Farm Truck Registration

[Duffster]

That is correct - for Texas (and Florida). However, other states may be different. For example, if you (as a Texas resident) want to drive a motorhome over 26,000# you must have a Class B license (car type = class C). If you (as a Florida resident) want to drive a 42,000# motorhome all you need is a regular (class E = car type) drivers license. One of the reasons retirees move to Florida. I have not looked into whether a 5th wheel RV trailer is exempt.
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In Texas:

3. Class C driver license permits a person to drive the following vehicles,
except a motorcycle or moped:
a. a single unit vehicle, or combination of vehicles, that is not a Class A
or B; and
b. a single unit vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating of less than
26,001 pounds, towing a trailer not to exceed 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating or a farm trailer with a gross vehicle weight rating that
does not exceed 20,000 pounds.

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverLicense/documents/DL-7.pdf


In Florida a Class E license is what most people have:

NonCommercial Driver Licenses
CLASS E: Any non-commercial motor vehicles with Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) less than 26,001 pounds, including passenger cars, 15 passenger vans including the driver, trucks or recreational vehicles and two or three wheel motor vehicles 50 cc or less, such as mopeds or small scooters. (see below). Farmers and drivers of authorized emergency vehicles who are exempt from obtaining a commercial driver license must obtain a Class E license.

Official Website Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

But an exemption allows someone with a 42,000# motorhome to drive it with a class E license.

Exemption Means the following persons are not subject to the commercial driver痴 license
provisions (Florida law only, other states may differ and exemptions must be verified):
Drivers of authorized emergency vehicles;
Military personnel driving military vehicles;
Farmers transporting supplies, machinery or agricultural products to or from market or
first place of storage or processing, within 150 miles of their farm (must have a Class D
with F endorsement or a current chauffeur痴 license until it expires);
Drivers of recreational vehicles as defined in s. 320.01; and
Drivers of straight trucks as defined in s. 316.003 that are exclusively transporting their
own tangible personal property, which is not for sale.
Farmer Means a person who grows agricultural products, including horticultural products

http://www.dot.state.fl.us/mcco/downloads/policy/04-10_2008-08-08_cdl_enforcement.pdf

The only way that you can't tow over 10k with a class C in TX is if the combination is over 26k.

 

[two_bit_score]

I guess I'm confused on why you think hauling scrap is considered a farming operation. In WI it's NOT considered farming. You're allowed to to clean up your farm and take that scrap to the scrap yard in a truck with farm plates. However, if the truck is big enough (over 26K), you need a CDL to operate it as scrap metal is not a farm comodity.

As far as me driving through parking lots, how else do you catch these people? I've "caught" many people over the years doing this. My standard operation is I leave a note/warning on their windshield explaining to them that they are in vioation. On the note is printed the state statute. I'll drive by and see if they drove back to work. VERY RARELY do they do it again. Most people are fully aware that it's a violation. I've driven by people's places after leaving notes on their trucks. I found several where there was no farm at all. Just a trailer house and a garage in a field. It's people like that that short the State of WI. When that happens, the rest of us pay the difference.

Man, wsp617 (I'd still like to know if that's your badge number), you are really on a crusade against these people who might be saving a little money on tags. I'm thinking that the state of WI might go broke if you don't 'catch 'em all'.

You spot check the parking lots, leave notes and then check back later then drive by their houses to see if what you can see there meest your defination of a farm. All I can say is WOW. Do they not ever let you work on ral crime in WI? Man, I bet if a guy as dedicated as you are to stamping out all the scofflaws using farm tags improperly was working burglary, thefts, rapes robbery and murder cases WI might experience almost no crime and so many people would want to live there tat the ecomomy of the whole state would just sky rocket.

Why aren't those othe guys working as hard on their crime investigtions as you are on the license plates? Why don't you take on some of their duties and show them how to really make an air tight case on somebody?

I'm just curious, do you have to hand write out that statute for the note you leave on the w/s or did you have that specially printed up?

I just bet the citizens of WI really sleep great at night with you on the job keeping all the farm tag violators under control.

Great job! Keep up the good work!

 

[wsp617]

The WI State Patrol is primarily a "traffic law enforcement" agency. That's the way it's been for years. The sheriff's departments investigate crimes. I believe TX has a "Department of Public Safety" and they "do everything" including criminal and traffic. In varies state to state but by law we are a traffic agency.

I don't know about you but if I worked at a factory and every day I saw guys pulling in there with farm plates I'd get a little upset. I'd be asking "why am I paying $106 a year to register my truck while those guys are paying $45 for TWO years".

Currently the WI is 3.5 BILLION dollars in the red. I haven't had a raise in 4 years and with the 8 unpaid furlough days I take a year it comes out to a 3.5% pay cut. My feeling is, I pay my registration....why can't they pay their's.

 

[Duffster]

I haven't had a raise in 4 years and with the 8 unpaid furlough days I take a year it comes out to a 3.5% pay cut.

I almost feel bad for you.

 

[bearhawk]

Man, wsp617, you are really on a crusade against these people who might be saving a little money on tags. I'm thinking that the state of WI might go broke if you don't 'catch 'em all'.

I think you are missing the point.

If some people are misusing their farm tags, everyone else is paying for them.

I am all for saving a little money, but not to where it makes other people have to pay my fair share.

 

[two_bit_score]

I think you are missing the point.

If some people are misusing their farm tags, everyone else is paying for them.

I am all for saving a little money, but not to where it makes other people have to pay my fair share.

Yeah. But there is a big factor of interpretation in these things. A guy who has a farm and raises cattle is entitled to farm tags. The fact that he might have a side job in town and occaionally drives his farm tagged truck to work because he needs to stop at the feed store on the way home is not a cheater in my opinion.

A guy who lives in a trailer on a small acreage might have some other land somewhere that he is actually 'farming' or 'ranching' and having some cop drive by and check out his place because he saw a truck with farm tags in a place the cop thinks is out of place is just going too far. Then I guess the cop is gonna sit up some where and stalk the guy until he hits the street and swoop down on him to make a big bust- all for an 'alledged' farm tag violation.

Doing stuff like wsp617 described is going to an extreme for the infraction and actually sounds like he is taking out his aggravation about how the state budget problems affect him personally against citizens he feels ( wrongly, imho) are somehow to 'blame' in his mind.

To me that is a lot worse than any possible misuse of a farm tag.

And the truth is that you and I are paying more than our 'fair share' in a lot of things because of government policies that capitulate to political pressure groups.

 

[two_bit_score]

I almost feel bad for you.

He's on a 'gravey train' and he knows it.

 

[dkostiha]

If you live in a rural county and use the truck for short trips primarily nearby, you should have noe issues. I have a pickup with farm tags that I keep at my weekend ranch and use it for trips within 100 miles nearby. I have never been stopped or asked about the tags by law enforcement.

 

[Rocksprings]

I have farm plates on my truck and several trailers. I am a farmer/rancher, a real farmer/rancher, not a subdivision jockey or a drug store cowboy. Thats my two cents.

 

[wsp617]

Yeah. But there is a big factor of interpretation in these things. A guy who has a farm and raises cattle is entitled to farm tags. The fact that he might have a side job in town and occaionally drives his farm tagged truck to work because he needs to stop at the feed store on the way home is not a cheater in my opinion.

A guy who lives in a trailer on a small acreage might have some other land somewhere that he is actually 'farming' or 'ranching' and having some cop drive by and check out his place because he saw a truck with farm tags in a place the cop thinks is out of place is just going too far. Then I guess the cop is gonna sit up some where and stalk the guy until he hits the street and swoop down on him to make a big bust- all for an 'alledged' farm tag violation.

Doing stuff like wsp617 described is going to an extreme for the infraction and actually sounds like he is taking out his aggravation about how the state budget problems affect him personally against citizens he feels ( wrongly, imho) are somehow to 'blame' in his mind.

To me that is a lot worse than any possible misuse of a farm tag.

And the truth is that you and I are paying more than our 'fair share' in a lot of things because of government policies that capitulate to political pressure groups.

Apparantly I hit a nerve! The one guy's place I went by was about 2 miles from where his truck was parked....in the employee lot of a concrete company. How is that "out of place"? The guy wasn't a farmer and even if he was, he can't drive his farm truck to a non-farm job. Maybe TX law is different. They can't do it here in WI. By the way, I've been driving through parking lots for 20+ years, not just lately when the economy has been in the gutter.

Duffster, I'm sorry but I missed your question regarding hauling scrap. You can haul scrap on a fam plate. You just can't do it in a CMV unless you have a CDL. The WI statutory exemption for farmers from having a CDL states "...the operator of CMV is a farmer who is using the CMV within 150 miles of the operator's farm to transport agricultural products, farm machinery or farm supplies..." Scrap metal is not an ag product, farm machinery or a farm supply. Other states read very close to that because about 20 years ago all the these different states had different law for operating a CDL. The feds stepped in and got all the states on the same page. That's why you see that 26K level as to what qualifies as a CMV. It was set by the feds. Hope that answers your question.