Sounds like you would have been 155" if you put that car up there. You would have been legal.

Didn't really understand the other question(s).

 

Sorry Rank but my brain was fried . I had just gotten home . I had spent

the previous night in the truck , slept only 2.5 hours so let me try to re

ask about the weight and height deal. First the height of the truck

platform is 8 ft 9 in plus 59" which totals 164" . I probably should have

wrote it like this 105" plus 59" . Sorry. Anyway 164 " is the height.

That would be 13'8" .

Now to address the weight deal .

According th the scale near my house , my truck weighs 22,900empty.I

do not have the scale ticket in front of me but as I recall the front was

10,200 and the rear was 12,700. It has a gvwr 0f 33,000 . the front

axle is rated at 12,000 the rear is rated at 21,000. This is off of the

factory sticker. Now this truck has

a tag axle which was added later and of coarse the whole head rack,

rollback bed and wheel lift was added later as well. . I am not sure what

the rating is on the tag axle. I asked the DOT man in Maryland , he said

and I will quote him " It is suppose to add 20,000 but not really" (Yes that

is exactly what he said). He then went on the say he goes by the weight

rating on the tires. My front tires are rated at 6175 each , rears are 5840

each ( dual)and the tag axle tires are 3640 each. So according to the

DOT man I have a total of 12,350 on the front, 7280 tag axle and 23, 360

rear. The entire total is 42,990. Also I have a wheel lift on the rear

of the rollback . I suppose the car I would be towing would have some of

its own weight its rear tires . I know all of this is confusing and difficult

to post. So if any of this makes sinse I will go try again with my question

or scenario. Lets say I have one car that weighs 3500 and I put it on the

head rack ( upper deck above cab) . Would that make my front weight

over? Remember the front is rated at 12000 but according to the DOT

man I can have 12350. As I said the scale ticket I have says I weigh

10,200 on the front empty , so with a 3500lb car up there I suppose I

would weigh 13,700 on the front . This is with no other cars on the truck.

So as I asked in the previous post would a car on the very back ( mostly

behind the rear axle ) off set the above mentioned weight. I know I

could just call or ask someone in person but believe you me I have and

gotten all sorts of different answers. One fellow said , "it is according to

what you are tagged" but I know you big rigs are tagged at 80,000

and can be under weight on your gross but over on your axle.

.

 

Ok, I totally screwed that post up by trying to edit .

 

Did you apply for PrePass? Well worth the $16 a month. I hardly ever go into weight stations.

 

Merrick4, sorry I have completely screwed up every post I have tried to
correct. I hit the space bar three times on this sentance. When I post
it always comes out different on the actual forum . BTW , I didn't know
a newbie could get prepass.

 

Definitely can get Prepass. The only thing is you get pulled in a bit more if you are new.

Steve was saying he always got the green light and at first I was still getting pulled into stations albeit much less. I think at first everyone gets a 75% at first which means that you can pass 75% of the time.

I got EZPass with Prepass built in and somehow they then put me at their highest rating and now I hardly ever get pulled in.

 

Darin what I would do is find a wecking yard with a scale. See if you can cut a deal with them to load your truck with cars and axle weigh the truck. I would think the car on the head rack would go mostly on the front axle. The wheel lift should take some weight off the front axle because it's behind the back axle and acts like a teeter totter. Most times if you're under your gross weight the scale guys are more understanding especially with a setup like you have where any small mistake can throw everything off. This is one of the reasons why even honest guys sometimes won't cross a scale.

 

I've been getting a green light since day one and it was only recently I found out why. That little number that's buried on the DOT site was set way low for a new person but I'm not going to complain.

I keep an eye on that number and when it's close I'm going to make sure everything is in order and ask my local DOT for an inspection.

 

I'll take a stab at giving you at least a partial answer but it's been awhile since I've dealt with straight trucks, so verify everything.

I think you mentioned that the GVW of your truck is 33,000 lbs. The tag axle doesn't change this rating, it only allows better distribution so you don't overload your rear axles. The weight limit per axle is 20,000 or the weight rating of the entire axle assembly, including tires, whichever is less. Most DOT guys just check the weight rating of the tires, even though you could technically be more limited by your axle rating. So that establishes your weight limits.

33,000 gross (If that's what you said)
12350 steer
7280 tag
23,360 drive-scratch that 20,000, can't even follow my own advice a few
lines up. (edit)

You can try increasing your axle limits by going with higher rated tires. H-rated tires on the steers are rated up to at least 13,200 and usually higher. I'm almost positive your axle and wheel ends aren't rated for that weight, but since DOT usually only looks at tires you could probably get away with it. Of course, you'd also be wearing out your components faster by running weight they're not rated for.

As far as your weight distribution issue, it's difficult without seeing the truck. As you stated, virtually all the weight on the head rack will be transferred to the steers. Any weight behind the center-point of the rear axle will lift some weight off of the steers, but it's hard to say how much. With the dimensions of the truck I could get a rough estimate but it would vary with each weight configuration. Your best bet is to go to a truck stop sometime and just play around with it. You'd need to know the weight of the individual cars and then weigh it with and without the rear car on. This will give you at least a base of how much weight is lifted off the steers.

Sorry I can't be more definitive. Good luck.

 

Nope that's wrong.

You need to add the actual weight of your axles divided by the number of tires that you have then multiply by the height as in 22.5 or 24.5. Unless they are low pro then you need to take the square root of the radius and add 2.

Now that you have that number you can figure the amount of weight allowed on each axle. Keep in mind you also need to take your weight into consideration being in the drivers seat so subtract that. I carry a dummy in my right seat equal to my weight so I don't have to figure it out. I use to carry a dummy of Paris Hilton but it wasn't enough, now I have Oprah.

You can also scale a lot more on your axles by using a little trick. Get yourself a ton of bowling balls and put a piece of board up to hold them in the back of the cab with a string attached to the top. After you scale your front wheels and roll forward for your drives. With one motion, hit the brake hard and pull the string to release the balls so they roll forward.

Feel free to PM me with any other technical questions.