Should I go through the Loaded or Empty scale lane?

I’m on a 7 drop load, final drop is a whopping 3 boxes (3X3X3 ft in size ) with a total weight of 230 pounds.
I’m in a reefer and will be crossing the Cordelia CA scale heading west bound.

empty lane moves faster, will CHP know I have 3 boxes in the trailer? Certainly not by weight.

 

Do what u gotta do. If it really saves that much time.. Like what , 13 seconds ?

 

A few minutes, mornings are usually busy through there

 

I wouldnt worry about it . Hit the mt lane and be gone.

 

If a few minutes matter, you are in the wrong industry.
Relax, go through the lane you know you need to and stop speeding through truck stops. After all it's usually the people that have the "minutes matter" issues that do.

 

If your reefer is turned on, you'll probably want to use the loaded lane. If your 3 boxes aren't a cold load, use the empty lane. Of course if they decide to pull you in for inspection and see that you are still under a load regardless of size, you'll have a problem.

 

I think you will be fine. Just remember, if DOT wanted to be jerks, like they sometimes are they could give you a citation for failure to obey a traffic control device, if they decided to bring you in for some reason in the empty lane.

That may sound trivial, but here is an example of a DOT jerk. A friend of mine was in the middle of a leven 1 inspection. AFTER the breaks on the axle were inspected, the pancake in one of the maxi break chambers failed and started leaking air. He had a spare break chamber with him, and started to replace it, and they still put him out of service....

 

Ohio got Me once, for a low tire, 50 lbs. I had obviously just picked up a piece of metal, before pulling in, it was leaking pretty good. OOS, air it up, you can go.

 

I always say why risk it.. whaddya gain

 

Do they have chase cars there? They didn’t used to. We would just move over a lane or two and drive right by when we were bringing calves off the coast. Truckee was the only one I’d ever cross, you can’t really breeze by that one when you’re slowing down for the ag check.

 

Isn't that ridiculous? Some of these guys really can't think outside of the Box. There's no Gray area with them