Thursday, April 05, 2007

Snafu in El Paso.

I'm in El Paso. How this came to be is...........

I left out of Austin shortly after the memorial services. I'm not a very relegious person and I don't get involved much in "people stuff" as a rule. However I must say that the memorial services for my mother in law was excellent. It was from the heart...sincere and well done. I don't see how it could have been done any better and I thank everyone for their kind words, thoughts and the ton of flowers.

The company that I'm leased to sent flowers and they were beautiful as well as appropriate....many thanks.



Within hours afterwards I was rolling. The joy...the thrill of San Antonio rush hour traffic. But I prevailed.

I intended to stop in Junction for fuel but I didn't. So I rolled on toward what we affectionately call the "Choke 'n Puke". It's an OLD old truck stop near Ozona. Out by it's self in the scrub. Lots of Oil Field traffic.

I suppose it's not doing as well lately as it used to because they close the resturant at eleven now. Imagine that....a truckstop that's not full service twenty four seven.

Too true though. Finding a full service truck stop is getting hard.

I fueled ....fed....cleaned up and went to bed. Didn't even feel like posting anything. Wouldn't have mattered if I did since interenet was poor.

The next morning way before sunrise I was rolling. Nicest part of the day I think.....pre-dawn nautical twilight I think it's called. Or maybe not. At anyrate there was a full moon...clear skys....and it was cool. Cool relative to what it's gonna be later this summer for sure.

I got into El Paso about ninethirty ....rolled thru town without incident and then into the shipper around elevenish.

There were problems....there always are.

Nothing insurmountable though. I...with much appreciated help from my escorts....and employees of the plant....managed to get the fourth axel bolted on....the "fenders" attached..all shims removed......and the Saddle selected, positioned and chained down.

Now for the moment of truth. Loading.

I pulled out and centered the trailer in front of the crane then stretched the trailer....locked it in place and backed under the load.

Oooops.




Too much trailer arc. The tower was touching the trailer about midway down it's length.

This is not good since it'd wear off paint during transit....so steps must be taken.

We tried a few things and nothing was satisfactory so finally it was decided to change the saddle. Which we did....got one which was higher and stouter.

Reloaded.

Looking good. Height is going to be less than seventeen foot. Balance is good. Minimial rear overhang.

Now for the moment of truth.

So I pulled onto the scales...

Steer axel weight was 12,240lbs......that's ok...I'm good for 14,000.

Drive axel air guage read at 70psi...which should be mid fifties.....it was....55,890 lbs. And that's OK...I'm good for 60,000

Final axel group....the trailer quad...

77,140.....




Oooooops....that's not ok.

Mathamagic comes home to roost....in other words.

A = L - (D x L)/B

A= the weight Added to an axle group
L= the weight of the load
D= the distance from the center of gravity to the bridge point of that axle group
B = the bridge of the trailer.

and that's not even considering the cantilever effect. (weight x distance past balance point)
In this case...bad...very bad.

I calculated A to be 58,066.........hmmmmmm.....empty weight of the trailer axels approximate 19,000?..........ball park it looks like.



In a previous post I mentioned all the DIFFERENT rules heavy haul has to contend with.

Well here's where it get's up close and personal....also expensive.

My steer and drive weights are ok in all the states I may be dealing with....Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado....even New Mexico.

The quad is a different story.

Now be aware that the trailer manufacture certifies the quad axel configuration to be structurally sound up to a load weight on that axel group of 96,000 lbs....or 23,000 per axel.

Structural engineers....folks who bend metal for a living....folks who put their reputation on the line when they make a claim as to what their equipement will or will not do.

I wonder who makes the state rules? Engineers? Folks who know the difference between a fifth wheel and a steering wheel...?

Texas will allow me 70,000 on a quad....possibly...(according to rumor...80,000 due to the five foot spread....not sure about that though)

Oklahoma will allow 70,000 on the quad IF the appropriate folks are asked....pretty please.

Kansas will only allow 65,000......

Colorado's rules are complex....I THINK they'll allow 72,000...not too sure.



It doesn't matter.....77,140 is too much.

So I'm waiting.

Company trailer....company management will decide what to do.

EvMick

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