do most scales let you be over??

I picked up a load of 900 50lb bags (45K lbs) on 18 pallets. I went to the first available CAT scales and moved around the tandems and the closest I could get it was:

Steers 11760
Drives 34600
Trailer 33540
Gross 79890

I had a my tanks full and by the time I was done at the CAT scales the place I picked up the load was closed so I would of had to wait till morning to get them to take some off. I thought I could burn off enough fuel to be legal and not top off the tanks again and run at a 1/2 tank and below. I also have prepass and have never got a red light before so no worries I thought.

I get down to the Olathe KS scale which is never open at night at 4:30am and it is open. They took their prepass down when they were doing road construction in front of it. I pull onto the scale and stop on the steers......green light......drives come up on the board 34600 and I get a green light.......Tandems green light stays on.

I get to the Arizona scales and I have always got a green light there and the red light comes on my prepass. I pull on the scales and this Indian woman starts chewing me out for not having a license plate. I gave her my temp cab card and she said oh ok you have a temp card. She starts turning her head back and forth looking at the front of the truck, looking at me, looking at the trailer for over a minute. Then she said you know you are over weight? I said no Ma'm I didn't and I am really sorry if I am. She said look at the board it is right there. I said oh my I am sorry. Then she says have a safe trip and I never want to see you in here again overweight.

This load was going to Phoenix so I turn on I17. I get to the top of the hill and there is a bear with his lights on sitting on the shoulder. Just past him are signs saying all commercial vehicles must exit. The exit is a rest area so I pull in overweight and no plate and they wave me on by. Not sure what they were doing but there were alot of patrol cars in there.

I was never so glad to get unloaded today.

I am not looking forward to going by the Banning scale with no plate tommorrow.

If you are under gross do they let you slide by??
What kind of leeway do they usually give you?

Still not sure on the plate deal either. When the guy bought the business in July the previous owner sub contracted the plates to him??? He had to turn his plates in at the end of the year and the new owner had to apply for new plates at the beginning of the year. We got temp cab cards to run with but no plates and they said it might be a month before we get plates??

What all do they see when you go by the pre pass?? It must look for a plate?

How good does it look at the plate?? If I put a decortive plate on will it do any good?? lol

 

Well they don't have to let you go, but in my experience they will give you a little if you are just over on one weight. Something like 4%. No point in beating up on an otherwise good carrier and driver for 600 lbs. Now if you are over axle AND over gross you might me pushing your luck.

BTW, this is NY I am talking about.

 

All Pre-Pass does when ya pass one, is weighs you in motion, also looks up your information electronically, Registration, license plate # etc.. There is no specific camara that look at the plate as you drive by. California will let you over 200lbs on axle if your not over gross. If ya have Temp Registration card, you will be alright.

 

Pre pass is not weigh in motion, alot of scales have pre pass with no weigh in motion area.

 

my question is, why are you overweight with 45k on the deck? is your truck trailer combo too heavy??
or?? all the rigs i've driven could easily handle 48k. my current rig weighs 30,580 with full tanks. with 45k, i wouldn't even bother to weigh.

 

We just recently had another discussion (aka pi$$ing match) about this very subject here on CAD. Look for a thread called "Overweight Concerns"

IMHO (and that of most, but not all, states, you do get a scale "tolerance" Personally, if I'm 300-400 over on a group, I never even ask for an adjustment. 600 lbs, I would ask them to move it if I could, but I wouldn't stress myself to death if I couldn't. If you burn a little fuel, you'll be fine with your weights, maybe slide the 5th wheel ahead a notch to split the over between the steers & drives.

Of course, that's for CA,OR & NV where I'm most familiar with scales & policies.

More info on the other thread.

PS Don't trust what some people on this board say about sliding your 5th wheel. They have it all WRONG!

 

First of all, he was not over, just axles. They didn't spread it long enough. If that was a live load, I'd consider it a driver responsibility.

Second, if it states, 45,000 on a BOL, doesn't mean it actually is.(Weight subject to correction)

And last;-He is pulling a 53' box, and his empty, is around 32-35,000lb.

 

You sure you couldn't get a little more weight on the trailer? Slide the tandems up one notch, or are the notches really wide?

 

Again the above is not very accurate... But would not expect anything less. Oregon will ticket at that axle weight, but the fuel burn should help. You should not worry about any fine, as it would be chump change for you.

 

You'll add 200-300 lbs to the steer axle with each notch on the fifth wheel. Moving it forward. Some prepass sites have scales in road, some do not. Look at the road when driving, you will see the plates or you won't. I've gone under gross over on drives and gotten the green. I've also been under gross but over on drives and got the red. Scalehouse told me to adjust and re-scale. So I did. Every scale house is different. I just wish prepass was everywhere.