Will I Have An Issue with Steer Weight?

Reefer 53 foot trailer, 280 WB KW W900L

Is it tough getting weight on your steers with a longer wheel base tractor?

Someone brought this up to me and I’m trying to make sure my 5th wheel slide rails are long enough to help get weight off the drives if I ever end up in this situation. Running a spread axle trailer is likely to be out of the question for a few years at least.

 

No. My FLD was 280” and my W900 was 280”. I had no issue getting weight up front. Just get a 36” or 48” slide if you’re concerned about it. Slide your 5th wheel ahead to get weight up front instead of trying to look cool with it slid back.

 

Sounds good, had a post or two in a different forum say these guys could never get weight on their steers with long WB. Had my doubts.

 

As long as you can slide your 5th wheel and run it forward of center it will transfer weight to your steer axle. A lot of guys will run it dead center either for looks or a claimed better ride and you won’t get weight up front doing that.

 

Are they using the incorrect steer weight? 12,000 lbs, contrary to school teachings and truck stop counter rumor, is not correct.
The real max weight for steers is the lesser of the three.
1. Tire weight rating.
2. Axle weight rating.
3. Road weight rating set by the state. Typically 20k per axle but varies by state. Check atlas for specifics.

 

Assuming you're running standard steers and not wide steers.
And you can adjust the weight.
Adjust your loaded weight to 12,500 and leave it. It's what most of us do.

My current setup is 13,200 loaded.

 

Are you talking about axle rating? Or max weight on the steers for my set up?

 

If you put your 5th wheel where you’re a little over 12k loaded then it gives you some leeway on your other axles if you’re trying to scale a load that’s right at 80k gross. I run 12.4k on my current 579, haven’t slid my 5th wheel in 3 years since I got it set where I wanted it.

The point is you can get weight up front no matter the wheelbase of the truck, it just depends on how far under your trailer you can get. And since you will be running a standard 5 axle set up you can get under your trailer as far as you need to get because you don’t have to be concerned with your inner bridge.

 

Max weight on the steers..

Some trucks are speced for 13k these days. But some states won't allow that much weight.

 

Ah okay, I see. I’ll play with the 5th wheel once the truck comes in and get my numbers figured out. About to finalize my spec in a few days, I guess KW gave my dealer a few slots for 3-4 months estimated production date, was suppose to be a year from now for me.

I was going to ask, should I get airlines and electrical plumbed to the back of my frame as well as behind my sleeper? My rep said it doesn’t cost any extra from the factory to do. I ordered the standard lines behind the sleeper, now I’m thinking I might as well get it plumbed from factory in case I wanna run airlines underneath the trailer in the future. Will it cause any unnecessary headaches down the road you think?

 

Currently I got a 13.2k rated Dana steer axle on it. Not sure if Paccar had a lower rated Dana axle than that, but I wasn’t planning on going the Meritor route.