How much can you gross

bluejaybee · Oct 17, 2009

I had a load to Ionia, Michigan this week. While driving M66 to Ionia, I passed what I believed was a grainery that bought corn to be made into BIO Diesel. Grain truck after grain truck was on the way or waiting to be unloaded. And I am talking the 7 axle grain trailer. I heard one female driver state that she had 4 down and 3 up (axles) so she could gross 135000 lbs. Wow! If she had all 7 down, what could she (they) gross? I see some heavy duty stuff in Michigan. Reckon why their roads are coming apart? I think I have seen these in ohio and Pa as well.

Moot · Oct 17, 2009

I believe a B-Train with 11 axles can gross 164,000 pounds in Michigan.

greg334 · Oct 17, 2009

11 axles - 164,000 lbs.

The thing is with the poorly spec'ed roads and the high weights, we have roads that self-destruct quickly.

Oh you would not beleive the reasoning behind these weights.

hondaking38 · Oct 17, 2009

wow a load in Ionia, thats where i live...yep the plant you are talking about gets 90% of the corn from local farmers...from the farm to the plant, taking the exception of 66 most miles are on dirt roads....i have a few friends that sell to them... i never have had a load come here yet in over 4 years...are you sure you wernt transporting prisoners???we have 5 prisons here...

dieselwrench · Oct 17, 2009

I live in Mulliken Mi about 15 miles from Woodberry where that plant is they make alcohol there. I got a load out Portland Mi the other day that is only 7 miles from my house.
You should see what one of those 8 axels trailer can do to a tractor. It aint pretty.

bluejaybee · Oct 20, 2009

hondaking38 said:
wow a load in Ionia, thats where i live...yep the plant you are talking about gets 90% of the corn from local farmers...from the farm to the plant, taking the exception of 66 most miles are on dirt roads....i have a few friends that sell to them... i never have had a load come here yet in over 4 years...are you sure you wernt transporting prisoners???we have 5 prisons here...

Foe sure there was a bumper crop of corn this year in Michigan and Indiana. And they have been wide open picking it. I even saw them late at night with their lights on in New Bremen, Ohio.

I have transported prison made U.S. Army uniforms before. But never prisoners.

I delivered to a place called ??Brown. Don't remember the first 2 initials. Pretty big place. And it was a 13,000 lb load. Don't know what you drive. CV would not ever get this load.

bluejaybee · Oct 21, 2009

greg334 said:
11 axles - 164,000 lbs.

The thing is with the poorly spec'ed roads and the high weights, we have roads that self-destruct quickly.

Oh you would not beleive the reasoning behind these weights.

With no more edumucation than I have, I know that the roads won't stand up to that kind of weight. And the reasoning behind it is probably politically based. Somebody, somehwere, got their pockets stuffed with that weight limit and John Q. Public now has been stuck with the bad roads and the repair expenses. Or something like that.

I bet when one of them wreck, it is a mess.

greg334 · Oct 21, 2009

Well they are justifying it as a jobs creation thing. It used to be that the weights were increased for the steel haulers in certain areas of the state to allow them to haul more to the plants, trucks in some areas like dearborn were a 24/7 thing. The cities in those areas used to demand thicker roads from the counties but since we went to a uniformed building program back in the 80's roads last about three years. There are a few roads that are really thick and still in good shape.

Yesterday I had to drive my wife to work, I counted 18 Michigan trains on the freeway to her work (a few passed me by), some of them were dumping rocks and gravel all over the place. Now if they want to more jobs to be created, let's get rid of the trains and replace them with medium dumps with a lot lower limits.