The weight police

dieseltruckdriver wrote:
I quit looking at this forum a few years ago because of the "weight police".

I drove hazmat weighing 120,000 lbs for 17 years. I had no at fault accidents in that time. I had one accident, but she pulled out in front of me, and my reflexes kept her alive, and that was noted by the HP, and she was given 3 citations. I am not as old as you might think, and I picked up a few pointers along the way.

Reaction time can make more of a difference to stopping distance than many are admitting here. The sooner you are on the brakes, the sooner you stop. The difference between my truck and the common 80,000 lb semi was, well, a pintle hitch. That and a more expensive registration.

Sometimes the overweight condition that so many want to say the engineers designed was actually a decision made by bean counters. If you don't feel safe with what you are driving/pulling, then fix the problem. But, pay attention, and look out for the people that take driving for granted.

Note that I am not making excuses for people that are grossly overweight while towing, I am saying safe attentive driving can be safer than someone who is well underweight but smug about their driving skills, which are usually less than they think they are.

Good post! Don't let a few keep you away from the forum. We need experienced tow/haulers, with real world understanding. I have to say, our forum Weight Police are better informed, concerning the class/registration numbers of TVs, than they were just a few years ago.:) We have some good WP, that help the people asking, what the numbers mean. They can be very helpful to newcomers to towing. As you have read, others are just going to argue, due to not understanding what others are saying, or just to stir the pot.

Jerry