Thruways are limited access toll roads ($$$) such as New York State Thruway, Pennsylvania Turnpike, Will Rogers Turnpike. Thruways are limited access non-toll roads, with lower speed limits and generally in larger cities and not designed for commercial traffic since they primarily serve residential neighborhoods.

 

That seems confusing as hell. A road is a road here. Unless there is a "NO THRU TRUCKS" sign. Unless you are driving a semi with trailer, there are very few places you cannot go. Some people park their semi (sans trailer) in front of their house for the night and never get bothered.

 

A little Texas to New York dictionary:

Thruway in NY = Tollway in TX, but imagine that the entire collection of George Bush, North Texas Tollway etc. were interconnected and all managed by one public company using one common toll system. I know of no private tollways in NY.

Parkway in NY = A Public road that is limited to non-commercial traffic, usually very scenic with a big wide median, lots of grass, views and overlooks. Generally connected to a State Park. (I think they just call them "country roads" in Texas)

 

Yes! See THAT makes sense now. Although, again, I can drive my pickup on any road in the state. Concrete, gravel, dirt, mud, with median, w/o median, etc. Need 4 lanes to U-turn though.

 

you meant Parkway in the second sentence..

Parkway is a regional hiway, usually narrow lanes, direct turn offs. many of the lower NY ones are 4 lanes, divided by metal barrier over the center stripe. they also cannot carry the weight of the bigger commercial vehicles, and with narrow lanes the big trucks cause problems..
SO, they have legislated that no 'commercial' vehicles are allowed..

now we fight over what 'commercial' means.. I have a dually, 22ft long, and the full lane width wide.. I don't run a business, so its really personal.. but the size of the truck is against the tenant of the road law..

Sam

 

Have a quick question, probably more suitable for a PM but I am too new here to do so, so I will reply to this older thread. I'm a LI'er myself and need Passenger plates so I can use a few parkways, so will go with a cap.
Though there are times that I will need to take the cap off (avoiding the parkways during this time is no problem). How are you taking the cap off? I dont have a garage tall enough for one of those hoist setups. Is it really managable to swap it on/off?
Thanks.

 

i went through the same thing in virginia. anything over 7500gvwr requires truck tags.

negative is you pay about 40-50% more on property tax (for my 25k truck about an extra 500$ a year but will be lower each year on lower apraisal value)

plus is no emissions testing-- this would have been a huge plus on my mustang but i am not modding the f250 and think it would pass but it does have the 9000lb gvwr package

i talked with dmv and they said i can de-rate the vehicle to 7499-~5000=2400lb capacity> i have no idea what a reg cab 4x4 5.4 with a fiberclass cap weighs

but i would rather have max legal capacity and not have the trouble of emmissions. but over 10 years im guessing the tags will cost an extra 3500$ or so


lesson learned? in va at least you might as well go 350 as it doesnt cost any more (registration/taxes) and gets you a bit more legal capacity...

 

I made a setup with a few 2x4's setup to the side of my garage, if you need more info, I can fill you in. A little work with a screw-gun and a mitre saw, and we're good to go.

 

@Anomic - I hear you on that - at this point the F-150 crew with the 6.5 bed is coming in around ~5700lbs I think and the cutoff is 5500, so if I am going to have to do this little registration dance, may as well roll with the F250 IMO!

@Krewat - If you have info or pics in another post, that would make my day! I think I need 23 more posts to send you a msg. Not sure if you can send me the info direct. Or we could just hijack this guys thread....though I am new here and don't need to start ticking people off right away. But yes, I'd like to see/hear more regarding your setup.

Thanks guys!

 

I just paid my reg here in Ca. When I opened the mail from DMV, my A@@ nearly fell off $730.00

 

What I did was... pull my truck up to the side of my wood-sided garage, so close I had to fold the mirror in. Remove all the clamps holding the cap to the truck bed.

Cut a bunch of squares from a 2x4. On my ARE cap, I use three 2x4's thickness to shim the cap up enough to sneak an 8 foot 2x4 under the cap across the bed. Do that twice, once across the front, once across the back. That'll take 12 pieces of 2x4. Do it one piece of 2x4 at a time, so it's a slow process.

Insert two long 8-foot 2x4s under the cap, front and back. Make them perpendicular (90 degrees) to the garage, and make sure the ends BUTT UP AGAINST THE GARAGE.

Mark the long 2x4s where it sits under the cap and mark one "front" and one "rear". You'll put another piece of 2x4, say a foot long, at a 90 degree angle to the long 2x4 so it sits perfectly under the lip of the cap, so mark accordingly.

Cut four one-foot-long 2x4s. Remove the long 2x4s under the cap. Screw these foot-long pieces to the long 2x4s, where you marked them, putting them at a 90 degree angle to the length of the long 2x4.

Sneak these long 2x4's back between the cap and the bed, with the foot-long pieces on top, so they can fit against the cap. Using 2 more square pieces of 2x4, shim up the cross-piece (long 2x4) so it meets the cap. Three thicknesses of 2x4 total, just like the shims.

Take an L-bracket, whatever you want to call it, and screw it to the garage wall, under the long 2x4 where it meets the garage. Screw it to both the garage, AND the 2x4 support.

On the outside end of that long 2x4, put a 1x1-foot piece of plywood on the ground, and cut another 2x4 so it will fit UNDER the long 2x4 to support it, adding an inch or so. Another L-bracket at that point would be good, I just used long screws through the long support, into the vertical upright.

After all of this, use the original clamps that held the cap to the bed, and clamp the cap to the foot-long 2x4s supporting the cap. In my case, the clamps didn't open enough to do that, so I have to use extra long bolts to do it.

You might want to make an "X" between the two uprights to keep the system from collapsing, in my case, the clamps and screws hold everything together enough that it's pretty sturdy.

At this point, remove the shims under the long 2x4 supports. You might need to take some weight off of them by pushing up on the cap with your back, but the entire assembly should hold the cap quite well.

Drive the truck out. This is all assuming there are not hills/lumps/divots where the truck will just pull straight out without hitting the supports.

Looking back at this, you might need FOUR total 2x4's thickness of shims to hold the cap up enough to make this work right. I use three, and it works, but you might need a little more space.

A little ingenuity, and patience, and lots of scrap 2x4s and you should be able to do this.

I can do it totally alone, using my back to pick the cap up a few inches to sneak the shims under the cap.

If you have any questions, I can get pics of the "long 2x4" supports that I made, that might make a lot more sense than what I typed above.

 

Man, I was thinkin' my $65 a year tags were a tad expensive. I only get those to stave off the red light camera tickets. Otherwise I'd pay about $50 for two year tags. You have my sympathy. I used to live in CA, but I drove a little car and it's been long enough I forgot how expensive registration was.

 

I registered mine for 7500. The registration says it's rated weight (GW) is 7500, the empty weight (EW) shows 6500, and the GVWR still shows 10,000. I get the personal property tax break and still have the 10k capacity because if it ever comes down to it, the DMV and / or VSP have to go by the weight rating stamped on the door.

So technically, by rating it for 7500, you're really not losing any capacity at all. By the way, I have no idea where they got the empty weight.....I had it on the CAT scales and with me and a full tank of fuel, it was 7920.

 

just to add fuel to the fire, my SD registration says 56xx (call it 5700) because that's what is on the title.

In reality, with nothing in the bed, 1/2 tank of gas, and me (230 at the time), it weighed 6900. So subtract me, that's 6670, 1/2 tank of gas at 12 gallons (around 7 or so per gallon) at 84, that's still around 6590.

 

just to add fuel to the fire, my SD registration says 56xx (call it 5700) because that's what is on the title.

In reality, with nothing in the bed, 1/2 tank of gas, and me (230 at the time), it weighed 6900. So subtract me, that's 6670, 1/2 tank of gas at 12 gallons (around 7 or so per gallon) at 84, that's still around 6590.