Can you "up-rate" a new trailer from 9,990# to 14k#?

[ditzel]

Your lucky you dont live in "dirty jersey", this state sucks #@%!

State of New Jersey - Motor Vehicle Commission

 

[Soundguy]

DOT / MOT would impound your trailer and fine your butt bigtime here. Would be a really expensive lesson.

All depends on where you are.

in florida, lots of trailers get sold with no title for on the farm work.. may go thru 5-6 owners and never see pavement.. then one day some guy buys it and wants to tag it.. has no paperwork other than a bill of sale or an affidavit of sale for tax purposes. Doing it that way you have to go weight it at a certified scal like a cat scale, then tag it as a homade.. base it's gvrw on it's axles and weight.. etc. Happens OFTEN here. DOT never blinks an eye... I do know some will ask you to put some sort of 'owner' number on it for ID purposes.. but even then.. many tag offices never ask either..

they will even give you a temp tag to haul the trailer down to the cat scale so you can get it weighed, then get a permanent tag.

all this si for trailers over about 3k anything small needs no weight slip..

soundguy

 

[newbury]

An update...

This has all been very educational. But from you guys and from other discussions my brother and I have had.

My brother called a state weigh station, the state police, and the VDMV. They all said the same thing. They don't really care about the 'derated' number when they pull you over, they go straight to the axle ratings, which are generally shown correct. Even if the tag is pulled, they'll just look at the lugs and rim diameter and get the axle rating lickity split.

They then look in the door jam of the truck and find the GVWR. Then they add them together. They are looking for that magical 26k# number.

The BIGGEST wrinkle is that my brother's F350 is rated for 13k#. If he got this trailer or any other trailer with two 7k# axles, he would be in trouble at some point.

<snip>

Thanks for the info Keith, I had called the State, local, and DMV and only got the run-around when I was trying to determine if I needed a CDL for my 12K trailer. I was told by a trailer place that anything over 10K needed a CDL.

Don't know, I don't understand why they wrote it that way. I live in SC but have land in NC, I tow over 10k rated trailers there all the time, but I'm good with my SC license, which is just a regular license.

If I move to NC someday I will have to upgrade my license. Furthermore I can find nothing online that explains what is different, in NC, as far as testing to get a class A instead of their normal class C (for cars etc) license:confused2:

And thanks Skyco for that data point, I occasionally go thru NC and many other states and I hope my Va license will get me by.

 

[KeithInSpace]

...I hope my Va license will get me by.

The tongue on my trailer reads 10,500#. I pull my BX and implements on it...probably 5,000# total. Trailer weighs ~2,500#. I have multiple 10k# d-ring tie-down points bolted to the frame with Grade 8 bolts and use Gr70 chain, 2 over-center binders, and 2 ratchet binders.

I would not hesitate to pull my trailer through NC for even a moment.

I'd love to get pulled over. Honest. It would prove to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that some laws actually make people stupid.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

PJ worked with me. I bought a 14k dump. My F350 is rated at 13k so my GCWR was 27k and I didn't want to do CDL. PJ kindly issued a new sticker and rated my trailer at 12950 and told me it was legal because it came from the factory.

I suspect I could get them to put the trailer back to 14k if I needed them to but to be honest I do not need to haul an 8k payload in a 12ft dump.

As a side note, I think you will enjoy your PJ.. It's a brand that I have been very happy with.

 

[Sterff]

Im in the process of buying a new PJ 14K trailer and I was told by my dealer it can be registered at 9990 for $25. PJ sends the sticker to the dealer. If I ever want to change it back I was told I can.

 

[Soundguy]

good deal... right fromt he horses mouth so to speak.
thanks for posting.

soundguy

 

[tcartwri]

Im in the process of buying a new PJ 14K trailer and I was told by my dealer it can be registered at 9990 for $25. PJ sends the sticker to the dealer. If I ever want to change it back I was told I can.

This would be the proper way to do it. Just pulling the tag off of it and declaring it a home built is asking for trouble.

 

[JB4310]

Im in the process of buying a new PJ 14K trailer and I was told by my dealer it can be registered at 9990 for $25. PJ sends the sticker to the dealer. If I ever want to change it back I was told I can.

So even though you register it for only 9990 could you still carry more?

Obviously the trailer can handle it, and the tag says 14K, so unless they inspected the registration, you could probably get away with it. They can't really say your a hazard, and as long as you didn't cross that 26K combined gross threshold seems like just a paper technicality???

If you were in an accident, they might scrutinize you more of course.

JB

 

[Sterff]

So even though you register it for only 9990 could you still carry more?

Obviously the trailer can handle it, and the tag says 14K, so unless they inspected the registration, you could probably get away with it. They can't really say your a hazard, and as long as you didn't cross that 26K combined gross threshold seems like just a paper technicality???

If you were in an accident, they might scrutinize you more of course.

JB

I would say you could get away with it until you get pulled over by DOT. Then when they weigh you, you better hope it's not over 9990 GVW or you will get fined I'd imagine. The only reason I want to set mine to 9990 is to avoid combination plates.

In PA it would cost me $405 a year in registration plus Id have to inspect the trailer twice a year (additional $100).