No CAT Scales Between Shipper And Weigh Stations
Topic 32726 | Page 1
I see this as a sub-part of trip planning, "where to weigh after I'm loaded."
I just did a Google search that shows several CAT Scale locations all around Amarillo. I always park at either the TA or the Petro in Amarillo, and both have scales.
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
I hate those shippers. There are several in Va I used to encounter. I would guesstsmate it and go on. Va was always kind enough to let us adjust it, but they are not required too. Do you have a suspension gauge for your drives?? Prime trailers have a weight system on them to help them get it really close without a scale.
Know what your truck/trailer weigh empty full of fuel. IF the bol weight is accurate then you can get it pretty close.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
I see this as a sub-part of trip planning, "where to weigh after I'm loaded."
In my trip planning, I identified the Loves east of Amarillo, but it doesn’t have a CAT scale. They have a billboard for that location advertising the Loves at exit 96, but with no indication that it lacks a scale. It would be nice if they would add a sign to that effect on the billboard. Next time I will backtrack to Amarillo to one of the truck stops that PackRat mentioned.
What puzzles me is that there must be dozens of loads coming out of that massive Tyson plant every day headed east. And no scale between them and the state weigh stations???? Must generate some substantial citation money for Texas, I would guess. Whenever I haul a chicken load, it’s a heavy one, so getting it weighed is critical.
Our trailers don’t have a weight indicator and it’s a preloaded trailer already sealed. So the driver can’t look in the trailer to see how it’s loaded. As it was, I had to move the tandems back 3 holes to get legal and balanced, so not a terrible guess. This assignment is to Taunton, MA, almost 2000 miles, so I’ll probably hit multiple weigh stations on the trip. Now, my only worries are traffic and weather, lol.
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".
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
Two things... 1. CAT has an app which shows the locations.of the scales.
2. The tandems are slid all the way back when you pick up the trailer. Does your truck not have an axle weight gauge on the dash? Prime trucks have both an added "Rightweigh" guage installed on all trucks and trailers.... But my last 2 trucks have had the drive axle weight on the digital dash.
When you slide the tandems... Put most of the weight on the drives. Then scale and adjust as needed.
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".
Today I picked up a load at the Tyson plant northeast of Amarillo, headed east on I40 towards the Texas/Oklahoma state line. The load is heavy, over 43,000 pounds, so I definitely needed to weigh it before I reached the state weigh stations in Texas and then again just after crossing into Oklahoma. No problem, I was going to weigh out at exit 96 on I40, at the Loves truck stop. But there isn’t a CAT scale there. Back on I40, eastbound, I didn’t find any scales (unless I missed one). Fortunately for me, both weigh stations were closed when I passed by. Finally weighed out at my first fuel stop, exit 20 in Sayre, OK. I was 34,900 lbs. on my trailer tandems. Easy adjustment. But I guess next time I have a pickup at Tyson, I’ll have to backtrack to Amarillo and hit a CAT scale there.
Has anybody else had a similar experience? Did I miss a CAT scale along the way? Lots of Prime trucks at Tyson. Maybe one of the Prime drivers has a comment? Sure made me nervous about getting an overweight citation.
They have quite a few CAT Scales around there. Here is one of them. https://goo.gl/maps/BKDWmk12B7P1uMWa8
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".
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
Cat Scales:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
There's 2 pilots, 2 loves, the TA, Petro all in Amarillo. I usually stay the TA too. I pull a fair amount of loads from various shippers around there at times.
I don't know if it's correct to do so or not, but a lot of times if a load is 43k, I'll put the tandems at 43'. If it's 42k, 42 feet, etc. Just as a basic starting point. It works most of the time. When I go scale it, It's usually balanced pretty well and legal with little or no adjustments.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
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".
I don't know if it's correct to do so or not, but a lot of times if a load is 43k, I'll put the tandems at 43'. If it's 42k, 42 feet, etc. Just as a basic starting point. It works most of the time. When I go scale it, It's usually balanced pretty well and legal with little or no adjustments.
I’ve not seen a constant that correlates with the above. Might be coincidental.
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".
I don't know if it's correct to do so or not, but a lot of times if a load is 43k, I'll put the tandems at 43'. If it's 42k, 42 feet, etc. Just as a basic starting point. It works most of the time. When I go scale it, It's usually balanced pretty well and legal with little or no adjustments.
I’ve not seen a constant that correlates with the above. Might be coincidental.
I always wonder too if just coincidence. I'll track it over the next month and see. Occasionally it doesn't matter, the last lowes one had so much weight at the back that I had the tandems all the way back to the rear of the trailer and it was 33.5k on em, 30k on the drives. When I opened it up at tge reciever to dock, it was a bunch of pallets of water at the back and light fixtures and light stuff at the front lol.
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".
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Today I picked up a load at the Tyson plant northeast of Amarillo, headed east on I40 towards the Texas/Oklahoma state line. The load is heavy, over 43,000 pounds, so I definitely needed to weigh it before I reached the state weigh stations in Texas and then again just after crossing into Oklahoma. No problem, I was going to weigh out at exit 96 on I40, at the Loves truck stop. But there isn’t a CAT scale there. Back on I40, eastbound, I didn’t find any scales (unless I missed one). Fortunately for me, both weigh stations were closed when I passed by. Finally weighed out at my first fuel stop, exit 20 in Sayre, OK. I was 34,900 lbs. on my trailer tandems. Easy adjustment. But I guess next time I have a pickup at Tyson, I’ll have to backtrack to Amarillo and hit a CAT scale there.
Has anybody else had a similar experience? Did I miss a CAT scale along the way? Lots of Prime trucks at Tyson. Maybe one of the Prime drivers has a comment? Sure made me nervous about getting an overweight citation.
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".
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”