Towing in Western Canada...weight rules?

[North to Alaska]

I would greatly appreciate any help on this guys.
U.S. standards (some states vary) is if gcwr of tow vehicle and trailer is under 26,000 lbs you don't need a CDL... Correct me if i am wrong.
So lets say I am pulling a 12k trailer behind an F250 (12.5k tow rating), I should ve okay.

But it looks like Canada is a more restrictive?
Essentially you can't pull anything over about 10k without some endorsements. (Provinces vary on exact weight limit and license requirements)

Can anyone here confirm or correct this?

Thank you!

 

[Redlands Okie]

Oh my your are opening a can of worms.....

Would probably be a very good idea to get hold of Canadian highway officials somewhere along your planned path and find out for sure.

 

[fried1765]

I would greatly appreciate any help on this guys.
U.S. standards (some states vary) is if gcwr of tow vehicle and trailer is under 26,000 lbs you don't need a CDL... Correct me if i am wrong.
So lets say I am pulling a 12k trailer behind an F250 (12.5k tow rating), I should ve okay.

But it looks like Canada is a more restrictive?
Essentially you can't pull anything over about 10k without some endorsements. (Provinces vary on exact weight limit and license requirements)

Can anyone here confirm or correct this?

Thank you!

I would assume that if you are legal in your state of vehicle registration, you are legal everywhere.

Can you imagine the mess, if you were required to have a different trailer/towing weight for every individual state or province?

 

[shootemup604]

In BC, there may be some issues depending on how the trailer is plated, how the tow vehicle is plated, if you are commercial or not, and yes, there is a heavy trailer endorsement. Poke around the ICBC website, or try the BC CVSE website for info.

 

[North to Alaska]

My general route will be Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC, and Yukon with future return trips for equipment.

After some more research it seems that there are reciprocity between most states and provinces. So our state laws apply regardless of provincial rules. But then I read that on the internet.

Yes I should just call and ask. But hoping someone here might have considerable experience towing in Canada and know the rules, preferably not through a ticket.

 

[North to Alaska]

I will have a look.
But if there is reciprocity, it may be that my state's law apply.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Fried 1765 is probably correct.

 

[Lgim]

The first thing you have to realize is that Canadian laws are written in kilograms so if you ask how many pounds you can weigh there is no answer. the term pounds has no legal meaning.

For your original question the quick and dirty answer is 10,000 kilograms - mainly because the SK Highway traffic board (who write overweight tickets in SK) don't concern themselves with trucks under 10,000 kg. you don't report to scales for inspection.

Your bigger concern is the out of province plates, if you are pulling a camper and the police see you they assume you are a private citizen on holiday and not really a concern, if you are pulling a flat deck they will assume you are commercial and will stop you to see your IFTA which as a private person you will not have. then you have to prove you are private and so on.

I personally have never dealt with vehicles this small on the commercial side and not this large on the private side, so the best advice is to call the highway traffic board in SK, DOT in AB or I think ICBC in BC. but the answer should be the same in all provinces.

Gary

 

[North to Alaska]

I just sent out emails to BC, Alberta, and Yukon. Waiting for replies.
Their max weight that a basic license can pull is right around 4,500 kg. Which is right around the 10k lbs.

I'd just as soon keep it legal because with my luck they will stop me.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Back in my RV days I did find out trailers have to have brakes if over 2000# total weight. May have changed as that was 20 years ago. One of our BC members should be chiming in soon.

Ron