I'm talking about LTL, we have lots of not quite full loads from IL to Ab.

 

you're saying regular tandems with a long or short spread are better for US? they still can put 45,000 lb on the tridem (I think) in US.

 

It completely depends on the operation. You might want a tridem coming out of Alberta going to Manitoba or Ontario or further east. Or you might want it to add a bunch of LTL say in Winnipeg on your way to Alberta with a full load from the states. The trick is to get your tare weight low enough to make it usable for US loads.

Almost all of our guys have 60" spread tandems, some (only a few) with front slide. Two guys with tridems.

That's why I was asking about this LTL out of the Chicago area, I regularly go around there and pick up say 43k loads. I have a good 4k-5k to spare sometimes.

Tridems are 42k I believe, some states allow 43k or something like that? Of course you can permit up to 20k per axle, one of the tridem guys took a 75k piece of machinery once.

 

If you have a tridem with 72" between each axle, you can generally put 45,000 lbs on them in US and 57,200 lbs (26,000 KG) in ON and 52,800 lbs (24,000 KG) in Alberta.

 

I thought you could only do 60" between each axle in western canada?

 

2.4 meters to 3.7 meters

72" is 6 ft or 3.65 M for a total tridem. that'd give you the max weight allowance. i have a pdf 'alberta weights' dated 2008. Maybe they've changed it.

 

But you're still limited to 80,000 gross and the extra axle eats away at that. Unless, as Allan mentioned, you get an overweight permit.

 

Tracer I'm sure only eastern Canada gives you a little extra weight for a 12 ft tridem as opposed to a 10 ft. Now if you want to run the states with the middle axle lifted, I'd definitely prefer a 10 ft spread over a 12 ft spread.

 

If you check the front of the Rand McNally Motor Carriers' Atlas, where they have the Federal Bridge Formula Table (page A15), you'll see that a 10 ft tridem is good for 43,500 lbs in US; while a 12 ft tridem is rated for 45,000 lbs in US. Next to this table there's another one called "North American Federal Weight and Size Limits" ... which rates tridems depending on the spread for USA: 8 ft - 42,000 lbs; 10 ft - 43,500 lbs; 12 ft - 45,000 lbs. The gross weight limit is still 80K of course but if you have that monstrous 12 ft tridem, you no longer have to worry about putting too much weight on the trailer axles