Best investment I ever made was putting the Rite Weigh scale on my trailer. I can pull ahead a couple feet from the dock after getting loaded and check to see where I am on the weight.

It comes in handy in California with the 40' bridge law. Being I only go to California and back my tandems stay at 40' except for yesterday when I played at the scale to see how much weight moved when I slid the tandems back.

 

No this is just the first time I've had a scale give me inaccurate weights , And you're correct had i reweighed the load and had a ticket with axle weights showing legal...even if wrong due to the scale...I would have had an argument as I would have had a ticket showing legal axle weights even if wrong due to an inaccurate scale ... Now as far as the weight moved per hole that will always be roughly 250lbs per hole on the type of trailer I'm pulling with its hole spacing, and more if on a trailer with larger gaps in hole adsjustment inwhich case I would need a reweigh just to see what that trailer was moving per hole ...Now in the future I will always get a reweigh so I have a piece of paper with the corrected legal weights on paper not just my word ... however this does not mean you will get off at the scale ,but rather need to go to court to drop the ticket ,as I can tell you this the officer at the scalehouse did not even want to look at my scale ticket ,and just shuffled it out of his way without even looking at the ticket ,and said it does not matter what that pice of paper says it only matters what his scale says , So do not think a scale ticket means no fine at the scales ...wink

 

Is that a gauge on the air bags ?...We have Volvo trucks with bags on drives/steers , so I can get a guess as to what my drive/steer weights are ,but it's only a guess and requires very level ground or the the weights can be off a fair amount like a thousand or more pounds as the guage reads in PSI and that reading can be off by 5-10 npsi just on the uneven ground in the truck stop .

 

Look..unless you scale the load, and re-adjust it then REWEIGH it to show a LEGAL ticket, CAT will tell you to go screw off. if you scale out, and your re-weigh ticket shows 12,500, 32,000 and 36,000....they will laugh at you.

You really think that telling them, "well i adjusted the tandems 9 holes forward, so i would be legal. It isnt 'legal' to them until you produce a valid, LEGAL ticket.

I only scale my load if i'm over 30k...other than that....i kee my 5th wheel one hole rear from dead center, and keep my tandems 5 holes from full forward, and i know i should be spot on. been driving almost a year now, and have yet to get a ticket................FOR BEING OVERWEIGHT. =)

 

Now that last paragraph is recipe for an overweight fine since you never know how much you really got loaded with at a shipper just b/c the bills say 30k or less ,and if preloaded/sealed you have no idea where the load is concentrated in the box ... I did not get any weight fines either my first 3.5 years OTR ...wink

 

Yeah I have the pressure gauge in the dash that measures in psi for the drives.

The Rite Weigh I have on my trailer measures in lbs. Yes you do have to have it on level ground with the trailer brakes off to get a accurate weight. Every couple of months I will scale a load and calibrate my Rite Weigh. It's easy to do, just turn a screw till you get the gauge to read the same as the scale ticket.

 

We had the guage in the dash that showed the weight in PSI and they just installed a new one that is reads actual weight in pounds on the drives. It is made by Right Weigh. Was with in 50 pounds on the drives right out of the box, And can be calibrated just like the one on your trailer.

 

:argue: opcorn: :banana3: :deal:



:clap:



Good argument !!!!

 

You can kinda tell if a trailer is nose heavy or tail heavy. If you've got a BOL that says 30k, and you feel like you're pulling the trailer with a flippin' building on it, more than likely you're over on your drives, and the load is fairly nose heavy. Slide your 5th wheel and you'll see a world of difference.

when all else fails, i put my 5th wheel one notch behind dead center, and my tandems 5 holes from full forward.

 

now all of a sudden the scale is wrong, and THATS the reason for the ticket ?? according to your OP, you said you were over on your drives, so you adjusted your tandems the 5 holes left you could adjust, and DID NOT RE-WEIGH THE LOAD cause you used the "250lb per hole" rule. ("...and on down the road I went...UNTIL I hit the scales at MM 415 I-80 comming into Lincoln...")

so where is Sapp Brothers scale wrong? Had you scaled it legal (from their scale) regardless if the scale was right or wrong, you'd have a legal leg to stand on, Ahab. Since you DIDN'T, you DON'T. Atleast with a legal ticket, then the DOT nails you for being overweight, you could go back to Sapp's and tell them their scale was not calibrated.

It is irrelevant that you stopped at a CAT scale in new york (or whever) and THEN got a legal ticket....DOT already nailed you....so its too late.

simple question here is, "Should you have re-weighed a heavy load after sliding your tandems?....yes or no?"