tscottme
2004-01-28 12:29:01 UTC
At work this issue is getting under my skin, for the last 5 years, so I
thought I would make sure everyone here understands it. In several
states, maybe federally as well, there is a maximum distance from the
kingpin of the trailer to the trailer tandems. Sometimes drivers
mistakenly call this the "bridge law" or they correctly call it the
"kingpin law." The various states measure it in various ways and that
particular distance varies some. But for this example, let's use
Tennessee's rule. In TN when pulling a trailer longer than 48 feet,
that means this applies to 53 foot trailers, you are not allowed to set
the trailer tandems more than 41 feet from the trailer king pin. In TN
the measurement is taken from the kingpin to the middle of the trailer
tandems. Notice I didn't mention the weight of the truck/trailer
combination or the weight of any payload. This law applies even to
empty trailers. You are not allowed to pull a 53 foot trailer on any
public road with the trailer tandems slid behind the maximum, 41 feet in
this case. The last ticket I saw for a driver at my company was a $75
fine for pulling an empty trailer on the road with the tandems slid to
the rear of the trailer. By the way, that fine is payable by the
driver, not the trucking company.
The Rand-McNally atlas details what the kingpin/tandem distance is for
the various states, and how to measure it. It would be wise to either
check it for each state or to at least note which states have uncommon
length requirements. Which brings us to checking if you are in
compliance or not. Here's an easy way if you are checking for the 41
foot distance and the trailer is 102 inches wide, I believe this is the
most common 53 foot trailer on the road: when the trailer doors are
pinned in the open position, (folded against the sides of the trailer),
the edge of the trailer door that is now closest to the tractor, which
touches the other door when they are both closed is about 41 1/2 or so
feet behind the kingpin. So when you pick up a trailer if the rear
mudflap of the trailer tandem is somewhere in front of the open trailer
door, you are "good to go" with respect to this kingpin law.
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Do not depend only on any "41 foot marks" that may be placed on the
side of the trailer. That mark may or may not be correctly located. My
company has a few thousand trailers, all with equal dimensions, that
have the "41 foot mark" correctly located and some not. Some of our
trailers use a similar mark to indicate tandem position for a particular
customer. Some of our trailer have no mark. There is also variation on
what part of the tandem should line up with any mark. Some of our
drivers think the front wheel or the rear wheel of the tandem should be
under the mark to be in compliance. There are a lot of drivers that
rely on rules of thumb about "put the tandem pin in the X hole." While
that may work if your company only buys one brand of trailer and that
trailer manufacturer makes every trailer exactly alike, you have no way
to double-check that advice. You also may not know if they count every
hole in the rail, or only count holes that the pins may reach. On many
of our trailers there are one or two hole in the front of the rail that
you could never put the tandem pins in since the rail has a stop placed
between those holes and the rest of the holes in the rail. The trailer
door/tandem mudflap method is easy to see and unless you use trailers
that are very much wider or more narrow (trailer doors are very
different dimensions) good enough.
When OTR, it's often easy to go for years and always adjust the tandems
ahead of legal limit, if only for weight distribution. It may be that
only if a customer lies about the weight of a load or loads it fully to
the rear of the trailer will this ever come up. Don't learn this lesson
on the side of the road or at a weigh station. I am shocked at the
number of OTR drivers that transfer in to my section of the company and
don't know this. I made this mistake when I started. Every time I
explain this to them they answer exactly the same: "but the trailer is
empty." Weight is irrelevant to this issue.
In TN, at least, there is no question that this applies to 53 foot
trailers and includes empty trailers. I can post the law from the
official TN code, I've done this already at work. What I've described
is the law in TN. The TN law simply phrases it in a confusing manner,
so I've not posted it.
--
Scott
--------
The French, God bless them, are finally joining the war against Islamic
extremism. Their targets, which will now confront the full force of
l'état, are schoolgirls who wear Muslim head scarves in French public
schools.
Wall Street Journal
thought I would make sure everyone here understands it. In several
states, maybe federally as well, there is a maximum distance from the
kingpin of the trailer to the trailer tandems. Sometimes drivers
mistakenly call this the "bridge law" or they correctly call it the
"kingpin law." The various states measure it in various ways and that
particular distance varies some. But for this example, let's use
Tennessee's rule. In TN when pulling a trailer longer than 48 feet,
that means this applies to 53 foot trailers, you are not allowed to set
the trailer tandems more than 41 feet from the trailer king pin. In TN
the measurement is taken from the kingpin to the middle of the trailer
tandems. Notice I didn't mention the weight of the truck/trailer
combination or the weight of any payload. This law applies even to
empty trailers. You are not allowed to pull a 53 foot trailer on any
public road with the trailer tandems slid behind the maximum, 41 feet in
this case. The last ticket I saw for a driver at my company was a $75
fine for pulling an empty trailer on the road with the tandems slid to
the rear of the trailer. By the way, that fine is payable by the
driver, not the trucking company.
The Rand-McNally atlas details what the kingpin/tandem distance is for
the various states, and how to measure it. It would be wise to either
check it for each state or to at least note which states have uncommon
length requirements. Which brings us to checking if you are in
compliance or not. Here's an easy way if you are checking for the 41
foot distance and the trailer is 102 inches wide, I believe this is the
most common 53 foot trailer on the road: when the trailer doors are
pinned in the open position, (folded against the sides of the trailer),
the edge of the trailer door that is now closest to the tractor, which
touches the other door when they are both closed is about 41 1/2 or so
feet behind the kingpin. So when you pick up a trailer if the rear
mudflap of the trailer tandem is somewhere in front of the open trailer
door, you are "good to go" with respect to this kingpin law.
-------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-------------------------------------------------
O O
Do not depend only on any "41 foot marks" that may be placed on the
side of the trailer. That mark may or may not be correctly located. My
company has a few thousand trailers, all with equal dimensions, that
have the "41 foot mark" correctly located and some not. Some of our
trailers use a similar mark to indicate tandem position for a particular
customer. Some of our trailer have no mark. There is also variation on
what part of the tandem should line up with any mark. Some of our
drivers think the front wheel or the rear wheel of the tandem should be
under the mark to be in compliance. There are a lot of drivers that
rely on rules of thumb about "put the tandem pin in the X hole." While
that may work if your company only buys one brand of trailer and that
trailer manufacturer makes every trailer exactly alike, you have no way
to double-check that advice. You also may not know if they count every
hole in the rail, or only count holes that the pins may reach. On many
of our trailers there are one or two hole in the front of the rail that
you could never put the tandem pins in since the rail has a stop placed
between those holes and the rest of the holes in the rail. The trailer
door/tandem mudflap method is easy to see and unless you use trailers
that are very much wider or more narrow (trailer doors are very
different dimensions) good enough.
When OTR, it's often easy to go for years and always adjust the tandems
ahead of legal limit, if only for weight distribution. It may be that
only if a customer lies about the weight of a load or loads it fully to
the rear of the trailer will this ever come up. Don't learn this lesson
on the side of the road or at a weigh station. I am shocked at the
number of OTR drivers that transfer in to my section of the company and
don't know this. I made this mistake when I started. Every time I
explain this to them they answer exactly the same: "but the trailer is
empty." Weight is irrelevant to this issue.
In TN, at least, there is no question that this applies to 53 foot
trailers and includes empty trailers. I can post the law from the
official TN code, I've done this already at work. What I've described
is the law in TN. The TN law simply phrases it in a confusing manner,
so I've not posted it.
--
Scott
--------
The French, God bless them, are finally joining the war against Islamic
extremism. Their targets, which will now confront the full force of
l'état, are schoolgirls who wear Muslim head scarves in French public
schools.
Wall Street Journal