I live in Washington but am going to be traveling to Oregon and am trailer shopping. That said trying to look at Oregon trailer laws I'm confused, so time to ask you folks. What can and can't I get away with? Washington is easy, as long as I'm under 75' overall I'm good, no CDL nothing, so as soon as I cross the border what limits do I have to deal with?

 

If it's a recreational vehicle, then it's just stay under the 65' limit. And no double towing, just like Washington.

If it is anything other than an RV, you're supposed to go commercial if the trailer is over 7,000 lbs. It is very expensive because you've got to get commercial or farm plates on the truck and have a CDL. The commercial or farm plates are based on max gross weight including the truck and are only good for one year instead of two.

Lots of folks cheat this one.

 

RV/Commercial is such a grey area, though in my case I think safely RV. And I shouldn't have any problem staying in 65' but I think doubles are legal in Washington, gunna have to double check, though I've never seen it done by anything but a semi.

However doesn't Oregon require a CDL even for RV over a certain weight? Or by RV do you mean camper only? I'll be more along the lines of toy hauler and certainly over 7000lbs.

 

Question back for you, We were in Washington last night, and got pulled over towing a very small trailer, the trooper said that in the state of Washington you need a lic. plate on the trailer. But in Oregon you do not, most small utility trailers do not have a title or plates on them. The trooper said that next time we would need to get a trip permit to go into Washington. So how do you handle small trailers up there?

 

Yeah everything has a plate, no matter how small. It's silly but it's what they do. I can tell you from annecdotal experiance that just about any plate will do. I've never been stopped with expired tabs or a trailer still registered as the truck I made it out of, etc. What would be best for you to do is hard to say. Lots of hassle and expense of getting a plate and such for it in either state. Washington does give free one day trip permits that are ONLY for taking a vehicle to inspection, generally emmisions. Maybe you could get one of those and on the very unlikely event your stopped say you were taking the trailer to the required state patrol inspection to get it licenced. Shoot it might be completely legal, idk if they'll give a free permit for that.

 

everything EXCEPT a car dolly is required to have a plate. i assume the reason they're exempt is because they're normally towed with a licensed car on top of them, blocking view of their plate.

oh, and its also illegal to have your license plate fall off while driving - that happened to me once while towing a friend's trailer, but fortunately i wasn't in sight of any officers.

 

Thanks guys, maybe next time I will take the plate off the van and hang it on the trailer, or move the van's plate up to be seen over the trailer. Sorry I hi jacked your tread.

 

Shoot just looked it up double tow is illegal in both Washington and Oregon, shoot kinda messes up my plans. Well then no worries, 65' is easy to stay in if I can only pull one anyway. That gives me 44' to work with and ya just don't see bumper pull trailers that big anyway.

 

Both states require a CDL and commercial plates for doubles.

Nope, no weight limit for an RV on the regular license in Oregon. Cali does require a special license over a certain weight and an air brake endorsement if the RV has air brakes.

Any RV is exempt. If it has a bed, kitchen and toilet then it is an RV. That will include living quarter horse trailers, living quarter cargo trailers and toy haulers.

It does make for inconsistent application. If you haul with an RV towing a horse trailer over 7,000 lbs you have to put commercial plates on the RV and trailer. But if you have a LQ horse trailer that weighs 40,000lbs and haul it with a 20,000 lb semi you can put RV plates on both.

 

Hmmm wonder what it would take to legally pull a double behind a pickup, just talking to myself though. Anyway the "RV" thing sounds tough, so a utility trailer, car hauler, etc. over 7000lbs I'd need a CDL AND commercial plates? Washington makes no distinction between a trailers use only private and commercial so that kind of legal distiction is new to me. Bed, kitchen, and toilet, so does a cot, a camp stove, and a bucket count?

That could make it really tough, my car hauler is over 7000lbs, I can't legally take it into Oregon? Never considered it would be that bad.

 

Check with the Washington DMV to make sure, but what ever you are license for in your state should be good here. As long as you are legal.

 

I had a 12' flat trailer i used for my quads and towed behind my 79 chev stepside. It was titled and plated as required by law in oregon. So yeah must have plates.

 

Really? I have never heard of an air brake endorsement? How do you get one of those?

 

i believe thats an option with a CDL. i don't know if its even offered for a standard drivers license

 

There is no such thing as an air brake enodorsement on a CDL in the states.