Non CDL F250 towing 12K trailer across state lines ?

[ponytug]

My parents have been RV'ers since the early 70's. Their last motorhome was 42 feet long, weighed 40,000 pounds and it had air brakes. My dad never had any training on driving it, he bought it when he retired at 65 and drove it for a just over a decade before selling it. Side note, it's a lot harder selling an RV that's over ten years old because nobody wants to loan the money, then one that's under 10 years old.

Anyway, Dad was all over the road with his RV. All of his friends with RV's where senior citizens that where half blind, deaf, barely able to walk, but all of them experts in their own minds at driving 40,000 pound vehicles with a Class C license.

Some of them towed enclosed trailers with an SUV in them. Others like my dad towed an SUV on its own wheels behind them that was impossible to back up. I have no idea what their total weights were!!! If they had to back up, they had to unhook their SUV first. It's really amazing how the worse drivers physically, are allowed to drive the biggest, heaviest vehicles on the roads with just a Class C license and not training or testing.

The RV licensing loophole is crazy wide. When I was trailering with an RV, I took the time to read the CDL rules, including the air brake rules and testing. I have yet to meet someone trailering with an RV, or one of those heavily loaded pickups, who goes through a pretrailering check of the essentials.

The result is, as you point out, that

It's really amazing how the worst(sic) drivers physically, are allowed to drive the biggest, heaviest vehicles on the roads with just a Class C license and not training or testing.

It is crazy. A while back, California required drivers of the bigger horse trailers to step up to a class A license, which I thought was overdue. I would be in favor a weighing a few more of the horse and boat trailers that I see on the roads. As @sandman2234 points out, I think that more than a few folks don't know how much their load weighs, and what the limits are on their truck. Of course driving skills are always, always a plus.

Stay safe out there!

All the best,

Peter

 

[Hersheyfarm]

i see it occasionally, its legal here. doesnt look fun, but none of my business.

triple is the term for non commercial, doubles when commercial. At least thats the way i here it referred as.

 

[Hersheyfarm]

The RV licensing loophole is crazy wide. When I was trailering with an RV, I took the time to read the CDL rules, including the air brake rules and testing. I have yet to meet someone trailering with an RV, or one of those heavily loaded pickups, who goes through a pretrailering check of the essentials.

The result is, as you point out, that


It is crazy. A while back, California required drivers of the bigger horse trailers to step up to a class A license, which I thought was overdue. I would be in favor a weighing a few more of the horse and boat trailers that I see on the roads. As @sandman2234 points out, I think that more than a few folks don't know how much their load weighs, and what the limits are on their truck. Of course driving skills are always, always a plus.

Stay safe out there!

All the best,

Peter

Overdue..lol
cali, what a place huh. I recently did a horse barn(the plumbing part) for a couple retreating from cali, he and his husband had enough.. We talked about how he had to go class a for his horse trailer. Class A with restrictions isn’t it..anyways, he will fall under farm tags here, but still wouldn’t need a cdl unless he goes over 26k with his truck trailer.
Over regulation/legislation is why we have an expiration date. I’d rather an individual be free to civilly mess up than all of us criminally restrained from it.

 

[azbinder]

In the late 70's, my dad had a long wheelbase Ford 1/2 ton that he pulled a 21' Mitchell fifth wheel rv and then flat towed his '46 Jeep behind the trailer. All with an Arizona operators license.

 

[westcliffe01]

Honestly, I would have preferred a somewhat bigger backhoe but once I investigated towing options I quickly determined that it becomes quite difficult to get an adequately rated tow vehicle and one is going to violate the 26k limit pretty quickly. Yes, there are a "few" aluminum trailers available with better payload capability but they are very expensive. At the time (2009 when I bought the backhoe during the financial crisis) my F250 in MI was selling for mid $30K. I looked in Texas and ended up buying the one I did about an hour from Tyler for $26k. So an almost $10k saving compared to buying in MI and at that time the truck had never seen salt.

I got the gooseneck about a year later, a used 12K for $2500. It was a very good price. It had seen a hard life, one of the axles was bent slightly and the ramps were also bent from overloading, Im guessing a heavy dozer. One of the biggest mistakes I made was to not check the width, it is only 7ft wide. Its a low profile model with drop axles so it had to be 7ft wide to have the tires outside the bed width. In future I will have to get a deck over with full legal 8'6 width so that I can move 20 ft shipping containers and if I load a vehicle on the bed I can open the door to get out. Cant do that with the current rig.

 

[ultrarunner]

The RV licensing loophole is crazy wide. When I was trailering with an RV, I took the time to read the CDL rules, including the air brake rules and testing. I have yet to meet someone trailering with an RV, or one of those heavily loaded pickups, who goes through a pretrailering check of the essentials.

The result is, as you point out, that


It is crazy. A while back, California required drivers of the bigger horse trailers to step up to a class A license, which I thought was overdue. I would be in favor a weighing a few more of the horse and boat trailers that I see on the roads. As @sandman2234 points out, I think that more than a few folks don't know how much their load weighs, and what the limits are on their truck. Of course driving skills are always, always a plus.

Stay safe out there!

All the best,

Peter

The horse trailer did put more that a few in a quandary as many luxury horse trailers also have living quarters... so is it s RV or a stock trailer?

 

[sandman2234]

The last trip to Arkansas, I considered adding a ball to the back of my 14k big tex and pulling a small trailer with a Farmall Cub on it. Upon closer inspection, the laws in Arkansas only allow for the rear trailer to be empty. I needed to get that Cub a little closer to Florida and had a place I could store it where it would be safe. Good thing, because when I got 60 miles down the road to where the nearest Catscale was located, I was already 4k over my GCVWR! No telling what it would have been had I not just changed out the rotten wood deck for an aluminum one, or pulled that dual axle trailer with the Cub on it.
David from jax

 

[ponytug]

The horse trailer did put more that a few in a quandary as many luxury horse trailers also have living quarters... so is it s RV or a stock trailer?

Per the California DMV, an RV ("motorcoach" is their phrase and makes the intent of the law clear) has to be self powered, have toilet facilities, an area to sleep, and a provision for cooking. So that rules out the fancy trailers.

If it has the above and transports horses inside the envelope of the motor coach, it then it would still be an RV (motorcoach). I've driven one, but they are quite rare in the US. More common in the EU, and even more so the UK. Basically the back half is stalls and the front half is the living quarters/semi. It is much easier on the horses because of the larger mass of the truck suspension.

All the best,

Peter