Hey Truckers, What Happened to All of the Double Semi-Trailers?

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dibbons

dibbons

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When I was a kid, during the summers of the 1960's on Interstate 80 between Sacramento and Reno, the right lane would be full of tractors pulling the the double trailers. Today, those doubles have all but disappeared and I have wondered for years why the transformation?

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they are illegal in Kalifornia..........plenty in Nevada
 
I see them in Missouri but not nearly as frequently as I used to. Used to see triples and saw a quad once when I was about 8 (in the mid-80's).
 
They are not illegal in CA. However, you need a endorsement for multiple trailer, which not every driver has. So the law has changed to allow 53 footers in CA, so most trucking companies use the max limit of 53 feet. You see lots of bottom dumps, tandem, in CA still. And near the borders you still see tandems...
 
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dibbons said:
52 footers compared to what, the previous limit was like 48 feet or something?
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48 for a long time.....before that 45 was the max...before that 40 FT.
 
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Actually, it's 53 footers. Before that it was 48', after 45'.

Right now the Feds are trying to push the states to open up to 33' pups over the 28' pups currently allowed for doubles. Twenty states have opened up to 33' pups, but not all.

Five or six states have opened to 53' doubles. NY is one of them, but only on the Thruway. Triple 28' pups have been approved for the Thruway, too.
 
As long as I can remember Ca has had a 55mph speed limit for anything towing anything. Acouple weeks ago I saw a new speed limit sign "55 mph for 3 axles or more". Now even a 3 axle 10 wheeler has to break the 55 mph speed limit :rofl:
 
Still nothing compared to Australia.
 
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