SO as of December here in Minnesota, you have to have at least a Class A CDL with restrictions, a DOT number on the pickup, DOT sticker on the trailer, fill out pre-trip inspection reports, etc. etc. just to pull a trailer behind a company pickup. Whether it has a piece of equipment on it or not. We've been pulling skidloaders and trailers around for over 30 years without incident. Most of our operators who run skidloaders full time, do not have CDLs. So now we have to send them out to the job site, and get one of the guys with a CDL to haul a skidloader, or mini excavator, or whatever out to them. I think it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard considering there are 16 year old farm kids grossing 80,000 hauling grain without a CDL. What other states have this? Discussion?
Never heard that one before. It sounds like a good revenue maker for the state. Heres my question, if you have to have a CDL to drive the company pickup with a utillity trailer hooked to it, can you take a Class A CDL test in it? But here's an easy soulution. Take the company logos off the pickups and trailers and go for it. There are farm exemptions everywhere. As long as you don't go more than 50 miles from home, and stay in your home state. What about the weekend warrior that goes down to Joe's Rental and rents a mini or a skidsteer for a weekend? The old blue hair's driving the 45 foot land yacht of a motorhome, or a one ton dually dragging a 40 foot fifth trailer on vacation? In my opinon those 16 year old farm kids have more driving skills and common sence than most of the retiree's out discovering America and SPENDING OUR CHILDERNS INHIERTANCE! (as the sticker almost always says!)
Its only going to get tougher and tougher, every one thinks we are the bad guys on the roads. I know a lot of people who feel that they should not have to drive on the same highways as trucks and trailers even a one ton and trailer. As long as the general public feel this way the DOT is only going to make it tougher. On a side note I amost lost my CDL due to this new federal law that went into effect this year, said my Physical card was expired and if I did not prove to have a new one in a week they would pull it. Mean while my card doesnt expire til 2013, all because some one sitting behind a desk entered the expiration date wrong. Spent my whole saturday morning sitting at the DMV trying to get it fixed.
I think it's just ridiculous. That's an interesting question JTL. We actually didn't even know about this until one of our pickups got pulled over last Friday for a burned out tail light, so I don't think any of us really had time to think about whether or not someone could get their Class A CDL with restrictions in a pickup and trailer. I don't think taking the names off the pickups would go over well. Most likely we would get pulled over a fined for not having the company name on a commercial vehicle. We rented a truck once while we where overhauling the engine in one of our lowboy trucks, and a State Trooper pulled the truck over and fined us for not having our company name on the side even though the truck was a rental ointhead That's exactly what I've been thinking though. What about all these people that pull 5th wheel campers across the state, who might not have any other experience pulling trailers. I bet some of those combinations are over 26,000 lbs, which is why they're doing this whole thing in the first place. They say that the pickups, trailers, and skidloaders combined are more than 26,000, constituting the need for a class A CDL. What a crock
ts the other thing that annoys me, the change or add new laws every othermonth how are you upposed to keep up with them.
I agree. I think it's a little funny that none of our pickups and trailers have been pulled over, until one gets pulled over for a burned out tail light on Friday. THEN we find out about all this garbage. Which is kinda funny too considering none of our competitors have DOT numbers on their pickups or DOT stickers on their trailers
If your pickups are licensed as commercial vehicles, then they might be on to something. I would sure be looking into it if I was you. Not a single one of our company pickups is licensed commercial. We have only little 3 inch company logo stickers on the fenders. Like my dad says-Don't go feeding the bears! On the big travel trailers; I crossed over one of those weigh in motion scales at the Idaho/Washington State line a while back dragging my 5th wheel, and set of the big TRUCK EXIT TO SCALE sign. My pickup weighs around 9500 pounds with a full slip tank, so that must mean my 5th wheel weighs at least 16,500. (I never have weighed it) It's a 40 foot 4 slide Montana with ALOT of stuff in it. I didn't stop of corse and nobody came chasing me down!
Same thing has happened to us. Even if you pull with no name and numbers and non com. tag they can pull you over for using a private vehicle for comm use. Can't win for loosing ! Mean while a friend of mine ( state trooper ) does work on side with his tractor and guess what....yep , no numbers of any kind. Now that's a whole other ball of wax and won't go there. I see this every day. A guy ( or guys ) pulling a trailer with a 1 or 3/4 ton with 2 tractors or 1 CUT with 2 bobcats , no numbers no chains or binders and working comm. When I talk to them , some run as " farm " vehicles. Well Ive been told that is illegal also. Especially if the equip was purchased with an actual farm loan. I could go on for ever .....
I got stopped by Fla DOT w/ my 580C on a tandem gooseneck. Had just purchased hoe, and was bringing it home. First question asked was for my CDL. When I told him I didn't need one (farm operation, within 100 miles of home & in home state) he becqme quite indignent. However he finally stated that he could write the ticket, but the judge would "probably" throw it out. He did write other tickets however. They can always find something. How many of you guys not working commercial have a fire extinguisher in your pickup? Not For Hire lettered on the side?
last i heard RVs are exempt in tenn. mine does have air brakes so what does one do. i keep the cdl manual in it at all times. lost my cdl several years ago due to health. this old man thinks the whole cdl thing is just another way to get in the little mans pocket
FMCSA has mandated a Class A CDL requirement for years and most states by now are on the same page.Nothing new here. Combined REGISTERED vehicle weight of 26K lbs. or more requires it. Most pickups pulling a skid steer would be under that weight,so no CDL required.
Yes you can and I have a friend that did it. A ford f 350 with a dual axle trailer rated for over 10,000 lbs. I couldn't believe it till he pulled his class a license out of his pocket and it was the same class a that i have but I took my test in a full size dump truck with a pup trailer.
Makes sense to me I quess. BUT, he would have an air brake restriction wouldn't he, if he didn't take the driving test in a vehicle with air brakes? It's been 16 years since I took my CDL test, so memorys a little fuzzy! The tank, haz-mat and double/triple endorsements were just written tests back then, but am pretty sure you had to drive an air brake equiped vehicle to get that endorsement. I took mine in a log truck with the trailer down. That way I could look out the back window to see while backing up!
Any trailer registered for over 10000 lbs requires a class b. any combination over 26000 requires class a. Farm and recreational vehicles are exempt. Is it crap on the rv's , in some cases yes.
Here in CA, trailer over 10K has to have an A license. B won't do it. Just went through that issue with the DOT. It is amazing how many agencies have their hand out for some sort of fees to run a comercial truck.
I think that there should be some sort of oversight for heavy trailers. You can take your driver's test in a VW rabbit, and then use the same license to drive an F350 CC dually with a 5th wheel camper. It's not quite the same level of skill that's required. Most people have enough common sense not to get behind the wheel of something that they know that they can't drive. But there's always someone who's feeling adventurous and wants to learn by trial and error. I remember years ago watching a guy in a Uhaul truck with a trailer trying to do a 3 pt turn on a 2 lane road. I was stopped for about 5 minutes because he was blocking both lanes. The poor guy had no idea how to back up with a trailer. He developed his own technique which would be best described as ignoring the fact that the trailer was there. He repeatedly jacknifed the trailer in reverse. Each time the truck hit the trailer, it pushed the trailer sideways about 6 inches. He moved the trailer about 4 feet with this method which finally gave him enough room to complete is U turn. I was crying I was laughing so hard.
Your tax dollars at work
The air brake portion was on the written part of the test not the driving portion. So all he had to do was answer the test Questions properly and answer some questions during the pre-trip inspection.
Here in CA if you don't have an air brake vehicle to test in you will have a restricted license. You have to pass the air system tests on the pre-trip portion of the test. If you fail the pre-trip, you don't even get to take the road test. It is a scary thought that they are giving out unrestricted class A licenses to people with no clue how the air brakes work.
It was the same when I took my CDL test. However, I did get my class A with an air brake single axle truck and 14K electric brake trailer but it did fit the criteria.
I had a guy driving water truck for me a couple years ago. I jumped in it on a Sunday to flood the creek bed on a fish pipe we put in over the weekend, and when I steped on the binders to stop before I turned to back under the water tower, nothing happenend, and I ended up with the left front tire in a 2 foot deep hole next to the pump. I was able to get out on my own, and parked where it was dry to have a look as to what was wrong. HE HAD BEEN ADJUSTING HIS BRAKES BACKWARDS! When I tightened them up I spun eash adjuster bolt in at least 3 turns before pads made contact. The next morning, I confronted him about it. He told me that piror to 1979 all Kenworth trucks had backwards slack adjusters!! So of corse the conversation got a little more heated on my end, with more and more excuses from him as to way the truck didn't have brakes, and I ended up firing him for not reporting faulty equipment and for being a complete dumb ass!
If that was not so serious, it would be really funny. Glad you had a little hole to put it in, and did not find out right after dropping off a huge downgrade. Reminds me of a job a few years ago, when any idiot with a pulse could get a job. I had a D-9L on rent to a grading contractor. He had a couple of hired Paystar 6X6 water trucks working with the 631 scrapers on some steep ground. They were doing canyou cleanouits, and the cuts were one lane wide at the bottom, The push dozer would have to back up a 2:1 slope for the next scraper to come by. My operator noticed one of the water trucks having trouble staying put under the water tower. He asked the driver about his brakes, to which the steering wheel holder replied that he knew his brakes were bad, but he was going to go ahead and spray out his load and then park and do a brake adjustment. Up the hill he went, full 4,000 gallons of water, and down through the scraper cut. Big surprise when he tried to stop on the 25% downgrade. He tried passing the dozer and scraper getting a load by driving sidehill on the roughly 2:1 side slope. He made it past the dozer before rolling the water truck. What saved the idiots life was that the cab landed in the gap between the dozer blade and the rear scraper tire. He then climbed out the high side window, somehow unhurt, and started jumping up and down yelling "I made it! I made it!"
Sounds like one of Water Truck Kenny's methed up drivers I had the "privalage" to work with in 06 when I was down in Barstow for Kiewit. Good gravy, that guy was nuts and outta controll! I was out on the grade for a couple weeks on I-15 finish blading the extra lanes from Barstow to Dagget with a 16H. This guy would pull off the road, stop in front of me and grab the fire hose to clean the shoulder off??!! After the 4th time he did it, I never stoped. Just stuck the push-block on the grader right into his stinger on the back of his truck and pushed it back into the closed lane. What surprized me the most was it never skidded a wheel. I asked the holder later that evening if he had the brakes set, (he thought I was his best friend) he said yes, but they will not hold the truck in place. I told one of my bosses about it the next day and he sent a mechanic to fix it.
Okay so it sounds like the issue is the way that Towmaster tags their trailers. We run their T-14 trailers, which are supposed to be 14,000 lb capacity. We license the trailers for 15,000 lbs which would still keep us under 26,000. But, if you look at the actual identification tag that Towmaster puts on the trailer, it says 16,000 lb. Apparently they do that now because they had a problem with people overloading them and complaining about breaking things, so they now build them to haul 16,000 lb but only rate them at 14,000 lb. The state troopers wont go off of what we have them licensed at. They only care about what the identification plate on the trailer says. Doesn't matter what we have them licensed for