truck and trailer weight question

I am looking at getting a 80s COE Peterbilt with a 20ft flatbed on it

Lets say the truck weighs 20k lbs with a tag trailer what is the most weight legally I could put on the flatbed in the truck and how much weight I could put on the trailer?

Whatever the weight on both the tractor and trailer placard says.The only tricky part is to find out how much hitch weight is going over your tractor's rear axle so you don't exceed your RAWR.

I was trying to see if their is a average % of hitch weight that goes over the tractors rear axles

Yes,it should be between 10-15% of trailer weight.

depends on how many axles you have under the truck if it is a 5 axle combination it is probable 80,000 Gross 12,000 steer and 34,000 on truck rear axleand 34k on trailer

Theres more to it than that.

I see you are in CA.

I doubt the truck you described has a heavy front end, so it is likely good for 12,000#. The drives good for 34,000#. A tag trailer MAY be allowed 34,000# on a tandem, but it will depend on the overall length, as well as the axle spacings. There are many exceptions, and the rules on it are enough to make your head spin.

To simplify some, you MAY be legal on the truck to 46,000 gross. That would leave you a 26,000 payload. Then you have to take off the tongue weight of the tag trailer, which would ideally be about 4,000 plus or minus for a 20 ton tag. Now you can theoretically carry a 22,000 load and make weight, as long as you can balance the load to be even over all the axles.

On the trailer, IF it is long enough to bridge 34,000, and IF it weighs about 8,000 empty, and IF you get 4,000 on the tongue, you could possibly be able to carry 30,000. I doubt that all those things would come together right, and you can probably legal somewhere around a 26,000 payload on the tag, IF it is long enough.

The best way to do it is spend some time at a set of scales, but before that, do some research on the California DOT website.

Also keep in mind that if you are hauling equipment, you can get annual permits for much more weight, as long as the truck is rated for it.

Hope this helps. It can be confusing.

so in a ideal world if I am pulling a tag trailer and want to have the flatbed on the truck loaded I could go with 22K lbs of cargo weight in the truck and have 26k lbs of cargo weight on the trailer.

I am going to go look at this truck this week & take some measurements and find out what the axles are rated for.

When it comes time for a trailer I will probably go with triple axle with wide axle spacing

dzinut--Again,what does your placards say on BOTH your tractor and trailer for GVW? You need to start there.Then you systematically go through the rest of the jargon---axle weights,tongue weight,tire ratings,axle spread,jurisdictions,etc.

it was a truck that I was looking at but someone just bought it

Gotta love the laws and if you do manage to understand them all next year they'll change them enough to be able to fine you for something new.