Builder
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Big Enough Truck?
- Thread starter SouthernX
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Builder
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IN PA they will not allow this and rightly so. Most licensing centers require you to show up in a truck similar to the one you intend to drive.
There is a difference in air brake management skills of a single truck with airbrakes and a semi with airbrakes. There's more equipment knowledge since there's 2 systems.
Anyone who thinks they can safely drive a airbraked truck & trailer after taking only the class A test with a pickup & large trailer, then taking the class B test in a single truck with airbrakes is going to be in for a big surprise-probably a catastrophe.
Let me tell you, a pickup with a gooseneck ain't no semi. It ain't even like my dump with an Eager Beaver backhoe trailer, so DON'T DO IT.
Please people, DO NOT ask questions on open internet forums about safe driving requirements. Talk to your DOT office or a truck driving school. None of us are really qualified here to give this sort of advice and have it taken seriously or as anything more than heresay.
Public safety is at stake here. We have no idea what qualifications the person answering the questions has, me included.
How do/can they stop you from using a pickup/trailer and a straight truck?
Do they have a Restricted Class A that says you can't drive a "Big Rig"?
Please post a link to such a restriction if there is such
I can kinda see your point about safety but the written test for air brakes is the same wether you are applying for a A or a B
Heywood Jannockitov
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There is now a restricted Class A licence in Ontario that has been implemented recently to address that problem.
There's a lot of truth in what you say, but the internet is the internet. Your last sentence sums it up; we have no idea how qualified the responders are so I never take advice given as gospel without some additional checking on my part.
But like I said the internet is the internet, you see questions asked and advice sought on everything from applying pesticides, doing your own 3-phase wiring, troubleshoot/repair of air brake systems on trucks or treating a child's medical symptoms. These activities and many others have the potential to be dangerous to yourself and others if performed incorrectly, so in the end we have to be responsible for are own actions. It's difficult to say if we shouldn't even be asking these questions in the first place.
Thanks Heywood
But that seems to be the same thing we have now
We can get a class A with a air brakes restriction, for example I need a Class A to pull a 20k trailer, I can take my drivers test with that truck and trailer but would have a Class A with a Air Brakes Restriction
I can go back at a later date and take the Drivers test in any CDL vehicle with air brakes to have the restriction lifted
powerstroke444e
Veteran Member
IL sec of state police are cracking down here, in the last month I have lost count of the # of tickets in the paper for no CDL & overweight vechiles for pickups with 9,600 gvw on the door and 20,000 gooseneck trailers which trigggers the CDL ticket and most didn't have the right plates on the truck most have B plates and they are only good for 8,000 lbs.
It is nice to see them keeping the public safe. I would agree with builder that just because you can legally do something don't mean you can do it safely.
It is nice to see them keeping the public safe. I would agree with builder that just because you can legally do something don't mean you can do it safely.
Builder
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I can be of no further help in this thread.
All I can say is, good luck fellas.
All I can say is, good luck fellas.
Are they giving tickets for pulling 20K lbs of actual weight behind a 3/4 HD or 1 ton (which probably is unsafe), or giving tickets for putting a trailer rated for a max load of 20K lbs behind one of these trucks?
wkpoor
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Got a friend who has business and says all his drivers have to have a CDL with air but they take the test in his Ford 450 with trailer and the dump truck. What about all the farmers who own semi's for there grain. You think they have the proper training or even a CDL for that matter? The whole farmer thing is where there is a huge loop hole from licensing to equipment.
Diamondpilot
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I do not have a CDL and dont claim to know a thing about it but I do know my neighbor has one and works for the phone company. I asked him this question last night and he said he took his test in a pickup pulling a log pole. He then later got a air brake endorsement when he was assigned a bucket truck with air brakes. That was a few years back but he said he was now authorized to drive anything on the road as long as it did not involve Haz-Mat. Seems crazy, but that is the way the law is written. By the way that is here in Indiana.
Chris
Chris
Farmers are exempt from CDL if driving within 150 miles of home farm where registered. In many states they still have to take a road test in the proper vehicle to get a special "non-CDL" license.
You have to put all of this CDL stuff in perspective. A lot of the training and requirements are good but some of the stuff is overboard and some requirements and enforcement are just moneymakers. Remember, around 40 years ago there were no CDL's and we still got by. My father drove heavy trucks and trailers for 50 years and most of that time never had a CDL. The initial push for CDL's came because some drivers were getting multiple licenses in several states. Now we've gone to the other extreme where the driver of a pickup with a gooseneck is supposed to have the same license as a semi driver.
powerstroke444e
Veteran Member
The tickets are 3 seperate tickets
1. for having no cdl and a combined gvw of over 26001lbs
2. for having more weight than you have been plated for. IE 8000 Btruck plates and the truck weighs 12,000 and 5,000 b trailer plates and the trailer weighs 16,000lbs.
3. more weight than the gwv of the truck or trailer is rated for.
Watch out the DOT has been reading the rules and figured out how make a money with them.(and keep you safe).
1. for having no cdl and a combined gvw of over 26001lbs
2. for having more weight than you have been plated for. IE 8000 Btruck plates and the truck weighs 12,000 and 5,000 b trailer plates and the trailer weighs 16,000lbs.
3. more weight than the gwv of the truck or trailer is rated for.
Watch out the DOT has been reading the rules and figured out how make a money with them.(and keep you safe).
FlaDon
Platinum Member
Yep. And those who pass a weigh station or Ag Insp station should also be forewarned. They need the money and will go after a commercial guy who bypasses one. I've seen it more than once in the last 3 months.
As for the CDL testing for a Class A, Florida will require you to test with a vehicle that meets the requirements. No use of a Class B truck to pass the Air Brake part if you have a Class A with an Air Brake restriction. Some of us were exempted from the road test testing back when the CDLs first came out if we had driven a truck of the class size in the past 6 months and our employers were willing to sign off on it. Still had to do the written though. I've had a Chauffeurs/CDL for almost 30 years now.
The tests aren't that hard so I don't know why people won't do them. One set of tickets as above cost more than most would spend on their licenses in their lifetime. My Class B with Air Brakes cost $55 every 6 years as an example. To upgrade to a Class A would require me showing up with a truck and trailer with air brakes on both that meet the class requirements and taking the driving test. Cost would still be $55 unless it was a tank trailer which would also require a Tank endorsement. Which adds another $5 if non Hazmat. The Hazmat would add over $200 to the cost every 4 years. Even if you drove for 40 years, you still wouldn't get to the $3500 that a set of those tickets can cost.
FlaDon
Platinum Member
Back then they were called Chauffeurs Licenses and some of us had them. They were required and those without who got caught faced fines or worse. One of the changes brought under the CDL program was making sure a driver only had one license. No more multiple licenses being used to protect bad drivers who had fines/point/suspensions/revocations on one license from using a second one in another state.
So if you already have a Class B and need to upgrade to a A for a P/U & GN you couldn't use that rig to take the test?
The federal law says you need to take the test in a vehicle representitve of what you will operate.
FlaDon
Platinum Member
You could take it with the pickup but you would gain tha Air Brake restriction. Idea is to keep you out of the semi unless you test in a semi. You could test in a dump truck with air brakes and a trailer with air brakes and still be legal for the semi though. By the time you get something that large, it's about the same lenght as a semi. If you test with the semi, then you would be covered for a pickup and trailer also.
So let me get this straight
Are they then going to restrict your "B" also?
Would make for an odd looking license if you had a standard "B" with a restricted"A"
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