Woman driver asked about allowing 90,000# trucks on the road...

To say 90K gross is no big deal is BS. To dismiss the obvious increase in braking distance by saying the axles are rated for “X” is where the trouble starts. That’s a false sense of security. I can definitely tell the difference between 70K and 80K. At 80K, everything is more sluggish, with the brakes being the most important. The way I see trucks running up on traffic, following too closely, 4-wheelers cutting trucks, and everything else, it’ll definitely have a detrimental effect on safety. I don’t want to be involved in it.

 

The roadways and bridges can’t take 80k, much less 90k. As far as the Canadians chiming in, 13/14k steers and 46k rears is all I see when I look at CA trucks for sale. I bet most of your trailers have 20-23k axles as well. There are a lot of van trailers in the US with 17k axles.

 

I never noticed much difference hauling cattle. Once in a while we were legal, most of the time heavy, sometimes real heavy. But we weren’t on the brakes much either. I think when you’re heavy then you know you’re heavy and you drive accordingly.

Where I did notice a difference was when I was running cross border with a flatbed. Being at 101k gross on 6 axles was noticeably different than being 101k on 8 axles once we crossed the border.

 

you can spec 38, 40, 46, 52 etc axles if you so choose, I run 99k with my 40s and 28’ dump trailer on 5 axles whenever I run it in MA, non reducible (low bed) is 130k on 6

I run LTL with the reefer which pays pallet/weight, so some of those come out, well we will call it “chunky”

should be able to Atleast run 100k on 6 everywhere, I don’t consider anything heavy until ~120k+

 

I noticed a big difference once over 41k. in the box. That’s roughly 75k gross. That last 10 % more affects my drivability quite a bit. Not just power wise, but ride and overall handling.

 

Expect more brake fires guys go down hills too fast as it is… yes I can pull max Canadian weights safely but many Canadians can’t . It will be the same in the states I suspect..

 

Most of the new drivers out there can't handle wiping there own but let alone driving a truck so yeah I agree its going to be a driver issue. How ever the trucks are perfectly capable of handling it.

 

I worked for an owner-operator as my first job out of CDL school (for 10 days - thats another story). We ran teams from KCK to J Ville Fla. Government loads from the BMC to the BMC, but they werent mail loads. One of them was 120k (on a standard 5 axle). I figure it was gold (we had a carload of US Marshals following us), but they never told us or allowed us to see what was in there. I didnt know any better, just felt like a "normal" (albeit heavy) trailer to me at the time. That was Nov 1984.

 

Yet any old pier driver can get a blanket 90K [non divisible] permit good for the whole year, cheap...but we all know that they are experienced people with well maintained equipment...Right?

 

The #1 issue I see with an weight increase is the rates.
Will it remain the same as a 80K?
I'd bet it will be no more profitable.
At least till demand meets supply.

The 2nd is driver proficiency.
Many drive a truck as if it was a car and at 10K more weight it could be a concern.

Less of a concern would be equipment capability w increased capacity imho.