Where have you've been stopped for trailer violations and why?

[aczlan]

I have a 4x6 little trailer that I can pull behind the car. It had one of those plastic license plate brackets. Key world being had.

We had a metal plate bracket on our 6x10 landscape trailer that was doing the same thing (people beating it up in the woods didn't help either). I bolted the plate sideways to the fender and put a light on it... It hasn't moved since.

Aaron Z

 

[plowindeeper]

There are a bunch of different state rules and many LEO's

Where and why did you get stopped?

Newbury if your in Mississippi you won't have anything to worry about. I pull a 16' bumper pull around with a 1/2 ton chevy truck. With a 4610 FEL and MX6, It hangs off the back about 3 1/2 feet. I lost the wire for the lights 3 years ago, I tow about 6 miles ,4 or 5 times a year, in the day time of course. I know I'm over weight, over length, and have no lights. But I boom I't down with two chains and drive slow. This is still 85% better than most off the stuff I see on the road.

If I was towing weekly I'd have a completely different setup.

Never been stopped pull same trailer without tractor all the time. I have bought the wire and lights to fix . Just don't have the time cause I always on the tractor.

 

[newbury]

<snip>
I have heard that VT and NY are in a p*ssing match along the Canadian border and are pulling anything with dual wheels towing a trailer if there's no DOT number. I've heard that they can give you a real hard time if you answer wrong. Things like "heading to a friends to cut his lawn" or "going to my other farm land" will get a warning or worse. <snip>

That's partially why I started this thread. People keep writing about what rumors they've heard, but it hasn't happened to them.

Newbury if your in Mississippi you won't have anything to worry about. <snip>.

Thanks for the data point.

 

[Soundguy]

Nowadays, I see them stopping people without DOT numbers to see if they are private vehicles or actually vehicles for hire (

IMHO.. that should be illegal if there is no real evidence that someone is hauling for hire / commercial, and not #'d. something like one of theamendments about being scrure from searches.. or whatnot...

very similar to stopping someone to see their 'papers'

 

[some zilch]

ive been stopped in NY twice asking if i have a class A when towing my personal trailer.


i do have a class A, and they leave me be.

i (along with my 3 escorts) did get stopped on I88 in NY once for going 80 in a 55 with a 130ft long bridge beam on my 90ft extendable manac trailer (35ft rear overhang). oh, the good old days!

 

[tom4018]

I'm curious to hear someone from KY on this. They're pretty lax about stuff here - don't even need registration/plates for utility trailers. Of course "utility" can be stretched a lot of ways
Anyone from ky want to chime in?

I have heard they are going to crackdown. DOT has had meetings in a lot of the counties about towing laws for farmers. I went to one and if the towing vehicle is over 10.000 GVWR you got a lot of rules to follow. Gonna make it tough if they really stat cracking down.

 

[Soundguy]

in fl, a couple ys ago you could still get a class D cdl.. it was essentially for farmers.. they did away with it recently.. and now if you are stopepd by dot and say farm.. they count that as commercial.

 

[Groo]

I've heard of people on other forums bitching about getting written up for not crossing the chains.....they get very little sympathy. When I was driving commercially all over southern MI, Id see all sort of trailer gouges and crash site on the highways in the summer. There are way too many idiots out there with trailers and not a clue. I've been close to getting run off the road by some idiot in an S10 running right on the yellow line, and hauling a 101" snowmobile trailer behind him.

 

[newbury]

There are a bunch of different state rules and many LEO's

Where and why did you get stopped?

Looks like:
Alberta
Ontario
NC
NY
VT
WI
WV

All had 1

Summary out of 38 posts of recent stops, snipped for brevity.

The two latest ones;

Not locking out the joint on an articulating tractor. Warning only.

Not covering the slow moving vehicle sign. Warning only.

Both in Alberta.

Towing a snowmobile trailer through a small town at night on HWY 7 with tail lights semi obscured by snow in a blizzard.

I got stopped right as I got on the interstate in Tomahawk, WI by a county cop. He told me I needed a license for the trailer and electric brakes, which I had neither.

While towing a snowmobile trailer I get out to talk with him and he tells me that there was no license plate on the trailer . He was right he bracket had rusted off! Why he didn't pull me over soon , didn't ask. No ticket . I did order a new plate thought

Only once and that was last summer. One of my trailers is homemade . It consists of a frame and body from a full size Dodge Power Wagon. It it titled and tagged. The officer was just checking me out to see if the trailer was legal..

only once, early this year, we were bringing the kubota home from sis's on our 2 year old 18ft carhauler, a wire for the running lights snapped. not sure how.

ive been stopped in NY twice asking if i have a class A when towing my personal trailer.

TBN'ers are probably "good haulers" overall, and it doesn't seem they are pulling us over often.

Happy Hauling

ps: if you post give a location

 

[Depmandog]

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to get several loads of limestone shelf rock - for landscaping. I had a 30' gooseneck 20k rated.

The rocks were coming out of a new subdivision about 8 miles down the highway from me. Not sure how much each rock weighed, but probably 2500 - 3000.

I could get 4-5 rocks per load - sitting flat in the trailer. The first 4-5 loads, each rock was strapped down...but I soon came to realize it was taking longer to strap and instead than it was to make the round trip drive.

Me nephew was at the "mine", and it didn't take him long to get a load ready.....so I got the bright idea that I would dispense with the strapping.

Yup, DOT pulls me over. It was a pretty expensive ticket...but thank goodness it was at the end of his shift, he swore I was overloaded, but I think he was ready to call it a day.

I know - stupid me. But I ended up with 50 - 60 nice rocks...for the price of one ticket and 1/2 tank of fuel.