Flatbed Variety

Recent load of lumber, Idaho to Ohio. I snapped the pic before tarping, and had intended to get another after, but it was 86° and humid in western Idaho that day. (Who knew it got that hot and humid there in May!?) I scaled the load before tarping because the shipper thought it weighed about 49,000, which would have put me within a couple hundred pounds of 80,000 gross. Turns out it was only 77,000 - so they threw on another bundle! Lesson learned: if the Right Weigh gauge tells you you're not even close to going over, save an hour by just tarping it and getting the heck out of there.

And no, I didn't have enough belly straps on that load, but I ran out of winches.

Well the loads just keep getting bigger. This is the largest load for me so far as weight goes. Grossing 155,000 pounds. Empty weight was 65k so the excavator that was supposed to weigh 86k or less actually weighed 90k.

By the way, this is the one that I found that was supposed to be a 320 weighing in at 47k.

Pat, with a load that heavy, how do you plan your route for bridges with weight restrictions?

Pat, with a load that heavy, how do you plan your route for bridges with weight restrictions?

We don't have many here but I always pay attention on the way to the site because I am normally coming back out the same way.

Just don't go down that road. Simple as that.

Since I hardly ever leave the state, I am getting to know Montana pretty good. Road construction screws up more things for wide loads. This one is not bad, only 11' 2" wide.

Got lucky today. Only two scales were open and neither one bothered to even pull me in to check permits.

Recent load of lumber, Idaho to Ohio. I snapped the pic before tarping, and had intended to get another after, but it was 86° and humid in western Idaho that day. (Who knew it got that hot and humid there in May!?) I scaled the load before tarping because the shipper thought it weighed about 49,000, which would have put me within a couple hundred pounds of 80,000 gross. Turns out it was only 77,000 - so they threw on another bundle! Lesson learned: if the Right Weigh gauge tells you you're not even close to going over, save an hour by just tarping it and getting the heck out of there.

Where did you load out of? St Marie's? Princeton? Last week I loaded 17 bunks of plywood in St Maries and when I weighed out I was over 83000. They had to take two off! I guess the plywood was a little denser that day lol. I didn't mimd though, it made my load nice and symmetrical and easy to tarp :)

Well I dropped the excavator this morning and loaded a road sweeper to come right back to the same site.

Well I dropped the excavator this morning and loaded a road sweeper to come right back to the same site.

That one looks a light lighter than that excavator!

Well I dropped the excavator this morning and loaded a road sweeper to come right back to the same site.

That one looks a light lighter than that excavator!

Yeah just a little lighter. Excavator at 90k and sweeper at 5.5k. At least they did not pull me into the scale to laugh at the load... LOL