I took my 92 dually to the usual truck garage friday to get the state (Mass) inspection sticker and got a surprise,anything over 10,001 gets a DOT inspection to the tune of $129.00 instead of the usual $29.00 for everything else. This went in place OCT 1st 08.
Does anyone know what it takes to get a (Health card) as I don't have one or know if i need one?? The owner of the garage said he is quite sure the state is going to do the same thing with trailers over 10K next year.
Is this going on everywhere or am I late to the Party??

 

well if they are making you go total commercial then you need the DOT # also and the required ins along with the health card. To get the health card you need to find a place that performs DOT physicals. sometimes the state has a list of such clinics if not you mite neeed to look in the phone book or inernet to find them welcome to the world that is a pita

 

Charger, are you using your dually for business? As far as a medical card, check with your regular doctor or a doc-in-a-box. Down here, the doc-in-a-box runs around $50 without a drug screen.

 

how close were you? could you lighten it up for inspections?

 

I used to live in MA and couldn't leave there fast enough . That fee is a ripoff . In most other states it would cost you $50 . For those not familiar with MA most pickups are required to have commercial registration . Check out the fees . http://www.mass.gov/rmv/fees/registr...x.htm#otherreg

 

He's right. Unless you can find a way to register it non-commercially, you will need a med card and DOT number. Doesn't matter if you USE if commercially or not, in the eyes of Mass law, you ARE commercial by virtue of that number plate. And there's no way to register a dually with any other plate in Mass, (that I know of at least). Kind of a cool set up, eh? Mass is good at this stuff!

HOWEVER... if I remember correctly, you can do your own Federal Annual Inspection, (if you're qualified, which I think almost everyone is!), and then you can fore-go the DOT part of the Mass inspection, thus saving you $100. Tim, (Heavy truck mechanic here on DTR), will probably be more familiar with this new stuff than I am, so you might want to give him a PM.

I come from there and I been there, done that!



chaikwa.

 

(total commercial) are the key words, If the truck is registered to a company name (on the door) with comercial insurance then you need the # with the card and who knows what else. In my case the truck is registered to me personaly and not a business so I don't need comercial ins. If I used my truck to tow your 5er and got in an accident I'd be in really deep poo. They are after business duallys like landscapers with one ton dump bodies and I got caught in the blast.



how close were you? could you lighten it up for inspections?


No, they scan the bar code on the door post which tells gross weight if they are making you go total commercial then you need the DOT # also and the required ins along with the health card and what else they can stick you with.

 

does your state have their own dot or do if have to get a us dot. us is 750k liability and doesnt cost anything to get it

 

Anybody (commercial or not) who drives a vehicle with a registered GVW over 10k is supposed to have a medical card. It's just not enforced with any regularity on your average Joe Motorhome or Jim Dually.

 

That DOT inspection is a ripoff. We went through this at work with our bucket truck in Nov, and the inspection didn't take any longer than the old inspections (which used to be $29.)

I keep seeing newer DRW trucks running around Mass. with passenger plates on them, I'm not sure how they're getting away with it, since as I understand it, the passenger class has a weight limit of 8600 or so.

 

In many states you can register a vehicle for less (or more) than its GVWR. My dually is registered for 8600 lbs because it saves me about $40 a year. It's not illegal as long as you don't load the vehicle beyond your registered weight.

 

That's true here in Michigan, but I think Mass plays by its own rules!

Mass just implemented another rule I just found out about; my Mass CDL-A license was going to expire at the end of this month and I had planned on keeping it because I teach at the Mass Fire Academy. I DO spend enough time in Mass to be able to do this legally. However, I won't be able to get back to Mass until early May and when I inquired about getting an extension, they told me that once it expired, that was it. No extensions. AND, I'd have to take a written test as well as a driving test. After having a CDL since I was 18, I opted to license in Michigan.

chaikwa.

 

You can register at any weight you want up to the maximum weight of the truck. Over that you are just paying extra for the plates. What they did to me was scan the bar code on the door jam and the computer spit it out that the truck had a gross weight of 10,100 so I was forced to donate another hundred bucks to the state.

That DOT inspection is a ripoff. We went through this at work with our bucket truck in Nov, and the inspection didn't take any longer than the old inspections (which used to be $29.)

Same thing here,and they didn't do a smoke test on it this time either.

 

"In many states you can register a vehicle for less (or more) than its GVWR. My dually is registered for 8600 lbs because it saves me about $40 a year. It's not illegal as long as you don't load the vehicle beyond your registered weight."
What wammadeisel says is also true in Minn.
I licensed my 33,000lb gvwr dumptruck for 16,000lb to have licensed just to sell it (empty weight). This was at the suggestion of the license office. It saved me $165.00
Ray

 

not here in Texas, ben driving a dually since i was 17 thats been over 26yrs never had anything said until it was commercial time. i still dont need one because i was born before 1970 unless i am going to cross state lines which is interstate and not intrastate. i have one because i run interstate