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rbowman

On 08/08/2020 11:35 PM, wrote:
I was overweight crossing the Florida state line
on the Uhaul trailer a little but they let me put a couple of tool
boxes in the front of the van and sent me on my way.
It turned out I didn't need to go through the chicken coop in the
first place but I was there and they had to do something I guess.
It seemed pretty silly to me since my GVW did not change.

It's axles. The spread out rear axles on some trucks change it a little
but on conventional setups you can have 34,000 on the drivers and rear
duals, 12,000 on the steering axle for a total of 80,000 GVW. Most
trailers have sliding rear axles so you can change the weight distribution.

Some states have a limit on the axle to axle dimensions or the length
from the kingpin to the rear axle. I had one load where I slid the rears
back to make the Montana coop but in North Dakota I was too long. Cost a
hundred bucks but they let me go on.

I don't know what the limit is on a U-Haul trailer.

That's the deal with the spread rear axles. The standard tandem axles
are about 5 feet apart and you're allowed 34,000 pounds. Spread them out
to 10' apart and you can have 20,000 on each axle. The GVW still is
80,000 but you don't have to worry about getting the load balanced just
right.

DOT regs don't always make a lot of sense but the coop dwellers are
happy to explain them as they're writing the ticket. I had a load so
close I had to take the tire chains off the hangers on the truck and
throw them in the back of the trailer to get a couple of hundred pounds
off the drivers.