supr

It would seem that there is a national campaign on big rigs to make sure they are up to code. Here in Texas I have seen 15-20 DPS at a US Highway rest stop, stopping all commercial traffic for inspection.
I have heard insome states that they are pulling over RVer's as well, checking for overweight, but have not seen this.
Has anybody seen this happening?

Dorkweed

Here in "The Peoples Republic of Illinois" I have seen them on numerous occasions have the trucks pulled over on the tollways right out of the toll booths. Never have seen an RV among them however. They have one or two cops at the booths and they point to the drivers and tell them to pull over after paying the toll. They have the portable scales in this instance. Makes for a cluster [EDIT] trying to get through these areas when they are there doing this.

thumper 549

Every June is National Truck harasement month...I think it is over on th 8th or so.

Dodgezilla

I think Thumper is right. I got a notice from hdqtrs a couple weeks ago to make sure all our trucks and drivers are legal.

danram11

I don't think you have to worry towing an RV for your personal use. From what I've read there isn't near enough enforcement officers for the commercial side let alone trying to police the personal use side of it. UNLESS it's so obvious your overweight, then I imagine something might be said or done to you. As far as I know all of the weight laws are written for commercial vehichles.

67HotRod

Here in Missouri you pay by the pound for your repective plates. IE 6K, 12K, 18K and 24K. Once you hit the 24K plates (commercial), your suppossed to stop at the scales, loaded or not. Friend of mine works for MODOT and they have been writing overweight tickets for trucks pulling rvs. Including the idiots with the SUV's.

supr

So, under 24k, no issue? 23k combined is the max for the 1 tons. Do they check any of those?

RustyJC

supr,

Reciprocity kicks in here. If your NON-COMMERCIAL truck/RV is legally registered in Texas, and if you're legally licensed to drive it, then you're legal in the other states through which you travel as long as your home state and those other states are members of the Driver License Compact (46 states, including Texas, are). Driver License Compact states recognize each other's vehicle registrations and driver licenses.

Rusty

67HotRod

SUPR, yes they do. Here in Missouri. One problem has been with SUV's running 6K truck plates or even trucks like dakotas running 12K plates. Just because you have paid the fee to tow 6k or 12k, doesn't mean your legal to tow more than your legal gvwr. DOT has the authority to pull ANY vehicle over; car, truck, big rig, what ever. Now, 99% of the vehicle's DOT cares about is commercial, being the odds of them being overweight or having something wrong is more likely. If you read the laws of each state, most require any vehicle towing, have its head lights on when doing so. The question here is, will DOT take the time to pull you over? If your driving a ford explorer and pulling a 35ft TT, yes. As one indiana man found out two years ago, in St Louis. St Louis has their own DOT force. The police can also pull you over and call a DOT officer to inspect your vehicle.

Allot of people get in trouble listening to 'hear say'. Make sure your legal and don't whine when you get caught. Break the law, pay the fine.

supr

So, it would seem that most RVer's will be left alone, unless blatanly stupid or way out of spec?
I think I have read that Canada will weigh RV''s, but have not really heard of anything in the States, to speak of. It would seem that most states have more than they can handle with commercial trucks. Seems like every other vehicle on the Interstate is a Semi.
Here in Houston they have a special Truck force that monitors our main roads. Again, I doubt if they touch 1% of the commercial trucks out there. many local trucks are so far out of code, they pull them off the road on the spot, althought we may only see the worst for TV.

MnTom

That is what I have been trying to tell you guys about here in Minnesota. The State of Minnesota DOES recognize the MANUFACTURERS' combined gross vehicle weight rating, but most of you told me I was full of crap. Pursuant to Minnesota statue 169.81 Subd.3c (1) :the combination does not consist of more than three vehicles,[B]and the towing rating of the pickup truck is equal to or greater than the total weight of all vehicles being towed;
Well here is someone else telling you the same thing. Pay attention to your weight or you will eventually get caught and get fined.

Fueling around

Another issue with Minnesota is the definition of "commercial" vehicle.
If you're pulling a race vehicle, expect the DOT to classify you as commercial, no matter your out of state rating.
If you're pulling hay burners, they leave you alone.

My problem is many of the people from road apples farms are actually commercial and often over gross, but escape on the farming clause. They're really no different than the weekend racer.

CTD NUT

I can tell you that in the part of Canada I live and travel in, VERY LITTLE attention is paid to RV's and the main focus is on commercial trucking.......you would only ever get pulled over in a RV if it was obvious that what you are doing is unsafe.....and even then, it makes me wonder......I see lots of SUV's towing tags that are obviously way too big to tow and for the most part, they seem to get away with it. I saw an Explorer towing a 28' tag that went through a roadside trailer inspection on a holiday weekend and passed with no problems!! The inspectors appeared to be pleased that the lights worked and the proper safety chains were in place and paid no attention to the fact the the truck was badly over loaded!

redramnc

A reporter just did a week-long expose' on commercial trucking here in the Raleigh paper - everybody is now hootin' ad hollerin' about how the overweight commercial trucks are tearing up the roads. DOT admits it does not have enough manpower to handle the load so you know they are not out looking for RVers. Ag exemptions let alot of the small grain and wood chip haulers run over 80K and DOT can't touch them. Apparently being unsafe in an SUV or smaller truck doesn't even make a blip on the radar screen unless the in-duh-vidual driving the unsafe vehicle ends up causing an accident.

What burns me is the fact that I pay for a 19K pound commercial tag so I can LEGALLY haul my gooseneck and I see duallies pulling loaded landscaping trailers with non-commercial tags and nobody seems to care. Maybe they should require any SUV/pickup/RV with a shipping weight over 6K pounds (NC minimum commercial tag weight) to be tagged with a commercial tag just so the road taxes can be collected. Of course, all the soccer mommies and NASCAR dads in their duallies that never haul anything would be miffed, but then they would at least be able to squawk about semis and not be hypocritical.

OK - rant off. My tag costs me every year but it is cheap insurance if anything ever happens and they start going over the truck with a fine-tooth comb. If I ever get hit by a under-tagged vehicle you can bet I am gonna holler loudly.

Vulcan

Yeah or maybe National Revenue Enhancement Month.
Christine needs a few more bucks to spend here in WA. Our state patrol is out in full force all the time anyway. About the most cops I've seen any where is I-5 south of Seattle.