When I fill my tanks,my steers are over....

We also do this with petroleum products. The company wants every gallon they can get on every load. It's easy to load right up to 80,000lbs. I can't understand where all the misinformation comes from except from the guy that never reads any regulations and says he does it.

 

Yeah, for some reason the 12, 34, 34 is stuck in a lot of minds as the gospel as to weights!

 

Our tractors with doubles are rated for 12500 on the steer's, and 20000 on the other 4 axles, but we still limit the loads to 80000 if were crossing scales. There in Vegas I load at Ashgrove right off the 15 on the northside. There they load us to 92500 if were delivering to Vegas, Henderson or Overton. Same with Loading at Simplot back to Vegas they load us to 92500. But never if were leaving the area. I'm paid by the tom so its just christmas fund. Our big trains nay run as heavy as 129000.

 

You mean like the scalemasters in some states , especially IL ?

 

Read the IL laws for yourself http://www.dot.state.il.us/road/size_weight_bklt.pdf

No where in it does it mention steer axle, just single axle limits. Most states consider the steers as single axle, limit 20,000 or limited by axle and tire rating. You can read the tire rating on the sidewall

I also looked up KS
http://www.kansashighwaypatrol.org/press/brochures/weight_enforce.pdf
Same thing, single axle 20,000 no mention of steer axle.
Anyone want to look up the other 48 states ? Don't think you will find "steer axle" listed different from a single axle.

 

O.K. , but you are still limited to 80,000 lbs. and the limit on tandems is still 34,000 lbs. . Subtract 68,000 from 80,000 and what does that leave you ? I guess you'd have a little adjustment if you kept the drives under 34,000

 

Original question. No mention of the 80,000 limit. Overweight and over axle are 2 different things. There are a lot of Volvo's over 12,000 on the steers all the time, even empty. As long as you don't exceed tire and axle ratings, no problem.

 

This is exactly what was taught at the driving school I went to six years ago.

 

Sorry to bust up the party but we've been told BY SAFETY at THREE different companies that the weight on the steers is 20k, UNLESS we were 80k, then it has to be 12, 34, 34.

So if we have are 14,500, 32,000, 30500 (before you ask they loaded us heavy as hell in the front (quad graphics), we were over on the drives so we moved the fifth wheel)

We are fine. And we ran that way through 11 states to deliver a load 4 days ago. INCLUDING CALI, where we ran over Banning. Pulling out my Atlas it states, on the interstate network 20k in every state some are higher for single axles.

Now on the state highways some do list steers seperately, IN, AR, Miss., LA, are 12,000

IL is 18,000
Wis. is 13000


And its 40 TONS not 40k LBS

 

20,000 on a axle rated for 12k is just dumb.

I have seen trucks with front springs bent and broken by overloading the steers & just hope you dont hit a pothole or something cause a spring breaking at 65mph would not be good.

Safety does not always know the correct answer, if they tell you its ok ask them to put that in writing cause somebodys gonna be paying a fine if you get caught.
Now most coops will not pick up the overweight on the steers unless your over the state allowed steer axle gross, but if you get inspected you will be caught.
My company told me the same thing 20,000 ok on steers, but my front axle is rated at 12,000 and rating on my 2 front tires adds to 12.450.