Tips on moving trailer wheels alone.

Yea the more you do it the more things you will learn, I would skip the chalk, most trailers are dirty enough you can just rub your finger up and down on the side to make a mark. I made a bar with an adjustable chain on it to pull pins with the pull out lever, hook the chain on the lever and put one end of the bar on the side of trailer and that would usually work BUT if I was to be starting over I would just go buy a half way decent strap with a rachet on it and hooks on both ends, that way you could tighten it up and leave it tight while you go up to the cab and bump things around, although some trailers dont have a lip on the side and the hook might slip off, someone mentioned using bungees but personally I dont think they are strong enough. Another thing you can do but you have to be real careful is, if the pin is already pulled and free and you still cant get them slid, instead of using a chock you can roll forward at a low speed and pull your red valve and if the brakes are adjusted good enough that might break it loose, just make sure your in tune enough to stop before the tandems hit the dot bumber too hard, not all trailers have stops welded on the frame rails.

 

I step off the distance I want to go forward or backward,then I walk up to my steps,throw my hat down on the ground that amount of distannce I want,lock the tandems move up or back,look back push the handle in and bing your all set. Load a 53 like a 48,don't go beyond the 48 ft mark if you figure your load is 1000 lbs per linear foot,like 3 or 4000,lbs per pallett,you will be over and not be able to scale the rear tandems and pass the bridge law,the rule is 1000 lbs per linear foot,stagger at least 1 pallet in the nose and you will have correctly set up your axles to scale out where you can be legal,if you don't stagger one pallet and your load is 1000 per linear foot,your drivers or front axle or both will be too heavy.and not adjustable to legalize weight.I do find that using a crayon that you have at home if you have kids will serve as a great marker on pin setting,the hat trick works well or a rock or crayon mark or your gloves,line up your step looking out of your open drivers window and your all set.Like the other driver said,line your tandems up with the end of the palletts or load in the trailer and thats where you want to start. long spaced holes 500 lbs,close spaced holes 250 lbs,on tandems.spreads and sliding spreads no problem,allowed 40000,or 20000 per axle.

 

We have a line on our 53's on the inside with a notice that loads over 38,000 cannot be loaded past that line. The line is at the 48' mark. This is a good thing to have when you are loading at some places, especially when you are going to be traveling through states like Georgia and California where you are limited as to how far back the axles can be.