Bad Trucking Info

[freedhardwoods]

Watch the first 30 seconds of this video and tell him in the comments that he doesn't know what he's talking about concerning weight distribution.
At the beginning of the video, he says moving the 5th wheel BACK takes weight off the drives and puts it on the trailer. That is wrong on more than one level.
He won't believe me that it doesn't work that way.

 

[389 Hood]

I don't even have to waste time watching that to tell him he's wrong. Moving it back takes weight off of the steers. If you want weight on the trailer, slide the trailer bogies forward.

Pulling weight off of the steers makes turning difficult, especially on slick or wet pavement. Plus, sliding the 5th wheel back will make your trailer have a tendency to whip around.

 

[389 Hood]

OMG! I did watch it. (almost all of it) He doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. Sliding a loaded 5th wheel is a recipe for disaster. Lower the legs on the trailer, crank as much as you can, blow the bags and then attempt to slide.

 

[freedhardwoods]

Pulling weight off of the steers makes turning difficult, especially on slick or wet pavement. Plus, sliding the 5th wheel back will make your trailer have a tendency to whip around.

I agree, but I don't have much of a choice. With the 5th wheel centered over my drives, (or even bobtail), I have 11,800 on the steers.

On a side note, I haven't moved my 5th wheel in 2 1/2 years. I probably should just so it doesn't get stuck there.

 

[389 Hood]

What are you driving that you have that much weight on the steers when bobtail? A 330" W/B 379 with an C-16 in it?

 

[389 Hood]

Optimum 5th wheel placement is, on a normal length tractor is 3" forward of center.

 

[freedhardwoods]

What are you driving that you have that much weight on the steers when bobtail? A 330" W/B 379 with an C-16 in it?

This is a 2023 280" wb 389 with a redtop Cummins. The scale ticket was an empty weight I had to get for a load pulling the 53' flat with a conestoga that I'm hooked to 99% of the time. I fueled up and then weighed.

 

[389 Hood]

It's that 1500 deer bar hanging on the front. Those things are heavy as hell.

 

[Duck]

What are you driving that you have that much weight on the steers when bobtail? A 330" W/B 379 with an C-16 in it?

I had a Volvo 780 that weighed 11,800 on the steer - bobtail, full fuel. Batteries under the drivers seat. It had a 15 liter ISX as I recall.

Damn heavy truck.

The truck seemed to be built heavy on purpose.

I mean just the bracket that held the exhaust stack in place looked like it was strong enough to hang the whole truck from.

 

[freedhardwoods]

It's that 1500 deer bar hanging on the front. Those things are heavy as hell.

I installed that by myself. I used blocking to hold it at the right height to put bolts in.

 

[389 Hood]

Doesn't it have brackets that slide into the tow pin receivers? Or does it mount to the frame rails behind the bumper?

 

[freedhardwoods]

Doesn't it have brackets that slide into the tow pin receivers? Or does it mount to the frame rails behind the bumper?

It has the tow pin brackets. I put them in 1st, then lifted the bar and put blocks under one side at a time till it was the right height to bolt it together.

 

[Duck]

I installed that by myself. I used blocking to hold it at the right height to put bolts in.

In 2016 I was driving for an O/O

His truck was an '03 (I think) Freightliner Century with a big aftermarket push bumper on it.

The bumper was loose and squeaky when I got the truck.

Upon inspection, the mounting brackets were seriously undersized and one of them was broken, allowing it to wiggle & squeak.

So I took the bumper off, and HS it was heavy.

It was like trying to lift the 7 foot pickup truck type snow plow that my tractor's grader blade is made from.

I could lift it, but barely.

I balanced it on a floor jack when I took it off and put it back on with a new left side bracket I made out of some heavy steel scrap metal I had lying around.

It was 3/8" thick, 3" wide flat stock I had to heat to bend, and I didn't have a drill bit large enough for the mounting bolts so I had to cut the bolt holes with the torch.

The original aftermarket bumper bracket was made of 1/8" thick steel, 2" wide.