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Old 12-01-2006, 09:56 AM   #1
richfaa
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rv and weights

This guy was in the business and has really good information from RVnet under fifth wheels DOT weighing RV's..worth reading the entire thread.



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Posted: 11/28/06 03:12pm Link | Quote | Print | Notify Moderator

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TrickyRicky wrote:

When commericial vehicles are weighed at a scale what is the purpose of that? Is it to verify that they are not over their licensed weight and causing a safty hazard? or Is it to verify that they are not over there licensed weight and if they are then they are fined for not being licensed high enough not because of a saftey infraction. In my part of the country you licensed a truck (commercial) for what load you were carrying and this in turn was supposed to help in taking care of the roads that are more damaged by heavier loads than lighter loads thus the more you haul the more you pay. Where this fits into the RV scenario I dont know.

Here's what we look for when a truck comes across the scales:
1) Gross weight. The max gross weight is generally 80,000. We'll look at the truck's length as the length between front and rear axles (called outter bridge) determines if that particular unit can legally haul 80,000. If it's not long enough then we'll determined that it doesn't exceed it's max weight for its length.
2) Axle weights. If it's single axle then we'll look to see if it exceeds the 20,000 max legal. If it's tandum then we'll look to see that the tandum doesn't exceed the max or that each axle in the tandum doesn't exceed their max legal.
3) Registered weight. Even tho the vehicle may be under the max axle and gross weights it may be the owner didn't pay enough to haul the weight he's hauling. This is really no more than a tax. You pay for whatever weight you want to haul, as long as it doesn't exceed max gross and axle weights.
4) Vehicle height. We check to see if the vehicle exceeds 13'6".
5) Vehicle length. We check to see if the vehicle exceeds max length, which depends on the type of vehicle and combination.
6) Motor fuel tax sticker.
7) For commercial trucks, is that truck registered to haul in our state. Each state that truck is moving the company has to pay registration fees to that state.
8) Then we get into the motor carrier safety laws. Those are basically broken down into 2 sections. Those laws pertaining to the driver, ie, log book, qualifications, medical card, and those things the driver needs. The other section pertains to the vehicle equipment and basically covers everything from the front bumper to the rear bumper with everything in between, including the load. To do a full inspection on a vehicle we figure for 45 minutes provided there is nothing wrong with the vehicle. If there is something wrong, it could be an all day inspection, depending on what and how much is wrong.
9) Hazardous material. Check the bill of lading for hazmat and if the vehicle is properly placarded.
Fines depend on the state. For IL being overweight the fine can be from about $200 to several thousand dollars. It depends on the amount of the overweight. For being overweight on registration it's a $75 fine. For the other violations each one is $75 provided a citation is written. But these are minor fines. After we do a vehicle/driver inspection the report is sent to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin. They can inspect a company's operation, or if the violations found in one of our inspections is serious enough, the penalties the FMCSA can assess some really major fines. I've seen some of these multi-thousand dollar fines.


SAVE on your RV and Auto Insurance. Click here for your free TOOLKIT just for getting a quote.

 
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Old 12-01-2006, 10:04 AM   #2
Montana Sky
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Very interesting.... Thanks Rich
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Old 12-01-2006, 10:45 AM   #3
bsmeaton
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Rich,

Great info.

I noticed they check for height at 13'6". Is that a legal height max?

Somebody said they were 13'8" with the full size AC on the front. So much for assuming I'll fit whereever the truckers go.
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Old 12-01-2006, 11:12 AM   #4
richfaa
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More from the same guy...This is good stuff..

Posted: 11/28/06 12:27pm Link | Quote | Print | Notify Moderator

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Prior to my retirement I commanded an area and had the highest fine producing scales in the state. I was involved in truck weights for 27 yrs and taught truck weight laws in our academy. Weighed a lot of trucks in my career.
We never forced weighed an RV. Why? Think about it. Max weight on a single axle is 20,000. Max tandum axle weight is 36,000. Max gross weight is 80,000. Do you really think your rig is close to any of those weights? Doesn't matter what kind of 5er you have you aren't going to be anywhere close to those weights which is why RVs aren't weighed. You aren't going to have anything close to 20K on either your steer or drive axle of your F-350/3500/1 Ton and you aren't going to have 36K on your 5er axles, and you sure aren't going to have 80K combined weight with your 5er and truck.
However, here's how those rumors get started. We have weighed a lot of RVs. Guys would voluntarily pull their RVs of all kinds, from the biggest Class A to single axle pop ups, on the scales just to check their weights. Since the scales are paid for by your tax dollars I told my scales people RVers or anyone else who wants to weigh has just as much right to use the scales as anyone else. So we weighed a bunch of RVs for folks so they could check how they're loaded. Pull on the scales, hit the print on the scale, give them a copy of the scale printout and on down the road they go. Takes all of about 10 seconds. But then afterwards you should listen to the truckers on the CB. Days later you'll still hear them talking about IL is now weighing RVs and someone saw the scale master hand the RVer a ticket for being overweight. They saw a guy wanting to check his load, saw the scale master give the guy a copy of the scale printout, but they automatically assume the RVer was forced to weigh and what was handed to the guy was a ticket. They don't know the story so they make one up. Really brings out the "experts".
Then we'll occasionally have an RV of some kind pull on the scales because he'd heard on the CB that the state was now weighing RVs. Had a guy pulling a 5er a couple of years ago take a back road trying to avoid going across the scales. The road he took turned out to be a dead end and while he was trying to turn around he got it stuck in the ditch and we had to get a tow for him. He said he heard truckers talk on the CB about the state weighing RVs and he was afraid he was overweight which is why he was trying to bypass the scales. I asked him to just roughly figure what his 5er weighed. He thought about 12K. Then what did his truck weigh. He thought about 8K. He estimated then his total weight was about 20K. I told him in IL he could legally carry that much on one axle and he was about 60K short of being over on gross. The guy just wasn't thinking, which cost him a bit over $300 for the tow bill, down time while stuck in the ditch, and the grief he was getting from his better half, and in his case, she was definitely the smarter half.

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Old 12-01-2006, 12:54 PM   #5
SKOOBDO
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bsmeaton, every state has different height restrictions. If the state's height restriction is 13feet and 6inches, that doesn't mean that all overpassess are maxed out at that height. However, every state has "low clearance" heights...meaning they are lower than than a particular states height restriction. The state of Ohio is 13'6" height restriction...and Alaska is 14' and so is California. Colorodo is 14'6". You can pull them up on line or get a trucker's atlas or something similar. Allison
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Old 12-01-2006, 01:25 PM   #6
bsmeaton
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Thanks SKOOBDO,

Is your 2nd AC a full height? If so do you know what your height is?
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Old 12-01-2006, 01:39 PM   #7
Cat320
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Richfaa..."Doesn't matter what kind of 5er you have you aren't going to be anywhere close to those weights which is why RVs aren't weighed. You aren't going to have anything close to 20K on either your steer or drive axle of your F-350/3500/1 Ton and you aren't going to have 36K on your 5er axles, and you sure aren't going to have 80K combined weight with your 5er and truck."

This gent needs to read some of the posts on the Diesel Truck forum. Some of those guys are truly idiots...they are hauling double what our Montana's weigh.
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Old 12-01-2006, 01:55 PM   #8
SKOOBDO
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bsmeaton, me says "I don't know" what the height of my unit is with my truck hooked up. I do have the full-size A/C unit. I will find out the height in the spring as me ain't going no place anytime soon I'm camped out for the winter. I'm not concerned about the height regardless, just as long as I can get make it under any overpass on the interstate. But when I find out (probably in March), I will post it here. I guess I'm curious myself. Allison
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Old 12-01-2006, 02:01 PM   #9
bsmeaton
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Thanks SkoobDo - Should have mine by spring, so we can swap measurements. We're getting the same model.

Brad
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Old 12-01-2006, 03:35 PM   #10
richfaa
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Yea I read the Diesel truck forum and I think some of those guys have been inhaling way to many Diesel fumes.
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Old 12-01-2006, 04:03 PM   #11
Montana Sky
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The things some of those guys claim they do with their truck.....
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