AUX. AXELS

SHARP327 · Mar 8, 2004

JUST RECEIVED A $100.00 FINE WHEN I WENT ACROSS THE SCALES JUST WEST OF SHREVEPORT LA. IT SEEMS THAT LA. HAS IT ON THE BOOKS THAT A CAB OPPERATED DROP AXEL IS ILLEGAL! JUST THOUGHT I'D GIVE A HEADS UP TO ANYONE THAT HAS THIS OPTION ON THEIR TRUCK. IT SEEMS THAT THE FEDERAL DOT DOESN'T HAVE THIS REGULATION BUT INDIVIDUAL STATES CAN MAKE UP REGULATIONS AS THEY SEE FIT. OUCH!!!
BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! SHARP327:-( :-(

Weave · Mar 8, 2004

Thanks Sharp. We were just having a small discussion about individual state laws on Truck Talk, and yours is a new one I haven't heard of. What is LA's thinking behind that?
-Weave-

SHARP327 · Mar 8, 2004

HI WEAVE! THE ONLY THOUGHT I CAN COME UP WITH IS THE GREEN BACK! I ONLY HAD 805 LBS. ON MY TRUCK AT THE TIME. ONE THING I'D LIKE TO ADD IS THE FACT THAT THEY DIDN'T HAVE THEIR OPEN/CLOSED SIGN ON AND JUST TO BE SAFE I DECIDED AT THE LAST SECOND TO CROSS THE SCALE, ANY WAY I WAS SLOWING DOWN AN GOT TO ABOUT 20 MPH WHEN I NOTICED THE GREEN LIGHT THAT SAID GO AHEAD SO I STARTED TO PROCEED WHEN THE DOT MAN RAN FROM THE BACK OF THE OFFICE AND HIT THE BUTTON FOR ME TO STOP AND BRING IN MY PAPER WORK. I TOLD THEM THAT I DIDN'T EVEN THINK THEY WERE OPEN AND ONE OF THEM SAID OOOH YOU DIDN'T THINK ALL OF OUR CARS WAS A GOOD INDICATION THAT WE'RE OPEN!, SO I THINK I MADE THEM MAD AND THEY WERE GOING TO FIND SOMETHING WRONG NO MATTER WHAT! I ASKED FOR A COPY OF THE DOT LAW THAT I BROKE AND THEY RAN A COPY OFF FOR ME! MY QUESTION IS HOW WOULD A DRIVER EVER BE ABLE TO KEEP UP WITH THESE LAWS IF THEY CAN BE PUT ON THE BOOKS AT ANY GIVEN TIME?
THANKS SHARP327

Weave · Mar 8, 2004

Yes, yours just sounds like a classic case of "We're gonna get your greens, and you're gonna get the blues." If it wasn't the tag axle, it would have been some other obscure "unknown to any" law on the LA books. "You got the wrong kinda air in yer tires, boy

"
-Weave-

x06col · Mar 10, 2004

Yes, I'd like to know too, what their specific heartburn was. Was
it with the tag?? Or, the controls in the cab?? My equipment has the controls in the storage area of the sleepers, because I didn't want them in the cab. Can you help us with specifics?

geo · Mar 10, 2004

give ooida a call and let them know what happen ask for gray green

JETTREDY · Mar 11, 2004

. The DOT does not want the driver to be able to make adjustments to the pressure settings on axels while being scaled.;-)

mcbride · Mar 11, 2004

>. The DOT does not want the driver to be able to make
>adjustments to the pressure settings on axels while being
>scaled.;-)

I don't thinnk air pressure has much to do with it. If they're down- they're down. The pressure is used for balancing your load weight on your truck overall. The heavier the load the less pressure you will need...

It is our understanding that they don't want you lifting them and then dropping them when your going to be weighed on the scales or in other words driving on the road over weight. We have seen people put their tags/pushers up or down prior to toll road entry or scales. Tolls are almost doubled in some instances with our pusher down. I have heard of drivers with tags/pushers riding with them up on toll roads being pulled over for the specific reason of the officer looking at their toll tickets. Wow, I would hate to see that fine.

The primary reason we have a pusher is to take weight off the steers and to have our truck meet the standards that FedexCC had at the time for us to be able to carry 13,000 lbs. as a "D" unit. Now that we do have them we can carry more than 13,000 lbs.

It is interesting too, that in ND they want you to run with your extra axles down whether your load requires it or not.

JETTREDY · Mar 11, 2004

In Ohio it is legal to have drop axel switch in cab for raising /lowering only. Pressure settings must be located outside of cab only! I once had a shock go bad on my drop as I was doing 65+. My truck began to shimmey and weave taking up two lanes of highway. When I raised my axel the truck straightend right out. This also could happen with a blown tire on a drop. I would never drive a truck without this switch in cab!!! Also as I understand it, depending how a truck is loaded, a driver that has pressure settings in the cab can shift the weight of the load to diff. axels by increasing/decreasing pressure making it appear he doesnt have too much weight on a given axel. More weight less pressure???;-)

mcbride · Mar 12, 2004

>In Ohio it is legal to have drop axel switch in cab for
>raising /lowering only. Pressure settings must be located
>outside of cab only!
wow, no kidding, geesh you'd think FedexCC, Tri-State or one of the other Ohio based companies would inform drivers of this Ohio law at their orientations.. or the builders of these units with drop axles on them would at least warn you that some states have whacky rules with regard to drop axles..

> Also as I understand it, depending how a
>truck is loaded, a driver that has pressure settings in the
>cab can shift the weight of the load to diff. axels by
>increasing/decreasing pressure making it appear he doesnt
>have too much weight on a given axel.
Our pusher takes weight off the steers for sure and the more air pressure we put on them the more it will lift the weight off the front end...but it isn't going to left it off the ground! In addition, if we put too much air/or too little air on them depending on the load size/weight the ride can be terrible. We use about 50/60 PSI as an average setting but we use our pusher for loads weighing anything more than about 6,500 lbs because we weigh about 26,000 unloaded. My comments about weight vs pressure on the axles is based on our experience from scaling our truck with the axles down as opposed to up. When we scale with them down we are considered a 10 wheeler (46,000 gvw), which could be more but we elected to register at 46,000, and when they are up we are a 6 wheeler (33,000 gvw). Where the load is placed in the box is more of a concern to us.

JETTREDY · Mar 12, 2004

Simply put, the DOT doesnt want the driver to have access to pressure settings while operating the truck. A driver can do wacky things to a scale by changing the pressure while being weighed. Example: I once heard of a driver who did this. After much confussion and some snickers by the driver, he was told he was free to leave because the scale was malfunctioning. The DOT then closed the scale for repairs. Need I say more?;-)

highway star · Mar 13, 2004

McBride, the most a 10 wheeler can gross is 46,000. You can be 34 on the tandems and 12 on the front. This what I've always thought was the case from back in my tractor/trailer days. Also, a 6 wheeler would be 32,000. 20 rear, 12 front. If I'm wrong, please let me know in case I decide move up from being a lowly cargo van driver to a bigger truck.

mcbride · Mar 13, 2004

>McBride, the most a 10 wheeler can gross is 46,000.

I guess our registration is incorrect then. We are registered for 46,000# for the majority of the states but we are registered for up to 51,000# in MN. I was told these weight amounts were the min for a 3 axle truck in these certain states as we indicated we wanted the GVW to be 46,000#. Another example, the weight amount our registration indicates for OH is 50,000#. In addition, we weigh 13,000#-13,400# on our steers and have never had a problem. Most people we know with class 8 tractors weigh more than 12,000# on their steers. We must have been mis-informed when we registered our truck as they indicated the truck could be registered for 54,000#. We are in the process of re-registering our truck for this year so I will inquire. It also seems odd that we have driven this truck for 4 years and almost 500,000 miles and we have never had an overweight citation or problem on any scale weighing 13,000 or more on our steers.

SHARP327 · Mar 13, 2004

I WONDER IF YOU COULD INSTALL AN AIR VALVE OUTSIDE THE CAB? LETS SAY JUST AS THE LINE COMES FROM THE AIR TANK, WHICH I COULD CLOSE AND MAKE THE IN CAB AIR CONTROLS TOTALLY INOPERABLE AND WOULD THIS THEN CLASSIFY THE CONTROL OF THE DROP AXEL AS BEING OUTSIDE? I GUESS THAT WOULD BE A QUESTION FOR THE DOT BUT I'D LIKE GET A DRIVERS OPINION BEFORE I START ASKING THE DOT.
THANKS ALOT GEORGE I'LL CALL OOIDA MONDAY MORNING AND TALK TO MR. GREEN, MAYBE THEY'LL HAVE SOME INPUT ON THIS MATTER.
I'M THINKING OF FILING A DISPUTE WITH THE LA. DOT, IT NOTES ON THE BACK OF THE VIOLATION THAT I HAVE 30 DAYS TO DO THIS. WHO KNOWS? IT CAN'T HURT PLUS IT'LL GIVE ME MORE TIME TO PAY THE FINE IF THEY SAY TUFF KITTY!
I'M KINDA NEW AT THIS DROP AXEL STUFF SO WHEN I READ-- THE MORE WEIGHT THE LESS PRESSURE IT GETS CONFUSING TOO ME! BECAUSE THE OTHER DAY I WAS HAULING AROUND 13000# AND I SET MY PRESSURE @45# JUST TO GET ME WHERE I COULD GET WEIGHED, THE TRUCK WAS A BIT SQUIRLEY GETTING THERE. MY STEERS ONLY HAD ABOUT 7800# SO I ENDED UP WITH 40# WHICH INCREASED THE WEIGHT ON MY STEERS AND THE TRUCK HANDLED REAL NICE AFTER THAT. BUT WOULDN'T THE PRESSURE NEEDED BE BASED ON THE LOCATION OF THE LOAD WEIGHT WHILE KEEPING THE WEIGHT ON THE STEERS WITHIN THE ALLOWABLE RATE?
LAST BUT NOT LEAST! MY TRUCK HAS A GVWR LISTED AT 54,000# I'M SOME WHAT AWARE THAT THE STATES CONTROL THE AMOUNT I CAN CARRY BUT THE REGISTRATION CLEARLY STATES 54,000 #
YOU ALL BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!!

SHARP327

mcbride · Mar 17, 2004

>McBride, the most a 10 wheeler can gross is 46,000. You can
>be 34 on the tandems and 12 on the front. This what I've
>always thought was the case from back in my tractor/trailer
>days. Also, a 6 wheeler would be 32,000. 20 rear, 12 front.
>If I'm wrong, please let me know in case I decide move up
>from being a lowly cargo van driver to a bigger truck.

We are in process of re-registering truck in VA. Our truck can be registered legally for 54,000 lbs.

Doggie Daddy · Mar 17, 2004

our D unit is also registered at 54,000# in ohio. DDx2

mcbride · Mar 17, 2004

Thanks DDx2-

Thought we were loosing it for a second. Highway star had us thinking...

Six pack · Mar 18, 2004

I'm have my plates in Ohio to, but for 46,000 pounds..You guys need to check with D.O.T. Your back axeles are to close to put 20,000 pounds each.Almost every state is different but if I remember right Ohio is 17,000 pounds per rear axle and 700 pouds per inch of tire width on the front.The state will let you tag the truck for 100,000 pounds if you want but that doesn't mean you can run that much weight. There fee is based on weight so the higher you declare the more they make.

P.S. I do have a 10 wheeler.
Six pack

mcbride · Mar 18, 2004

Right, that is why to be safe we did register for 46,000lbs. However, certain states automatically registered our truck for higher amounts because it is listed as a 3 axle vehicle. According to DOT this is their option, just as each state seems to make up it's own rules regarding the use of them. Plus, we were informed that the type of pusher/tag you have is considered by the DOT. For example, some have one wheel per side, some do not have brakes, etc. The DMV told me here (VA) that our truck would come with the weight that it could carrry on the orignial registration, ours said 54,000lbs.

You are also correct that you can register your vehicle for higher amounts. As a matter of fact, we have just heard of some perople possibly registering their truck for 55,000 lbs to avoid the sales tax in their state but then paying heavy highway usage tax...which is only about $100 per year in their state.

BTW, Sharp, we surely have gotten lucky lately as far as LA goes. We have been through there 4 times since your post regarding the fine you received. Once with pusher down and now three times without. We were wieghed 3 times and got the bypass sign once.

ALSO, just out of curiousity why is LA the only state we can think of that requires you to BYPASS scales when the sign is flashing? This was very confusing to us when we first started driving.

SHARP327 · Mar 18, 2004

MCBRIDE WAS GLAD TO HEAR YOU WERE LUCKY IN LA. LIKE I SAID THEY HAD TO FIND SOMETHING WRONG AND NO MATTER WHAT THEY WERE GOING TOO!
WHAT'S THIS ABOUT THE FLASHING LIGHTS? THAT'S A NEW ONE ON ME! I FEEL THEY TRY TO KEEP DRIVERS CONFUSED SO THEY CAN RAKE IN THOSE FINES.
GEORGE! I CALLED OOIDA GARY GREEN WAS ON VACATION AT THE TIME SO I SPOKE WITH SOMEONE ELSE IN COMPLIANCE AND WAS PRETTY MUCH TOLD THAT I COULD CONTACT ROADLAW FOR ADVICE AND THAT THERE'S NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THE INDIVIDUAL STATES COMING UP WITH THEIR ON LAWS AS THEY SEE FIT, AND THAT IT'S OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO KNOW THE LAWS OF THAT STATE EVEN THOUGH IF YOU SPENT THE TIME READING ALL THE AMENDMENTS YOU'D NEVER HAVE ANY TIME TO DRIVE!
TAKE CARE EVERYBODY! SHARP327