How Often Do You Run Low On Fuel For A Load?

Quite random, but I was just curious how often you guys that are OTR need to run low on fuel for a load to be legal. I recall some posts about filling your fuel tanks before picking up beer because they will load you as heavy as possible, but have you gone to certain customers where you're encouraged or expected to NOT have a full tank so they can load more weight on? That seems like it would be a pain in the butt to need to stop for fuel more frequently and be sure you dont fill too much that you're now overweight.

In my brief 2 months OTR I had one load of paper rolls that was maxed out at exactly 34k on the drives so I couldn't slide the tandem at all. Since I couldn't fill and it was delivering to the middle or nowhere I was kinda worried, after dropping that load I made it to the nearest truck stop with the gage about halfway into the red and the light on.

At OD I once had to swap truck to one with less fuel in so I wouldn't be over weight on the drives.

BTW I was in Des Moines on Saturday but they sprung it on me too late to see if you where around.

Because we haul so much beer im rarely less than 3/4 a tank when im picking up a beer load. The only real culprit with beer loads seems to be Budweiser who require full tanks prior to loading you so you can get as much as legally possible. The problem is they get complacent or their robots depending on the brewery get the setup wrong and put you over on a axle.

With miller loads we have issues with their dunnage loaders not putting the correct amount of bulkheads in. A missing bulkhead shifts the load a few feet to the nose putting you overweight on your drives. Happened to me a few weeks ago but my fuel was actually low when i entered and rather than get reworked i decided to just fuel up a few times not going over 1/2 a tank on my trip.

I seem to have more issues with trailer tandems then drives. Paper loads always stress me out.

Heres a scale ticket of what i have now. 20 paper rolls to about 4 ft from the back doors, 7th hole 41ft.

Noob Driver, unless you had nearly empty fuel tanks at the time you weighed this, your steer axle is too light. You could slide your 5th wheel forward probably 2 holes, depending on the spacing, and remove another 1,000 pounds from your drive axles.

I cant slide my fifth wheel, i have to go to a terminal i think. I was almost full on fuel at the time. Where should the steers be ?

I know under 12k. I juat went through my last 10 scale tickets and they're consistently ahowing my steers at 11100k to 11400k

Bobcat that sounds like a nice long run! Unfortunately I wouldn't have been able to meet up anyways, i was in Southwest Minnesota for grandpa's 88th bday party.

Noob what do you mean by bulkheads with the beer loads? When I think of a bulkhead I'm thinking of something similiar to this

but I cant imagine these preventing a load shifting. Whenever I use one of these I'm using additional straps.

but I cant imagine these preventing a load shifting. Whenever I use one of these I'm using additional straps.

My favourite event is when a plastic pallet that's on the left hand side somehow manages to slide all the way to the right and I can't get to my cooler/dry stuff in the back because it's in the way.

Yuuyo says

My favourite event is when a plastic pallet that's on the left hand side somehow manages to slide all the way to the right and I can't get to my cooler/dry stuff in the back because it's in the way.

have you had the pleasure of your DC getting brand new plastic pallets? Man those sucked! When I was in the warehouse I was a freezer selector. We picked 3 pallets at a time and for about 2 months they were very slippery. Cases would slip right off the pallet. Heck, even the pallets would slide right off the pallet jack when loaded and dump product everywhere unless we put cardboard or skateboard grip tape on the forks. I overheard many Sysco drivers complaining about it. At PFG we only used wood pallets so I didnt deal with it thankfully.

Personally I hate wood pallets; they're most often used for unis or large quantities of items that already come on wood (so that a picker can just take off 10 from the top rather than build 40 that are already on there). They're worse to work with imo. You can't go underneath them with a pallet jack without pushing it against something heavy, and I especially hate not being able to pull out from under one when it's empty. As a driver now I stack my pallets plastic, all wood, then plastic on top. Besides that, plastic pallets are a bid narrower than the wood ones we use, so when a picker builds the pallets a bit over the edge, there's less chance of them getting caught on the damn bunker door. Or in elevators.

How many times have I had a pallet of 50-100 cases collapse in a certain tiny elevator?

One of the parts I like about winter is keeping the freezer up near the door of the trailer and the rest behind the bunker. We have to keep the food warm.