How can this be? Common sense hauling... Fed approved??? DOT Exemption!

[ddbackhoe]

The original post concerned horse hauling. I happen to have horses and have hauled them long distances on occasion. Most people who haul their animals know what to do and care for their animals like they are their offspring. Typically, the two or three horse rig is one thing, start getting larger than that and it becomes "questionable".

I also happen to have horses and I'm probably the guy that makes him cringe. My current setup is a 4500 with a 38' LQ 3 horse trailer. The trailer weighs 12065 with horses, gear, water and hay.

How about the guy with a 44' toy hauler behind his 3500 , where the trailer weighs 16, 000 dry and has a pin weight over 3200?

 

[Jcoon]

Don稚 mean this as a smart aleck question but what can you do about it? If neither the trailer or truck axles or tires are overloaded and the coupler is rated for it what laws would be broken? Or are you just talking about extreme cases where something is way overloaded? I had a GMC dually with a flatbed and custom Pintle hitch that was rated for 50k or something crazy like that. The Pintle hitch was for a dump truck originally and got repurposed. Anyway I could have something like 6000lb of tongue weight on it before any component was overloaded. I never had near that though but legally I think I could have if I wanted to.

Can trailers really be detached and weighed? I have never seen it happen. I always thought the weight was what it was going down the road. By that I mean that the tongue weight counts agains the tow vehicles GVWR and registered weight since it is what is carrying the load.

I got one overweight ticket in my life and it was about twenty years ago and was for something related to this. I had a 20 GN that always had the same load on it and a 3/4 ton truck. I went and had each weighed separately and registered them accordingly. The trailer registration was for a weight which more than covered the trailer sitting on the scales by itself and the truck registration was for enough to cover the truck by itself. I got pulled over and weighed and had more weight on the truck than I was registered for due to the tongue weight and had way less on the trailer than it was registered for due to the tongue weight being absent.

Yes we can and do make the driver unhitch and we put a scale under the tounge jack. If there is a rating we can check it.

 

[Jcoon]

Why can't it be a non-CDL class A?

There is no such thing.

Unless your state has a NON CDL class A license for something else, like NY has a class M license for motorcycle.

 

[Jcoon]

I also happen to have horses and I'm probably the guy that makes him cringe. My current setup is a 4500 with a 38' LQ 3 horse trailer. The trailer weighs 12065 with horses, gear, water and hay.

How about the guy with a 44' toy hauler behind his 3500 , where the trailer weighs 16, 000 dry and has a pin weight over 3200?

What about it? Has he broken any weight ratings?

 

[bdog]

Yes we can and do make the driver unhitch and we put a scale under the tounge jack. If there is a rating we can check it.

When you do this are you just checking the coupler and hitch rating or are you adding the tongue weight to the trailer axle weight and doing something with that number?

 

[bdog]

There is no such thing.

Unless your state has a NON CDL class A license for something else, like NY has a class M license for motorcycle.

Several states have non commercial class A’s. Most don’t.

 

[Jcoon]

When you do this are you just checking the coupler and hitch rating or are you adding the tongue weight to the trailer axle weight and doing something with that number?

Just checking coupler and tounge.

 

[Jcoon]

Several states have non commercial class A’s. Most don’t.

Right but it means nothing with what we are discussing.

 

[ddbackhoe]

What about it? Has he broken any weight ratings?

Hmmm, must not be.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Right but it means nothing with what we are discussing.

But you said,

It actually can go by actual weight too.

And it’s CDL class A for anything over 26,001 in combination. unless the trailer is under 10,000. Then it might be a class B if truck is over 26,001.

That was the point, it does not have to be a CDL. DOT writes everything based on commercial class and someone wants to enforce DOT but gets all confused when someone like me comes along that is non commercial.