Multiple Stop Load

Can't help with your question, but glad to see you are on the road!

I'm completely lost... (What's new? I feel lost more than found lately)

I was always taught to slide the tandems towards the weight to balance. In this case I am heavier on the drives. They will be taking more weight off of the tandems at the first stop. So why would I want to slide the tandems away from the weight? I'm seven holes from the front now (the "meat hole").

Given, I will only have around 24-26k lbs in the trailer when they are done. Is it possible that I can just leave the tandems alone and still be ok?

I understand that. Look at the charts I sent you, on the first one find MD, and the second is the applicable diagram. 10-11 hole in MD is legal.

They are taking off a good bit of weight on your first stop it should not be a problem cause your total weight is lighter. I run 9-10-11 all the time and every day for me is multi-stop. By the time I go to my last one, I might only have 4000-5000 pounds in the nose of the trailer.

Chickie I run exclusively North East; NJ, PA, MD, DE, north east VA and southern NY. MD is strict and enforces king pin setting laws, NJ is also tough. Walmart regularily sends out bulletins reminding drivers of king pin laws enforcement especially in this order: MD, CT, NJ, and PA.

Not trying to confuse you or even tell you what to do, I am informing you of the law. Run on 7 through MD and their is a risk of ticket. Since you are relatively light not worth the risk in my opinion.

The time thing.. instead of taking the full 10 hr break... do 8 in the sleeper and you will have whatever is left over from when you stopped... so if you park with 2 hrs drive time... you will the 2 hours back... instead of 10 min b4 Appt it will be 2 hours before Appt (8 hours instead of 10). Then when you are unloading... which will probably take 2 hours. So that would be an 8/2 split. You will get the full 11 hour clock.. minus the time it took you to drive to the customer. Then if you have time later you can take another break or a longer one next shift

Chickie Monster asked:

Ok oh Wise Ones...

I have a 3 stop load. It's meat on pallets. After the first stop, do I need to put in load locks? Dispatch said no. I would have to buy them bc this truck doesn't have any.

Also, my tandems. I'm gonna say I need to slide them up after the first stop but again, I'm not sure. Here's my weights:

Steers: 12280 (I have an APU and a reefer so this is fine)

Drives: 32240

Tandems: 27620

They will be taking approximately 12k pounds off at the first stop. Slide them all the way to the front?

As a general ruIe do not recommend sliding them all the way to the front (1 hole). This is dependent upon the legal king pin setting laws for the states you are entering after your first stop. Where I run, the 1 hole is not legal for a 53' trailer (PA, NJ, and MD). If pulled into a scale, DOT could write a citation and has (especially in MD where they will pull out the tape measure). I have never needed to go ahead of the 6 hole since dedicated to Walmart, usually in 10, 11, 12 when fully loaded and/or cubed out. After my first stop, depending on the weight shed, and where I am headed next (if it's tight getting into the store) I might reset into the 8 hole.

Be smart about it.

Reference below for legal settings by state, including states that do not enforce any setting laws:

I thought those were the maximum lengths for the king pin. The way it was taught to me was that you are always allowed to go shorter, as long as your not overweight of course, but that you weren't allowed to go any farther back.

Tandems:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Tandem:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

DOT:

Department Of Transportation

A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.

State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Chickie Monster asked:

Ok oh Wise Ones...

I have a 3 stop load. It's meat on pallets. After the first stop, do I need to put in load locks? Dispatch said no. I would have to buy them bc this truck doesn't have any.

Also, my tandems. I'm gonna say I need to slide them up after the first stop but again, I'm not sure. Here's my weights:

Steers: 12280 (I have an APU and a reefer so this is fine)

Drives: 32240

Tandems: 27620

They will be taking approximately 12k pounds off at the first stop. Slide them all the way to the front?

As a general ruIe do not recommend sliding them all the way to the front (1 hole). This is dependent upon the legal king pin setting laws for the states you are entering after your first stop. Where I run, the 1 hole is not legal for a 53' trailer (PA, NJ, and MD). If pulled into a scale, DOT could write a citation and has (especially in MD where they will pull out the tape measure). I have never needed to go ahead of the 6 hole since dedicated to Walmart, usually in 10, 11, 12 when fully loaded and/or cubed out. After my first stop, depending on the weight shed, and where I am headed next (if it's tight getting into the store) I might reset into the 8 hole.

Be smart about it.

Reference below for legal settings by state, including states that do not enforce any setting laws:

I thought those were the maximum lengths for the king pin. The way it was taught to me was that you are always allowed to go shorter, as long as your not overweight of course, but that you weren't allowed to go any farther back.

No definitely not the case.

Tandems:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Tandem:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

DOT:

Department Of Transportation

A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.

State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Rainy- I was going to do that but I only had 24 mins on my clock.

Chickie Monster asked:

Ok oh Wise Ones...

I have a 3 stop load. It's meat on pallets. After the first stop, do I need to put in load locks? Dispatch said no. I would have to buy them bc this truck doesn't have any.

Also, my tandems. I'm gonna say I need to slide them up after the first stop but again, I'm not sure. Here's my weights:

Steers: 12280 (I have an APU and a reefer so this is fine)

Drives: 32240

Tandems: 27620

They will be taking approximately 12k pounds off at the first stop. Slide them all the way to the front?

As a general ruIe do not recommend sliding them all the way to the front (1 hole). This is dependent upon the legal king pin setting laws for the states you are entering after your first stop. Where I run, the 1 hole is not legal for a 53' trailer (PA, NJ, and MD). If pulled into a scale, DOT could write a citation and has (especially in MD where they will pull out the tape measure). I have never needed to go ahead of the 6 hole since dedicated to Walmart, usually in 10, 11, 12 when fully loaded and/or cubed out. After my first stop, depending on the weight shed, and where I am headed next (if it's tight getting into the store) I might reset into the 8 hole.

Be smart about it.

Reference below for legal settings by state, including states that do not enforce any setting laws:

I thought those were the maximum lengths for the king pin. The way it was taught to me was that you are always allowed to go shorter, as long as your not overweight of course, but that you weren't allowed to go any farther back.

No definitely not the case.

I was taught that too. Does it depend on the state?

Tandems:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Tandem:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

DOT:

Department Of Transportation

A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.

State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

41' is the maximum length in Maryland, not sure what G-town is going on about?

You can slide the tandems up before being unloaded, with the weights you posted. Every hole that you slide up towards the front will shift 300 - 400 lbs (depends on your trailer and the spacing of the holes) from the drive axle to the trailer axle. You also would be completely legal leaving it where it is. The advantage of sliding up is easier turning.

Multiple drop loads just do the best you can, if delayed notify dispatch immediately and give an eta to next stop if you have one. Let them worry about it.

It's very common to be late on second and third drops in a day because someone unloaded you slow (especially grocers).

By the way, MD's 41' is to the center of the rear axle group as opposed to like California's 40' to the center of the rear axle, meaning it's quite a bit more than 1 foot greater than California's. Thus, the center holes (9 - 12) are probably fine.

To be honest the only time I worry about kingpin laws are California, and I really try not to drive with my tandems all the way to the rear in states that have some length restriction.

I think G-town was conflating bridge law with kingpin restrictions.