D.O.T.

[Mike Genrich]

I dont know about the rest of you guys but from where I stand here in Iowa the laws are as clear as mud. I have been told by my local sheriff that if im hauling an antique pulling tractor or two on a 25 foot gooseneck trailer behind my F250 that I need not worry. As long as the pickup and trailer are registered to me and that I own the tractors it isnt a problem. When I called the IDOT they told me I needed DOT numbers on the pickup, a fire extinguisher with lables on the doors, and a class A CDL. They also told me that I had to have around a 12 ton tags on the pickup AND the trailer, However, I can pull two 1000 bushel wagons behind the same pickup loaded with corn with no tags or lights, Figure corn at 60lbs. per bushel to make the math easy. Hmmmm! I also have read all about the dot and those who claim that the dot is about safty not state cash flow. My question is if its all about safty then why do they issue fines?Wouldent a verbal warning sufice? And for any DOT cop or upstanding member of the Iowa state patrol, the next time you catch me going 59 in a 55 zone could you please use a little tact? If im going to help out with your payroll would it kill you to be frendly?
 

[bobs old iron]

removed
 

[willie in mn]

Mike
Too much in your post to respond to all, so will just pick two items.
Fine vs warning- sometimes a warning is enough to educate a driver for a very minor violation, other times the fine has to be big enough to convince the driver that it is a lot cheaper to follow the rules.
I sure hope you were not serious about hauling 2000 bu of corn behind an F250. No way on God's Green Earth you could control or stop such a load.

Bob'd Old Iron
Ignorance of rules is no excuse.

Enough said
Willie
 

[ericlb]

looks like 2 different issues to me, first as long as your hauling your equipment on your trailer, behind your truck, and you are not hauling for money , or any kind of compensation you dont need a dot number, however in most states license data it states that you are limited to pulling a trailer which weighs 10,000 lbs or less, unless you have a class A cdl the license is not necessarily related to the dot number, the license is for making sure that if your going to pull that much weight, you have the proper training to do so safely,the dot number is for tracking commercial trucking, [ pulling somebody else s freight on your trailer for pay]you dont have to have a big rig to need a dot number, any vehicle which hauls or pulls freight not owned by you, for your use, for pay, is required to have a dot number now , here in nm, the ratings are visible on the back of my cdl class A license as to how much trailer weight each class can handle, all except class A are limited to 10,000 lbs gross weight
 

[showcrop]

As usual when this question comes up pretty much weekly I am amazed at the problem that guys have with this. Just go to your local registry or DOT and ask for the book. They print them because as a taxpayer you would not want to pay the number of DOT workers that it would take to verbally answer the thousands of questions. As to fine vs. warning: A friend told me that he keeps hauling heavy because the fine is not great enough to offset his loss of income if he were to haul just one load at a time instead of one and a half. Before enforcement became aggressive an owner operator that used to deliver to my business used to have my load on his truck along with a load from another manufacturer to another destination. Do you really want your family on the road with trucks carrying 90,000 with brakes for 60,000?
 

[ericlb]

one of the reasons i got educated on this here was about 5 years ago one of my old man friends got tagged for the same thing, he was in his 80's then, had one eye and had trucked and farmed all his life, due to his one eye he was limited to pulling a 26 foot pup trailer by the state, he would buy a whole barn full of hay, then travel about 150 miles round trip and get 300 bales at the time and haul them back up here, old charlie wasnt hurting anybody, just trying to stay active doing something, but they made him get a cdl class A as well as a dot number too in his 80's because as they said, while your are hauling your owned hay, on your owned trailer behind your owned tractor, charlie, your selling the hay! so the way we see it your still a commercial trucker
 

[Bret4207]

Okay, retired NYSP DOT Trooper here. It all depends on what you are doing, where you are doing it and what your State law says. NYS foolishly adopted the FMCSA regs in their entirety. Dumb,dumb, dumb. Most state haven't done that. But, in simple terms, licensing and DOT rules are 2 different things that don't always work together until you get into interstate hauling in a CMV. Also, even the DOT regs have exemptions for farm operations and you'd need to look into your states specifics to be sure of what you are doing.

To really know for sure what you need you need to first off determine if your state looks at your rig and what you are doing as a "Commmercial Motor Vehicle". And then you need to differentiate between state DOT laws and Federal DOT laws, IOW- Interastate vs Interstate. You may not be under Federal DOT jurisdiction at all. But, in my state, if you were hauling with a rig with a combined GVWR to go to an antique tractor pull where the possibility of a prize for placing was awarded, you'd be under DOT rules.

I very strongly suggest if you want to get the straight scoop you trya nd sit down with one of your states DOT officers and explain the whole set up. Your county sheriff may mean well, but unless he's cross trained as a DOT inspector he's not very likely to be up to snuff on the applicability and rules. And then remember that once you cross state lines it all changes. Also, tractor pulls are not an agricultural operation. I had a guy try that line of reasoning once.
 

[Super Trucker]

My question is , I have a cdl a with doubles,tanker,cycle,air . I pull my 30" goose neck registered to me personaly with my p/u registered to my very own company. The truck is plated for personal use as it only a parts/butt buggy. How do they look at that? The best part is when I help on the farm I was told by the dot that my license was no good and needed a FARM endorsement! What I don"t like is NO standards!!!!! You put 1000 different dot in a room give them 1 question and you get 1000 different answers. I could go on and on but my blood pressure is thru the roof. Trucker
 

[Meangreen]

Our tractor club in Glenwood (SW Iowa) had a DOT guy in a couple of years ago to explain hauling our tractors legally. Most I learned was what was acceptable and not for chain and binders. The weight issues are still clear as mud. I know they look at farm, commercial & private very diffrently. I remeber he did say that if we are in our private vehicle and taking a tractor to a show or parade that we would be considered private. If it was pulling tractor with sponsorship it was considered commercial. They said they catch a lot of race car guys becuase they consider a race car with sponsorship a commercial venture and most racers don"t take that into account.
 

[showcrop]

[Meangreen]

http://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/omve/truckguide.pdf Iowa Commercial vehicle guide
 

[rustyplow]

I think that was kind of his point wasn't it, That that is how messed up the laws are.
 

[JimEvans]

You need to read the book in the post above. Follow the flow chart on page 8. You didn't say how big your trailer is, but for the most part if your trailer has more than 4 tires, you will need a CDL. If it only has 4 tires, you do not for hauling your own stuff.

Weight is all on the truck in Iowa - not on the trailer. Now read page 36 - probably a couple times. If your total weight with the tractor and trailer is less than 16,800 lbs, you only need licensed on your truck for the empty weight. Note: That will only cover 1 tractor. A standard 3 ton license also wont cut it. You will need at least a 4 or 5 ton license.
If you are hauling more weight than that (2 tractors) you will have to be licensed for the total weight - probably 10 -12 tons. Now it starts to get expensive.

Carry the book with you with the proper pages marked. You will need them to explain this to the DOT officer.
 

[acdwd45man]

Had a long talk with a Iowa D O T officer early this fall. He said what they look at first is how well the load is tied down, I E, is there enough tie downs to hold the load in place no matter what happens. I E two tie downs holding a load that is 8000 lbs is sure to get you a ticket for inproper load securement.
 

[MSD]

Son got pulled over for going by a scale in SD a while back. Only had a G JD on the new gooseneck he bought and was bringing home. He knew he was in trouble when he went by and the officer was coming out the door looking at him going past. Anyway, the guy was more of a tractor guy and asked more questions about the tractor than anything. Let him off with a warning about going past scales. The officer told him they check the weight ratings of the tires on the trailers a lot and catch a lot of guys over weight on them.