Big Enough Truck?

[Builder]

And for that matter, I've always wondered why you had to have a CDL to drive a delivery truck but you can go down to Penske or U-Haul and get the same truck and drive it across country no questions asked. Not only can you get the same truck but heck, they will even let you put a 15 foot trailer behind and load a full-size truck onto it. Weeee! Actually, I've done this a number of times. Just took my time and used my common sense. Got from point A to point B with no CDL, amazing!

I've never seen a Ryder truck rented to anyone without a CDL that grossed over 26,001. It's perfectly legal to rent a 26,000lb Ryder truck with a standard driver's license. If you notice, big Ryder box trucks will have "25,999 GVWR" on the side of them.

 

[Builder]

You missed the point. It is not Illegal. Criminally stupid at worst and inadvisable at best, but not illegal when the tires, license, per axle load and tags are all in spec. Darn near, if not every 1 ton dually with a dual tandem axle trailer is over GCWR. No way you can put a 20k trailer behind a 7-8000 pound empty truck and stay within the 22k GCWR. But, they aren't automatically illegal.

Maybe you forgot that laws are written by politicians and logic does not apply...

jb

Maybe not, but I can tell you my MCVE cop friend routinely writes "vehicle overweight" tickets & fines to operators based simply on the manufacturers GCWR of trucks.
It doesn't take a lot of research to go through each manufacturer of pickups (there's only 3 main ones) for each model year and establish a spreadsheet which shows what each truck can handle. Wouldn't anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of pickups know an F-350 dually towing 25,000 lbs is overloaded according to the folks at Ford who built it?

Maybe each state enforces laws differently.

I can tell you this, there has to be some limit. If I walk into a DMV office and try to buy a combination registration of 50, 60, 80,000 lbs for my GMC pickup, are you telling me they'll sell it to me? And if they're dumb enough to do so, wouldn't they be liable for the others on the road I kill when my truck loses control because it's vastly overloaded?

Something don't sound right to me.

 

[wkpoor]

Ohio has no such law that so many of you speak. At least as long as you aren't towing commercially. As long as I obey the traffic laws I can tow as much as I want behind any type vehicle up to the road limitations. If they make it law what will all the farmers do? They all tow wayyyyyy over their mfg specs.

 

[Builder]

Ohio has no such law that so many of you speak. At least as long as you aren't towing commercially. As long as I obey the traffic laws I can tow as much as I want behind any type vehicle up to the road limitations. If they make it law what will all the farmers do? They all tow wayyyyyy over their mfg specs.

One thing to remember, most of these hotshotters that are 10-20K overweight ARE commercial.

Here in PA, farmers are given some "breaks", so I'm not really including them.

 

[George2615]

I may be wrong and I've been wrong before but I highly doubt that Ohio or any state motor vehicle bureau is going to let someone walk in off the street and register a 1T pickup or any vehicle above the Mfg. rated GCVWR. They'd be swamped with lawsuits should there ever be an accident.

 

[LBrown59]

Ohio has no such law that so many of you speak. At least as long as you aren't towing commercially. As long as I obey the traffic laws I can tow as much as I want behind any type vehicle up to the road limitations. If they make it law what will all the farmers do? They all tow wayyyyyy over their mfg specs.

But what defines towing commercially?

 

[wkpoor]

I may be wrong and I've been wrong before but I highly doubt that Ohio or any state motor vehicle bureau is going to let someone walk in off the street and register a 1T pickup or any vehicle above the Mfg. rated GCVWR. They'd be swamped with lawsuits should there ever be an accident.

I don't know all the ins and outs of this but to my knowledge if you own a light duty truck meaning PU up to 1T you don't register a weight. You just buy a non-com tag. I do run commercials on my trailer because it actually cheeper but there all they care about is the empty weight. My guess is commercial vehicle tags are the same...empty weight only...not what it can carry.

But what defines towing commercially?

Using for business use, not private.

 

[newbury]

But what defines towing commercially?

Bill said he didn't have sex with that woman, based on his definition of sex. The law in Virginia reads "
The following situations exempt operators of
certain vehicles from the CDL requirements.
1. Operation of a vehicle for personal use only,
such as a recreational vehicle or truck to move
your personal belongings.
"
So I imagine if your hauling a 45 HP tractor plus stuff to put you over 5 tons and a police person pulls you over you may have to prove that you are not doing it to make money and you are just hauling it for the fun of it.

I'd like to ask a question I have not been able to find the answer to - What's the max a Ford E350 1988 Diesel maxivan can tow? I've lost my owner manual and the best I could find on the web was for about a 1996 E350.
tia

 

[john_bud]

A CDL is only needed if you are hauling COMMERCIALLY. It doesn't apply to private use. A rented truck used to haul your stuff is considered private. If you were being paid to haul something with the same rented setup you would then have to follow the federal commercial laws.


Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) part 383 states:

Commercial motor vehicle (CMV) means a motor vehicle or combination of motor vehicles used in commerce to transport passengers or property if the motor vehicle

(a) Has a gross combination weight rating of 11,794 kilograms or more (26,001 pounds or more) inclusive of a towed unit(s) with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds); or

(b) Has a gross vehicle weight rating of 11,794 or more kilograms (26,001 pounds or more); or

(c) Is designed to transport 16 or more passengers, including the driver; or

(d) Is of any size and is used in the transportation of hazardous materials as defined in this section.

Part 383: Commercial driver's license standards; requirements and penalties

Good luck with that defense! Let us know if they leave you with your belt and shoe laces...

The Federal government defines any vehicle (including trailer and load) 10,001 pounds and above engaged in interstate commerce to be a commercial vehicle. "Engaged in interstate commerce" is loose and up to the local prosecutors office and is impacted by how low the funds are. A LOT of drag race guys have been tagged for that because they engage in a contest with a prize. Not "won", engage in. Prize can be a ribbon -> anything of value. If you haul your buddies 7500# boat -> that counts because you received "value" by the use of the boat and he received value because you hauled it. Haul your own tractor on your own trailer with your own truck to your own land to cut the weeds down. Commercial as you "gain value" in the property by making it neat and clean. Value can be money, services or barter - large or small they tax them all - not dollar will be ignored! Most troopers don't get picky with the mickey mouse bs, but some locations do and have paved the town with gold as a result.

If you are over the pounds, I don't care what you are doing, you WILL be classified as commercial and they WILL find a huge number of violations. No CDL, no med card, no drivers log, no flares, no spare fuses, no inspection, wrong tags, over load, load balance, bad lights, bad reflectors, wrong tie downs, bad brakes, bad tires, wrong load rated wheels, wrong load rated tires, failure to stop at the scales, etc.

Oh, you can prove me wrong by loading up to 30,000#, drive to the freeway scale, blow the troopers a rassy and tell them you are "not commercial" so you don't need to follow the rules! (rassy optional but fun to do)

<-- my expectation of your look 3 hours later when they get done tearing your truck down and hand you the ticket.

jb

 

[wkpoor]

Some of my above statements were not in the right context. Excluding the 26,000lb CDL requirement. My interpretation from others in other states is that for ex. My truck is rated for 16,000 GCWR of truck and trailer. If I am caught towing my trailer empty but the tag says it can weigh more than my 16,000lbs (even though I actually am way under) I could be fined. I know in Ohio that is not the case and in fact they don't how much I tow behind my truck as long as it is under 26,000.