You Weighed Legal and Got Fined: What CAT Scale Covers
If a CAT Scale ticket showed you legal and the state still fines you, the company checks the scale and answers for it. Most drivers never use that guarantee.
Most drivers use a CAT Scale the same way: pull on, get the ticket, keep moving. What almost nobody uses is the part that costs nothing and only matters on your worst day.
CAT Scale guarantees its weights. In the company's own words: if you get an overweight fine from the state after their scale showed you legal, they will immediately check that scale. If the scale was wrong, they reimburse you for the fine. If the scale was right, a company representative will appear in court with you as a witness.
Read that second half again, because it is the part people miss. The guarantee does not end when they decide their scale was accurate. That is exactly when someone shows up to testify.
What the guarantee does not cover
It is a conditional guarantee, not insurance. They pay the fine when their equipment was wrong. If the scale was right and you were over, the ticket is yours; what you get is a witness who can explain what the scale recorded and when.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. A weigh ticket with a company willing to stand behind it in court is a different document than a number on a receipt.
Position the truck right or the weigh is wasted
The published procedure changes with the trailer, and getting it wrong means paying for a weigh you cannot use.
- Standard trailer: all three axles on the scale at once. Steer axle on platform 1, drive axle on platform 2, trailer axle on platform 3.
- Spread-axle trailer: you move during the weigh. Start with steer on 1 and drive on 2; the weighmaster tells you to pull forward, and then the front trailer axle sits on platform 2 and the rear trailer axle on platform 3.
- Oversize: same two-position idea. First steer on 1 and drive on 2; then the trailer axle of the first trailer on platform 1, the front axle of the second trailer on platform 2 and its rear axle on platform 3.
- Truck and trailer: the whole unit has to be on the scale, steer on platform 1, drive or rear axle on platform 2, and the trailer normally shows on platform 3.
Three limits worth knowing before you pull on
The ticket cannot be changed once it prints. CAT Scale states plainly that tickets cannot be altered or edited in any way after printing, because they are legal documents. Check the positioning before the weigh, not after.
The scales are set to a 2,000 lb threshold. If your vehicle or combination weighs less than that, the scale is not the tool; the company asks you to call the help desk instead.
You get axle weights and gross weight, not wheel weights. The scales cannot weigh each corner of the vehicle, and the company does not allow that kind of weighing to avoid damaging the truck and the scale. If someone told you to go get individual wheel weights at a truck stop, that is not a service that exists there.
What to do with the ticket after you get it
Keep it. A weigh ticket is dated evidence of what the truck weighed at a specific time, and its value shows up later — in a dispute over a load, in a fine, in a conversation with a shipper about what actually went on the trailer.
The 24-hour help desk is 1-877-CAT-SCALE (1-877-228-7225), extension 6, for anything the chart does not cover: light combinations, multiple axles, or a weigh you are not sure how to set up.
And if your axle weights keep coming out uneven load after load, the problem is usually not the scale. Suspension, alignment and how the fifth wheel is set change how weight sits across the axles. At The Truck Savers the inspection is free, and it is a cheaper way to find that than a fine.
Original source
CAT Scale — How To Weigh, consulted September 1, 2026. The guarantee, the weight threshold, the positioning charts and the limits on wheel weights are the company's own published terms.