CMV Weight Issues
Topic 25169 | Page 4
Greg, that's a great story. Keep 'em coming!
GT, ok I think I get your point now. I was wrong about the 43' setting. It was at 44' but VA is 41' I was 3' too far back.
Am I getting warm?
Honestly Bruce what seems to matter most to you is telling a good story and perhaps embellishing the facts for effect.
No further comment.
I call it like I see it Bruce.
The interaction you had with VDOT is very odd. Among many other posts you continually make in this forum.
Take it up with Brett... I’m done.
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.
Not good. Just picked up a chicken load (drop n hook). Total weight is 79,000. Weight on tandems is 35,360...and it's in the 12th hole. It's the weekend and nobody is here to rearrange the load. They said they'll call someone to come in... For you gamblers; any bets on how long that will take. The over/under is 2 hours.
what are the weights on the other axles?
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".
what are the weights on the other axles?
Oh, man. I forget exactly, Mike. Roughly 11,200 and 31,500. If you are now going to ask why I didn't slide the tandems further back to make it legal, it's because they were slid back as far as legally possible in the state/states I was driving through. If not, sorry for assuming, buddy.
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".
G-town,
So Wyoming is the place to be?
14' height, 60' trailer, no kinpin, 20,000 lb single axle, 36,000 lb tandem axle.
It's almost like anarchy.
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".
Most of our trailers have red markings showing 40', 42', and 44'. We do have a few trailers however, where someone obviously placed the stickers incorrectly. The kingpin is 3' from the front of the trailer so yeah, if in doubt, we measure it off. We don't count holes, we talk in terms of kingpin to axle... the foot length. Some states say kingpin to rear axle (measure directly above the hub center on your rearmost axle), and others will specify to the center of the rear axle GROUP (so between the tandems)
That table Gtown posted is in EVERY motor carrier atlas, which is why every professional driver will have an atlas and know how to use it. It's your "bible" for driving and being legal. Again, I know some companies teach this hole counting thing, but I don't understand why, because I promise you, DOT wont be counting holes. They'll be dragging out a tape measure... especially in Maryland. Do you count from the front towards the back or what?
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.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
Most of our trailers have red markings showing 40', 42', and 44'. We do have a few trailers however, where someone obviously placed the stickers incorrectly. The kingpin is 3' from the front of the trailer so yeah, if in doubt, we measure it off. We don't count holes, we talk in terms of kingpin to axle... the foot length. Some states say kingpin to rear axle (measure directly above the hub center on your rearmost axle), and others will specify to the center of the rear axle GROUP (so between the tandems)
That table Gtown posted is in EVERY motor carrier atlas, which is why every professional driver will have an atlas and know how to use it. It's your "bible" for driving and being legal. Again, I know some companies teach this hole counting thing, but I don't understand why, because I promise you, DOT wont be counting holes. They'll be dragging out a tape measure... especially in Maryland. Do you count from the front towards the back or what?
Thank you for clarifying. I knew that you had heard us Primates always talking [writing] about hole counting. It's how we're trained. And yes, we have certain trailers that the hole spacing is different from our "standard" trailers.
Honestly, I had forgotten about the chart cause I had never seen anyone measuring with a tape measure. The first time I saw someone actually measuring was just a few weeks ago in WA.
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.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
Do you count from the front towards the back or what?
Yep. First hole is furthest one forward. "Slide 'em up" = move towards a lower numbered hole. "Slide 'em back" = move to a higher hole number.
I honestly thought this hole-counting thing was universal. US Xpress was the same (or at least that's the way my former trainer taught me). He was not a Trucking Truth member though. Lol
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My first job out of college in 1984 was as a dispatcher with an old LTL company McLean Trucking. They used to do this with LTL freight!! Even had a long straight away in the back of the yard nicknamed "The Drag Strip". Thing looked like an airport runway with all the skid marks from locking up the pre ABS rigs.
Hate to see what things looked like at the other end when they unloaded. Probably also explains the huge fenced in Over/Short/Damaged cage they had in the middle of the dock.
LTL:
Less Than Truckload
Refers to carriers that make a lot of smaller pickups and deliveries for multiple customers as opposed to hauling one big load of freight for one customer. This type of hauling is normally done by companies with terminals scattered throughout the country where freight is sorted before being moved on to its destination.
LTL carriers include:
Dispatcher:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.