weight limits?

You can't trust anyone when it comes to a weight on your trailer because you'll get that expensive ticket and you'll have to deal with that on your own. If you don't know it's 12k on the steer, 34k on your drives, 34k on your tandems bringing your total to 80k gvwr

 

This was almost ten years ago but I would have been right on the legal limit. Then I fueled up and put me over. The officer was good to me so I have no complaints but its good to keep in mind.

 

sometimes I wouldn't weigh the load because I was too lazy.if I was like500 over on an axle they never said anything.one time I was in the thousands and had a hefty fine.scale wasn't in service at the truck stop close to the shipper and was going to weigh it later. but after driving awhile it didn't feel like I was overweight.next morning I had to go back to shipper and have them rework the load 200 miles.I could not get it legal no matter where I moved tandems. shipper had to remove 2 pallets.

 

Get yourself one of the Rand McNally atlases. It show the axle weight limits and kingpin distance limits for each state. Look for an app called TruckerPath on your phone. It shows the location of anything trucking related, sort of a tripadvisor for truckers.

When it comes to sliding tandems and fifth wheels it's pretty simple. If you slide the trailer axles forward they will bear more of the weight of the trailer,slide them back and it takes weight off trailer axles, but will make the drives a little heavier. If you slide the fifth wheel forward it transfers more of your drive weight to your steer axle. It really is a balancing act and once you get used to a truck it becomes second nature to know where to place everything. It's been a while since I had to mess with sliding anything now that I pull a SD but if I remember right each hole you slide the tandems or fifth wheel will move about 300 lbs. of weight. Hope that makes sense?

 

A lot of what you posted makes no sense.

12,000lb on the steer axle and 34,000lb on the drives and trailer tandems are not a ratio, they are the normal maximum allowed weights for most 5 axial trucks that do not have spread axels on the trailer (2 axels over 10 feet apart). With a spread axle trailer you could have up to 20,000lb on each of the trailer axles, but you still could not be over the 80,000lb max total weight.

All states have a 80,000lb limit for over all weight. I have no idea what you are talking about when you say 40,000 is the limit for California and or Nevada. They have the same total weight limits as any other state.

The big difference in California is the Kingpin rule; they only allow 40’ from the kingpin to the center of the rear axle with 2 or more axle trailers. Most other states allow a larger distances so if you are going to California you need to make sure you are not over weight with your tandems set to 40’ or less to the center of the rear axle from the kingpin.

You should get a Rand McNally Motor Carriers atlas as it has charts for the kingpin rules and other rules for each state. Make sure it is the Motor Carriers atlas, other version will not have those charts.

Do NOT go out of your way to go through weight stations! those are DOT scales and they are not someplace to check your weights at, they are for enforcement. That is the last palace you want to find out you are overweight. If anything drivers route themselves around those scales.

Use the CAT or other certified scales available at most truck stops to check your weights. There are apps that will show you where they are located.