An "Oh My Gosh" question..

[grocerythrower]

So here goes, all our new trucks have a GVWR of 80,000, the one I was driving Sunday night still has the old GVWR of 90,000, with a 42' trailer in the front and a 45' trailer as the kite, I was grossing 135,000 lbs, the 45' don't have a hook but they were close to the same weight, grossing 135,000 lbs, how much trouble could I get in to?

I didn't enjoy that trip at all, the tractor could barely pull the weight, our minimum speed on the turnpike is 50 mph, I was down to 30 mph with the flashers on on some of the hills, we already had a shuttle driver get busted in OKC for going to slow with a set of loaded 36'ers.

Aside from the going slow part, any of you guys know how much trouble I could get in for pulling that kind of weight over gross? It was aprox. 45 thousand lbs over. This is common practice.

 

[PFlash]

No way on earth I'd take a set that weighed that much. Remember, it's YOUR butt if you get in accident. I'm not sure exactly what kind of trouble you'd get into personally, but you can bet it wouldn't be a pleasant situation. I remember once a few years ago a supervisor demanded that I take a single axle tractor loaded with 40,000lbs on a 45' trailer. I told him I wouldn't do it, he told me to punch out and go home, so I did just that. I'm not risking my livelihood for a load of groceries! Good luck, my Friend.

 

[grocerythrower]

No way on earth I'd take a set that weighed that much. Remember, it's YOUR butt if you get in accident. I'm not sure exactly what kind of trouble you'd get into personally, but you can bet it wouldn't be a pleasant situation. I remember once a few years ago a supervisor demanded that I take a single axle tractor loaded with 40,000lbs on a 45' trailer. I told him I wouldn't do it, he told me to punch out and go home, so I did just that. I'm not risking my livelihood for a load of groceries! Good luck, my Friend.

Thanks Flash, they load us up like that because we run the turnpike and DOT never sets up scales, the only ones they even check are the dump trucks, and thats during the day, all I ever see troopers doing is talking to each other around the toll booth.

Its gotta get done, I just feel a little uncomfortable, what if I was to get into a crash? We don't have scales at our yard, we just bang em together, check the set and go.

 

[autocar65]

Is this only on the turnpike that you are hauling this set of doubles? I would make a phone call to the Toll road authority and find out if this is legal. If it is not, then what is actually going on here is your pulling these doubles illegally is keeping the company from running compliant, the same compliance they demand out of every driver they hire!

If you are pulling these doubles illegally, someone is going without work and we may as well be running two log books and be watching "Convoy" at the drive in movie!

 

[grocerythrower]

Is this only on the turnpike that you are hauling this set of doubles? I would make a phone call to the Toll road authority and find out if this is legal. If it is not, then what is actually going on here is your pulling these doubles illegally is keeping the company from running compliant, the same compliance they demand out of every driver they hire!

If you are pulling these doubles illegally, someone is going without work and we may as well be running two log books and be watching "Convoy" at the drive in movie!

Thanks autocar65, I didn't think of it like that, I'm gonna talk to my steward tonite and see what we can come up with, we only run 57-60 mph, with that much weight we are a hazard to the motoring public, we have already gotten tickets for going under speed.