Grain. Dirt. Stone. Salt. Mike Lutmer’s trucks haul it all.

“We try to take every opportunity to keep our trucks loaded and moving,” says the owner of Lutmer Farms LLC, in Lebanon, Ohio, about 30 miles north of Cincinnati. The small fleet supports production on 6,700 acres of row crops plus another 1,000 acres of straw. It’s also available for outside work, supplementing the income of Lutmer’s family farm.

In the fall and winter, that may mean hauling road salt. Or in the spring, dirt and limestone.

“A class-8 tractor and an end-dump or flatbed trailer are a pretty flexible combination,” Lutmer says. “It add to the bottom line instead of just being a cost that’s getting tougher and tougher to offset. In order to do that, we want to get as close to that maximum legal weight limit as we can without going over.”

For some fleets, it can be a guessing game. Few farms have platform scales that can verify a vehicle’s gross weight or how that weight is balanced across the axles. The nearest certified in-ground scale may be at a scalehouse operated by the state patrol, and that’s no place to learn whether you’re in compliance with weight laws. In Ohio, the truck owner risks fines ranging from $175 to $500 or more if the vehicle is overloaded, plus time lost to reposition the load. Repeated violations can trigger an audit of safety records and operating practices.

It’s a not a risk or cost Lutmer wants to accept. He installed Smart Scale, an onboard scale for trucks, tractors, and trailers with air suspensions. Made by TruckWeight Inc., Smart Scale is the industry’s only wireless onboard scale. It allows the truck operator to easily verify the vehicle’s gross weight or the weight on individual axles from anywhere within a range of 500 feet.

“If we’re a pinch too light or too heavy, we can deal with it right there in the loading area, before we hit the highway,” Lutmer says. The wireless handheld makes it easier for Lutmer to load the truck himself. “Checking the handheld as I load really speeds up the process and confirms when I’ve hit my payload target,” he says.

The Smart Scale has just three components: a sensor for each axle or axle group; a tee fitting for the vehicle’s air line; and a handheld receiver. The sensor measures temperature and pressure changes in the air suspension and transmits this information to the handheld receiver using a low-powered radio signal. The receiver calculates a weight measurement that's accurate to within 0.3% compared to a certified scale.

The sensor’s housing is weatherproof, shock resistant, won’t corrode, and uses common AA batteries for power. With no wires or electrical connections, installation typically takes 10 to 15 minutes per sensor and requires no special tools or skills.

This makes Smart Scale a simple retrofit for older trucks and trailers. The sensor can also be easily swapped among vehicles. “We’ll keep a sensor on the tractor all the time,” Lutmer says, “but it’s nice to be able to switch a sensor from one trailer to another. We’ll put one on a flatbed hauling hay in the summer and move it to an end-dump other times of the year because it’s so simple to do.”

Lutmer has an opportunity to verify Smart Scale’s accuracy almost every day when his tractor and end-dump trailer are hauling limestone into Lebanon from a quarry about 30 miles away. There’s a platform scale at the quarry gate.

“We’d have to go back down and offload if we were heavy. That process can take an hour, which means we only make four trips that day instead of five. Plus you burn a lot of fuel going in and out of the hole,” Lutmer says. Running underweight is no better. “If I leave the quarry a ton short, and my haul rate is $8 a ton, at five trips a day I’m leaving $40 at the loading area. Over a month, that’s $800. It adds up.”

He says the payback on his TruckWeight scale is a little more than two months because he’s able to load efficiently, cut down on fines, and maximize his vehicle’s payload. “It’s a delicate balance, making sure your trucks are carrying just the right amount,” Lutmer notes. “Now I push a button on my handheld and the answer is right there.”

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