Weird question

[babyburb]

I drive a Thomas 77 passanger school bus and go over a Load zoned bridge. sign says the limit is 10,000 lb single or tandem axle. The GMVW listed on the specs is a bit over 33000 lbs before my 60 to 70 students. Is this safe? Can anyone explain how they figure out the Load limits in Lamans terms?

 

[babyburb]

Never mind. I brought it up through the school and they freaked out. They have been covering that route for years and no other driver has ever questioned it. Brownie points for me!!!

 

[mr.smartass]

lol well good for you, you would think that someone with 70 lives in his hands would notice something like that... give your fellow bus drivers a good lecturing. I read your question earlier but I really have no idea where they get the numbers... I guess they just take the materials it was built with and the length of the bridge make an estimate.

 

[ntsqd]

It's pretty complicated how that bridge max load number comes about. Lots of Engineering Statics and Strengths of Materials to get to a max load that doesn't move. Then they break out the Dynamics book to figure out what it'll hold in terms of a moving load (hint: usually much less than the max static load).

 

[bdozeraz]

your gmvw is gross max vehicle weight which is the maximum your vehicle can safely weigh fully loaded. You are quite a bit below that with the empty bus. Probably still far below that even with a full load of students. You are probably still over the 10000 max limit for the bridge though.