I've been doing my own research on this over the past few months and wanted to weigh in....

It appears Chester's ability to drive a truck w/o a CDL is due to agricultural excemptions (<150 mi from farm as stated before). In the state of PA you have to prove you are a farm by having a form F filled on your taxes, show farm income, etc.

His link to the GA CDL manual (with very pretty pictures by the way) states "Vehicles which require a Non-Commercial Class A or B License are agricultural vehicles, military vehicles, and firefighter /emergency vehicles." This is pretty standard in every state. However, there is no mention "non-commercial" use for anything outsie of fire/military/ag. In other words, don't drive your friend's tri-axel to hual dirt to your house if you don't have a CDL. I saw no proof showing that you can use a commercial vehicle for personal use.

This pdf seems to be pretty standard state to state in the definition of needing a CDL. It says you need a CDL to drive anything DEFINED AS A COMMERCIAL VEHICLE which is the usual >26k, 26k + >10k, etc. It does not define any differences between commercial and non-commercial use. In PA the A/B non-commercial licenses are written to address drivers of recreational vehciles and possibly the (though I'm not sure if it is necessary) mililtary/fire vehicles. There is one possible final excemption in PA which is registering your truck as a classic vehicle. However, you are not allowed to haul items in your semi/heavy truck once it is classified as a classic.

As a final note, it does look entirely possible that a truck over 26k can tow a trailer w/ a GVW over 10k as long as the trailer & load is less than 10k when you are towing it.