13.

It has no way to read truck weight. It only knows air pressure.

Thus calibrator. Good idea to compare needle to ticket so you have an idea what the gauge should read at max weight.

Not every gauge will read the same. Not even new trucks wi read the same.

 

My guages just read psi, load ~44k and go to a cat scale, make note on clip board for what psi 34/40k or more is, no calibration needed, just a little common sense

 

This type air gauge has the knob to calibrate. So you can move the needle to the weight you want it to read.
I moved my gauge to read 35 on my trailer when I weigh 34,000. Because some shippers like to max load.
This gives me a cushion and "proof" I'm at legal weight.