Tanker axle weights

Oct 30, 2015 at 10:36 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. We have a customer that uses us very occasionally to pull asphalt tanks. No problem with gross weight, but we can't get the axle weights to work out. No one has bothered us yet. With the smooth bore tank of course we can't put things where we want. Do the rest of you folks get hassled with axle weights pulling tankers? I think if I pulled the same trailer all of the time I could do somethings to get it to work out better. Thanks Art Pfluger

Replied on Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 01:06 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. hey art, had the problem when i was hauling crude, if ur truck axles are heavy then u could raise the fifth wheel to move the liquid back or place a spacer on the king pin plate, hope that helps

Replied on Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 01:12 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. On some of our long hood trucks we can run heavy on the drives, so we put high rise fifth wheels on and that seemed to cure the problem, we still have 1 truck the we can't slide fithwheel up any further and on a 79000lbs plus load he'll be about 34800 on drives, usueslly they never mess with us......tell you drivers to stab the brakes hard before they cross them, the liquid really move and 995 of dot guys wont wait on it to stop surging, exept Louisiana, and fine are so cheap there...who cares

Replied on Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 01:12 PM CST

Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.

On some of our long hood trucks we can run heavy on the drives, so we put high rise fifth wheels on and that seemed to cure the problem, we still have 1 truck the we can't slide fithwheel up any further and on a 79000lbs plus load he'll be about 34800 on drives, usueslly they never mess with us......tell you drivers to stab the brakes hard before they cross them, the liquid really move and 995 of dot guys wont wait on it to stop surging, exept Louisiana, and fine are so cheap there...who cares

Replied on Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 11:49 AM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. I don't know how often you pull these tanks but you might look at the kingpin plate. Most tankers have a bolt on plate that can be moved. The farther forward your Kingpin is the more weight it puts on the trailer axles.

Replied on Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 06:06 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. That is the biggest problem. We do this maybe 4-6 loads a year. Making big changes aren't worth it. So far we haven't been in trouble and we have depended on either getting a good slosh or these road side scales that we might run into couldn't weigh a tank legal as one end will always be high. Thanks for the info and help guys Art Pfluger

Replied on Mon, Nov 02, 2015 at 12:16 PM CST
Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member.	Posted by a private BulkLoads.com member. In 40+ years of tanker the only place I've ever had a problem with axle weight is Illinois and Mizoory. Like the others said the only way to move the weight to the trailer is to raise the 5th wheel and to move the kingpin forward. To get our trucks down to 34,000 I raise the 5th wheel 4" and move the UC to have pin set on 24".