# You Know Your Trailer Is Too Heavy When....



## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Article can be found HERE


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## mswalt (Sep 14, 2004)

I must be too heavy in the middle, too, then. My middle sags, too.

But I'll spare y'all a picture.









Mark


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

Whoa!


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

Newspaper inserts!







No wonder ....


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## Sayonara (Jul 23, 2007)

NICE !!


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Not too uncommon, but pretty uncommon that the driver didnt catch it first.. A semi box trailer has no real frame. If the outer frame member began to crack, it could go quick like this one did.

Also a semi trailer is rated at so many pounds per foot.. Since he was a local driver and maybe didnt have to worry about the DOT, he might have loaded the pallets starting at the front wall and loading strait back from there.. The load of inserts is about 25 feet long. Ive hauled them many times.. That would have put too much weight on the front half. That would over do the ratings of the trailer and cause a possible quick failure to occur.

The proper way would be to load at the nose for 40% of it, then use load loacks to brace to rear of the front batch, then place load locks at the remaining 60% front and rear... Yea a real pain in the butt. Or load it all in the middle... Just hard to say how it was loaded.

Back when I ran a flatbed we had to make sure and load a 40,000 piece in a length no shorter than 10 feet.. These days they have trailers that can load 40000 in 6 feet, but many still have trouble when they haul a single coil of steel.. Then you must use blocks stretch out the load. These are all known things the driver should know about his trailer, but few companies tell you this unless you ask..

Many local trailers are old OTR trailers. Many have 3-5 million miles on them. I have always wished for a DOT law that would require semi trailers to be retired at 20 years.. I hate pulling the old dudes.

I have pulled many that were from the late 60's and 70's and used them every day out on the road.. Mostly cement dry tanks from my experiences.. They cost 70k+ new so companies will push them far beyond what they should. Many have had so many cracks repaired it was amazing they would keep it out there.. But as long as a crack isnt showing the DOT doesnt care.

So its really hard to say what the exact cause of it was, but its too bad we live in a country where our OTR equipment can be pushed far beyond the rated time the mfr designed it for. More than likely it was a failure do to age and lack of maintance.

Carey


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## rdvholtwood (Sep 18, 2008)

Coment by foreman: "It's probably metal failure where it just wore out"










_Here's your sign_


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

mswalt said:


> I must be too heavy in the middle, too, then. My middle sags, too.
> 
> But I'll spare y'all a picture.
> 
> ...


LOL

Thor


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## Sluggo54 (Jun 15, 2005)

Back in the 70's I worked rotating shifts in a refinery. I was headed in on midnights one fine evening when a covered, open hopper - aluminum - full of onions broke in half, about a quarter mile ahead of me.

KDOT spent the better part of the night with a bobcat and a front loader pushing onions off into the ditch. It was August, and rainy, and in a couple of weeks.... You would not believe the stench. Man, it was persistent!

Some of it was on, in, and under my truck, too!

Sluggo


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