Hauling overloaded whatever happened to those days?

[nightprwlr]

Pulling flatbeds and dump trailers most of my life just curious about who out here in the "realworld" were paid by the load and not mile and used to run over to make some real money. I guess to me it was the challenge or rush whatever, not that I had to do but I just wanted to. Blasting scales or going around them was kind of a challenge, but there was always some big mouth in the crowd who'd rat on ya'. I'm sure there are several out here who has some stories/episodes whatever they can remember and now look back and think was I crazy or stupid? I started driving in 1984 I'd just turnred 21 and started for a company who basically said " You wanna drive a truck? Take that old GMC out there with that grain trailer go up to the license place get your license come back we'll put you to work".Trucking cos. didn't train you in them days if you wasn't 25 y/o with 2 years exp. they wouldn't talk to you period. You didn't ride with trainers for 6 weeks or have steeringwheel holder acadamies whatever you went down the road and got your education on the c.b. from the older hands(whom you treated with respect) or trial and error. If you wasn't a smartass or know it all it paid you to listen. Anyhow I got nailed at a scalehouse in Illinois at Litchfield on I 55 the last report I got someone said they was closed and you know the rest of the story $2600.00 later. Did I learn anything? Find someone going the same direction let them safely get ahead of you go to another channel and let them give you the report and thank em' later with a cup of coffee whatever.

[PhuzzyGnu]

-p.

[nightprwlr]

Oh I must not of used my literacy skills ........sorry! :twisted: [/url]

[yoopr]

Oh I must not of used my literacy skills ........sorry! :twisted: [/url]

Don't worry about his post-go on

back in the day we used to Trip Lease alot of Loads and a buddy of mine trip leased a load of steel in Indiana.
Got caught carrying 140,000#s and that was with the old 48' flatbed.
back then the DOT pretty much left everybody alone unless something like this happened. Got a Monstrous fine and the company was on the DOT S...t list for A LONG Time :P

[Mr. Ford95]

Society today has wisened up that it isn't very safe to be going down the road with such large loads, not with the amount of passenger cars on the roads these days. It also doesn't help the roadways when they have to stand up to those loads unless they have it distributed over enough axles. Asphalt will buckle under too much weight, especially if it's summer time.

[nightprwlr]

There used be a hwy 7 in western MO. that ran between I-70 and U.S.50 and I remember loading grain out in the sticks near there in a covered wagon. I was following another driver up that hwy in July of that year they had Just finished paving the road I remember seeing ruts i the road now that you mentioned it.

[landstartammy]

I ran for several "outlaw" companies in my "crazy days". One of the places was running bulk potatoes from CO to TX, we were paid by the 100 lb. So of course we were overloaded 99% of the time. There were 6 of us o/o and we had an unofficial contest to see who could haul the most weight and not get caught.

I got lucky...I was caught with only 6,000 lbs. over (86,000 gross). Some of the others weren't so lucky. One driver had 120,000 gross and the bottom of the trailer broke in half. Talk about a pile of mashed potatoes!!!

Looking back I really wonder what I was thinking but they are fond memories now.

[jmilici]

Unfortunately my brother does not do computers, because he has stories for you. He actually learned how to drive at 16. When they came out with the CDL he was still too young and couldn't be grandfathered in, even though he had 5 or 6 years experience.

He us-ta haul trash from Long Island (and sometimes out of Lynn, MA) to PA and OH. His preferred trailer was a dry van(A little easier to conceal the fact that you are a trash hauler, 'cause you know the DOT love those trash haulers).

On a side note, I do the Lynn, MA run every once and a while and he has shown me a few tricks. I do not run overweight however, there is not enough money to be made these days. When my brother was doing it he was getting upwards of $72 a ton. Now It ranges from $28 to $32 a ton(at least with my company).

My only story is I was coming out of Lynn, MA and was grossed at 79,900 (it was actually higher but still legal, I just don't remember the actual weight). And that was the night that the 72 hour blitz started, this was last year. My route was 90w to 84w through Connecticut, down to 81s to 80w. After weighing my trailer ended up being over a 1000 over and there was nothing I could do. Moving things around only moved the extra weight. After a brief discussion, we decided to leave the weight on the trailer.

I got my self to Milton, PA, where I fueled, updated my book, applied the tips my brother showed me and took an hour and a half nap. Got up did my pre-trip, got coffee and headed off knowing what had started at midnight, it was know 2am. I tell you what though, I never seen that Milton, PA Petro so packed before. So, I got on the road, paranoid of course, (only been driving about 2 months at the time) and headed towards Ohio. To my amazement, not one pickle park was open, completely devoid of any big trucks, but no signs flashing. Not even a bear in sight the entire ride.

Got to Ohio, went around the Girard scale, stopped at Petro for some breakfast(before I discovered Mr Fuel, descent food for a truck stop). and went on my merry way down to the Waynesburg landfill to deliver my load.

My company, like most these days, is not worth the risk.

[stinkyfinger]

Back when I took a break from otr,I was driving tandem dump truck.We were paving a state highway and this job paid by the ton.I was legal at 14 ton but I was hauling 16.Got pulled over and ticketed.Went back for my next load and I was going to go down to 14 ton but the plant operator talked me into stayin at 16 ton. Well low an behold I got pulled over AGAIN by the same dot and received another ticket!!! Both tickets were in the span of apprx. 2 hrs.My boss paid em,I didn't have to. I was ready to snap!

[coastie]

Well I'll add my over weight Story here also.

I was driving a Flat Bed with a small crane on it so I could unload at my drops. After my last drop of 11 stops, I had my first and last back haul since I was driving for this Company. I hauld Tombstones to Funeral Homes and GraveYards. Spooky uh? Well I was in Tx and had to pick up a Granite Block just north of Waco, Tx. After Loading, I looked to see where the closest Cat scale was at or any scales so I could wight out. I did not find one close by, and the closest was a few hundred miles away. There may been some but I failed to see any. Well when I scaled out, I was 1000 lbs over gross.

After I called my boss told him I was over gross. And I was a distance from the Pit where I got it. He said run with it and if I got ticketed, they would pay the fine. Well I was getting paid for all Miles driven so I decided to see if I can go around the scales when Possible. I got around Shriveport Scale no problem. and turned out it was the only one open between there and Home in Georgia.

I was told where to park it, but later they changed their mind and had me park at the a Trucking company yard and they would have a Driver to put it in the door. They had another employee turn a truck over going intthere. so they did not want me to do it. Ok with me. it was a Hill in the wrong angle for a 50,000 lb Rock on the trailer.

[coastie]

A Driver for a Company I drove for did a really good job hauling 53,000 LBS from NJ to Ga. No tickets at all. Problemhe had when he arrived at the customer in Atlanta, the trailer folded inwards in half. Loaded down with Rolls of Paper.

[Mr. Ford95]

I saw a truck hauling mulch(unpackaged) and the trailer broke in the middle. Apparently, whomever loaded it with the excavator was packing it down and packing it down to stuff as much as possible in the trailer. Got so much in, it somehow caused the trailer to fold as the driver pulled off from a stoplight and hit a slight dip in the road. Mulch is light as heck, so how that happened is beyond me, sounds like the excavator might have pushed a little too hard in the middle and broke the trailer right then and nobody noticed.

Hauling overloaded is just not worth it anymore when you get busted. For what your paying out in fines and equipment damage that might occur to what your being paid for that extra, it doesn't make it worth it. Sometimes though you cannot help it but should try to avoid being overweight.

[CoastalDefender]

Oh, I'll toss my story in too.

About 4 weeks ago, I had a 130mi load of Spruce (I'm a Log Truck driver, formerly OTR). We get paid by weight and distance travelled. This was a pretty long run, so I really overloaded.

I'm licensed for 88,000 gvw, and spruce is pretty heavy, I didn't have to shorten up, and there was really just a load-and-a-half out there in the woods. instead of letting someone else run off with a load later on, I asked the Shovel Op (guy who loads me) to really pack it on.

I got it up to 120,000gvw before I told him that was about enough.

The thing about spruce is it looks like a regular load when you're really packed to the gills because its so heavy.

Had ZERO weigh stations to pass, but there was a fueling location DOT liked to setup the portable scales along the way. Figured I'd just take my chances.

Well, I get up to where the fuel stop is, and sure enough, they have out the scales.

Well, this is a two-lane US Highway, and I keep going, pretending I didn't see them open.

The State DOT guy jumps out after me and caught up in about 3 miles.

He stops me and checks out all my stuff. Current, all good. Then he asks to check my onboard scales, and I had *just* ripped out the power wires to it. "Sorry officer, they broke this morning when I kicked it on accident, so I have been loading real light until I can get them fixed this evening at the shop."

Sounds reasonable, so he tells me to follow him and we'll find a place where I can pull around and go back to the fuel stop.

We're headed out for about 30min (VERY rural wooded area, no good areas to turn around), and he gets a Priority call on the radio, so he CB's me to finish my run, and get those scales fixed right away.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO lucky, as just recently they've been arresting drivers who are 20,000lbs over gross.


Not too bad for my first post here, eh? 100% pure self-incrimination.

[rcso]

lemma guess you're from Chicago? That accent is just flowing from that post.

[silvan]

I saw a truck hauling mulch(unpackaged) and the trailer broke in the middle.

Me too! Happened right in front of my house, when I was at home. I heard this godawful rending metal sound, and looked up to see WTF it was. There was a chip wagon in front of my house, blocking my driveway, completely bellied out, with a load of mulch spewing out everywhere. It was so bad his drives got lifted a foot off the road, and he was completely SOL. I asked him if he was overweight, and he said "Naw, I only got 20,000 pounds on. That's what they told me at the scales."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

What amazed me was that this guy's drives were down to the belts. What a POS of a truck. I've driven with some problems before, but dammit driver, I'm not going to ride on tires like those. They can keep the truck. Especially if they want me to gross 120,000 pounds.

[Larry Heyns]

In the 1970s, Key Line operated strickly legal. I was dispatched to pick up a trailer loaded with miscelaneous at Hare Cartage in Detroit and haul it to Milwaukee. The manifest totaled only 36,000 lbs., so I assumed there was no need to check the axle weights. The scale master at Grass Lake told me that the trailer tandems were overweight. I slid the tandems to the rear, and they were still 2,000 lbs. overweight. So, the scale master began to copy the information from my license, registration, bill of lading, etc. onto a scratch pad. I asked him whether I was getting a ticket. He said, "Oh, no. We cannot write a ticket on this one." And he let me go. I know that he planned to use the info to get a steak dinner from our safety man.

I dodged the New Buffalo and Michigan City scales, and took the overloaded trailer to our Chicago terminal. We unloaded two gaylord boxes of castings off the tailgate, and looked for a bill of lading matching those boxes in the manilla envelope of bills from Hare Cartage. There was no bill of lading for those heavy gaylord boxes. I continued on my way to Milwaukee, and have no idea what the Chicago terminal manager did with those boxes.

[mozzi]

Back in 90 or 91 (???) while pulling a flatbed I was dispatched to pick up a couple of partials. The first P/U was in Valley Ne. I deadheaded to Valley and loaded a bunch of concrete forms. My next P/U would be St. louis, Mo. All was to be delivered to some outfit N.E. of Atlanta, Ga. ASAP.

These conctete forms were not new but, used and as such were covered in concrete. I asked the man loading me "how much does this stuff weigh"? I was guaranteed that it could not exceed 30,000 # because I was only taking 1/3 of the entire load... and when the forms were new they had been shipped in on 1 truck.

I explained that I had a fairly good eye for estimating weight being loaded onto my rig and that I thought that this stuff weighed a lot more than the 30,000 # as claimed.

He finished loading my rig in the late afternoon, guaranteeing me that I was "WAY UNDER". I strapped down and headed for St. Louis, Mo. for the next P/U in the morning.

I had just hired on with this company a couple of weeks ago. After driving around Omaha on I-29 S. and merging with I-80 E. I decided to pull into the Sapp Bros. and put on fuel. While fueling, I ran into the owner of the company, (he still drove on occasion), who asked to buy me dinner. Well, being distracted by his presence, I forgot to scale out after fueling. It was late when he and I parted and I finally started out for Gateway.

The scales in Rock Port, Mo were closed and I was just easing along S. on I-29. I started to notice that the truck was really pulling hard in these mild, rolling hills. I actually had to downshift on one hill and I knew that something was "not as it was supposed to be".

I carefully made my way across Missouri to the Flying Hook just E. of Jonesburg, Mo. I camped out here. When I woke up I imediatly pulled around to the Hook scales and told the gal on the speaker that I refused to pay for anything if it wasn't legal... just joking with her 8)
She said that I'd better come in and check this out because, it sure wasn't legal. I still had another P/U to make in Gateway today. I weighed 90,000 #s.

I called dispatch and explained the problem... and of course... he said that I couldn't weigh that much BECAUSE I STILL HAD TO MAKE ANOTHER P/U. Duh ! why did'nt I think of that !!!

Anyway I went into St. Louis and, through a little coersion, convinced them to "REMOVE" a certian amount of weight to make me legal. Also, dispatch had given (suggested even) me permission to be as legal as I WANTED TOO The folks in Gateway didn't like it but, oh well. I rolled out of there around 65,000 # or so and delivered as scheduled in Georgia the following morning.