Hotshot Connect Forum :: More weight rating info

Tom Cobb · Site Admin

Provided by Bonshawman from another forum.

There are three weights:
Your scale weight (GCVW): what your truck, gear, fuel and empty trailer weigh.
Your rated weight (GCVWR): what your data plates list as your ratings, what your axles are rated for, what your tires are rated for, what your wheels are rated for....and DOT loves to look at all of this
Your "tagged" weight: what you have declared your ratings to be for tagging

Your Dodge states its maximum allowable 'GVW". So does your 40' trailer. Add these TOGETHER, and that is the MAXIMUM COMBINED allowed weight for your truck, passenegers, personal gear, fuel, trailer and cargo. Period. DOT will look at this.

If, as advised, you take your truck and trailer, put your regular personal gear in, fill up all of your fuel tanks, sit in the truck on a scale, you will see what your EMPTY (curb) weight is. Take your MAXIMUM, deduct your CURB = maximum cargo weight -what you can "haul". For example, my Dodge has a maximum decal GVW of 12,200, my equipment hauler 20,000 = 32,200. Empty, together they weigh 14,200 - so I could, in theory, haul a cargo load of 32,200-14,200=18,000.

But wait - you have only just begun ! Your Dodge also shows maxium axle ratings. Whe you connect a gooseneck, an "average" (depending upon where you place your cargo on the trailer) of 25% TRANSFERS to the truck (both rear AND front axles). If you weigh your truck (alone - no trailer), w/normal gear, you and full fuel - you will know how the truck weight is distributed. By adding the trailer, you then know how the TRAILER weight is distributed.

For DOT you need:
1) To not be over your data plate combined weights
2) Not be over your tire rating weights
3) Not be over your axle rating weights
4) Not weigh more than you are tagged for

For SAFETY:
1) You need to operate within the maximum weight ratings -

It is not so much how much you can "haul", but often how much you can "stop".

I carry in my truck my empty truck weight slip, my empty truck/trailer weight slip. I then know the maximum I can put on my 25' 10 ton equiment trailer, or in my 44' enclosed gooseneck - I also know I can "adjust" this weight to be safely distributed forward or aft to "balance" my load per my axle ratings - and to still be under my MAXIMUM COMBINED WEIGHT RATINGS. I also know all my wheel and tire ratings.

A few more comments....
DOT will take the LOWER figure of ratings. In other words, if your data PLATE on the trailer gives an axles rating of "10,000#", but when you add up the maximum TIRE ratings on that axle and they are, as an example, 8,800#, DOT will use the lower figure.

When you have weighed your truck (no trailer), you will see how the weight is distributed on the axles. Hook up your empty trailer, go back to the scale, weigh the whole rig. Now look at your front axle weight and rear axle weight on the truck. See how much each has increased (of course the rear will increase the most). Since you know your truck weighs, as my example, 8,200# (becasue you weighed it), and now your weight is 14,200#, you know your empty trailer weighs in at 6,000#. Now look at the rear axle weight on the trailer axles - it might weigh in at 4,500#. That tells you that 25% of the 6,000# trailer weight has transferred to the truck. You then look at your front/rear truck axles weight ratings (no trailer VS trailer) - you will see that 1,500# has added on to your front axle (maybe 10%) and your rear axle (balance of 15%) - whatever YOUR numbers are depends on your exact truck & trailer.

Also remember that tires are rated for MAXIMUM INFLATION - IE: "3,280# at 80lbs".
DOT has been known to check your tire pressures.

If you go on the the Federal Motor Carrier website, they have a whole bunch of topics which will instruct you on everything from how to tie the load down (another thing that DOT looks at), to medical and insurance requirements. Each State has their own DOT enforcement, and pet peeves. If you have done your "homework" and due dilligence to be in compliance with all that is required, you not only will (hopefully) make the DOT happy, but you'll be operating a safe rig, for yourself and your fellow motorists. It's a tough job, and there is a lot of legal crap to understand and go through, and of course a lot of opinions - and of course you need to be in compliance with whatever your insurance carrier requires, or they will not be standing behind you if you have an accident or incident - they'll refund your premium and you'll be left swinging in the wind.

Also, a clean truck and trailer with good appearance and good rubber with what appears (as you drive along the highway) to the DOT officer sitting along the roadside to be a properly balanced load tied down correctly on the right sized trailer, will go along way from seeing blue/red lights in your mirrors. We have all seen shitty rigs that appear grossly overloaded to our eyes - they appear that way to the DOT, too.

I put my 14,000# fire truck on my 25' trailer (which has tandem axles, 8 wheels), tied it down @ 4 points (binders/chains crossed), and hauled it from NJ to FL. The fire truck looked HUGE on my trailer and Dodge 3500, but it was clean, loaded properly, and I had been on a Flying J scale so I knew my axle weights and gross weights were "close", but OK - and I crossed 4 scales with no problems. That is a maximum load for that rig - I came in gross @ around 31K with fuel and gear.