Tire Rating

[PatrioticStabilist]

I was listening to Road Dog yesterday, its a truck drivers station I like to listen to.

One of the truckers said he was driving his F250 pulling a 5th wheel.  He said he got stopped and they inspected the tires on his 5th wheel.  He said they ticketed him because they were rated to low.  I never heard of anything like that and I didn't catch the state.  I wonder if its because he had a commercial license or something.  Of course his concern was because it went against his CDL, he said his company paid the ticket for him even.  It didn't sound like a serious offense but I wonder why they did that.  Has anyone ever heard of such a thing before?

 

[Wizard46]

Wonder if maybe he was a commercial driver delivering rv's. I think they would be subject to commercial rules and regs. Otherwise why would they stop him anyway.

Other than that, don't think I've ever heard of that happening to anyone.

 

[PatrioticStabilist]

I never thought of that, maybe that's why.  I didn't hear him say that, but makes sense. He said the ticket was $90.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Commercial vehicles are subject to weight inspections regardless of how big they are. And an overload is an overload, whether tires, axles or GVWR.

 

[carson]

What a confusing subject. I have always thought that OVERLOAD CHECK meant the weight limit set for a particular road. Such as signs saying "No trucks over 30,000 lbs allowed" etc.

  How does the police know Axle specs and GVWR. Tire specs are easily seen.... h/f/g ratings etc. Is that what they are looking at.

What's next...will they be looking at Date Codes as well? Good luck in finding them.

  Maybe the officer just needed to fill his quota with that 90 bucks.

  If the a/n trucker was commercial, I wonder if he will check the tires of his hauled trailer from now on...I doubt it.

  I am inclined not to believe that story.

 

[Ernie n Tara]

The story actually sounds reasonable except for why the stop itself (or the fiver might have been a commercial vehicle). Once the fiver is weighed, its simply the tire load rating (from the side of the tire) times number of tires to determine overloads. Trailers and fivers are often sold with inadequate tires or, for that matter, run overloaded.

Ernie

 

[Gottasmilealot]

I believe any vehicle suspected of being overloaded can be stopped. Truck, pickup truck, car...

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

A commercial use vehicle is required to have its GVWR and GAWRs as part of the vehicle documentation. Technically it has to be posted on the outside, but trailers have a federally required rating plate at the left front anyway, so it's easy enough to determine its max gross loading and individual max axle loads.

 

[Foto-n-T]

The reason for the stop is easy, all commercial vehicle drivers MUST stop at Port of Entry or scales unless they are using "Pre-Pass".  It sounds like this gentleman was a transporter and as such they have DOT numbers on their doors while they are transporting, this requires them to enter scales and ports.

It does sound rather bizarre though that a "new" rig with factory tires would get busted for overweight on either tires or axles.  After all, the tanks are empty, the wife hasn't loaded all her shoes into the bow closet and it has no food or provisions.  I've got a suspicion that there's more to this story than he was telling the radio personalities.  It wouldn't surprise me if he got cited for the tires on the F250 or the drive axle of the F250.  Transporters have a nasty tendency to load auxillary fuel tanks into the beds of their trucks as well as using the rear seat as a sleeper.  There's a very good possibility that the drive axle of that F250 was overweight.  "If" this was a new trailer the tires on it would be required to be rated to at least the rated GVW.  This of course doesn't mean he wasn't driving too fast or that the tires were properly inflated.  There just sounds like something is fishy though, most transporters would never use anything smaller than a 350/3500 Dually.

From my experience as a professional driver I've found that there are a lot of "truck drivers" out there who get a shall we say antagonistic attitude any time they deal with DOT, this quite often leads to them getting a ticket that otherwise wouldn't have happened.  I would guess that somebody committed contempt of DOT and came away with a reminder as to who was in charge at that particular scale or port.

 

[wellsronald18]

This is only because of commercial rules and regulations; all commercial vehicles must stop at Entry.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The trailer tires were probably ST type, which means they have a 65 mph rating. I suppose that could be the reason behind it, but more likely they were just plain undersized for the load. RV manufacturers get dinged for that all too often, both on trailers and motorhomes. They add features and amenities and "forget" to check the effect on overall weight, or they go ahead and build the enhanced model on a chassis they have in stock but not spec'ed out to handle that much weight.

Note that the original message did not say the 5W was new or even that it was being delivered somewhere - just that a trucker got stopped.  Anything here about transporters is just conjecture. For all we know, the guy was taking his own trailer out for a weekend or doing a favor for a buddy, using his commercial-use truck to do the job.

 

[Foto-n-T]

I agree with Gary about the transporter issue being conjecture but, DOT really only has authority over commercial vehicles so I am going to assume that he had DOT numbers on his doors. I have known DOT in Texas to pull over an RV with a toad though and cite a friend of mine for over length and make him drop the toad.

He might not have gotten a ticket and only had to drop the toad if he hadn't tried to tell the officer what the law was. The guy with the gun really can interpret the law the way he wants to, especially when somebody wants to argue about it.

 

[eliallen]

. The guy with the gun really can interpret the law the way he wants to,

You are right about that. I called the SC state police  desk Sgt. about about towing ... His response was "I wouldn't give you a ticket, but I can't speak for all the others."

 

[Foto-n-T]

If working in the trucking side of the oil industry has taught me anything, it's that "your" attitude will be directly reflected back at you by 99% of law enforcement officers.

 

[FastEagle]

There is a federal regulation called ?Vehicle in use Standard?. It is listed under Title 49, #570 series. It enforces minimum tire regulations. Special Trailer (ST) tires have more load capacity than similar sizes Light Truck (LT) tires. Example; A trailer is fitted with ST235/80R16E tires. Those tires may have a load capacity of 3420# at 80 psi. The owner replaces them with LT235/85R16E tires, maybe thinking that the tires load capacity of 3042# at 80 psi is OK because it satisfies the GAWR of 6000#. NHTSA has a safety document that says replacement tires MUST have equal or greater size/load capacity as the Original Equipment tires. Part of the vehicle inspection is to confirm tire size from the vehicle certification label. The vehicle in use standard enforces the NHTSA safety standard.

FastEagle