In Ca. if you have a class A license any tickets you get the points are doubled even if in your personal car.

 

Don't worry about it if you are only towing an RV. Rv's are exempt from commercial rules. A crew cab dually has a GVWR of 14000lbs which is class 5 weight sticker. A truck with a lower GVWR could register in a lower weight class. When I got pulled over a few years back the officer checked every sticker on my windshield, my weight class sticker my inspection sticker and asked me to open my door and look at sticker on the door jamb to make sure everything was correct. He checked my owners card for both the truck and trailer I was pulling at the time and checked the GVWR sticker on the trailer. Fortunately everything was in order.
I would not register a F250 or F350 with a class 2 weight class sticker. Actually I don't think they will allow it, I think the lowest would be class 4A.

thomabb you are right, I will probably never pull that kind of weight, that's why I only need a class 8.
The bottom line is if you are properly registered and have the proper insurance and the officer sees that you are trying to cooperate with the law, more than likely you will get the benefit of the doubt if you were to get pulled over.
Again RV's are exempt from all of this.

 

That is correct.


That's not true..........I just tried to get my class A DL permit, and thing only thing I didn't have was a check.............for $5.00. I had cash and didn't grab my checkbook. What a mistake. No physical needed, though the internet says you need it.

 

I think you were at the Cargo Trailers Seminar, though we didn't meet. RV's are NOT exempt from license classifications in PA. Trailers over 10,001 GVWR, you need the class A, period, RV or not.

Though the officer did clearly state that they generally don't bother with RV's,as far as licensing and weight goes.

Towing an RV for recreational use DOES keep you under the DOT radar, BUT if you do it for money, you can fall back under DOT guidelines, and need the logbook and DOT #'s.

RV or not, if the trailer is registered over 10k, the truck should be registered for the truck and trailer combo max weight. You should have a class A DL at minimum, and a DOT medical card.

My truck is registered at class 5 (13 F350 dually), I have a class C license and 14k gooseneck. The truck should be registered for 28k. I'm no saint. I'm trying to make it all right, but it's just not convenient enough to get it in done in a reasonable amount of time.

 

I accept that your info is correct and I have been able to find the place on the PennDOT web site the clearly explains the DL class requirements.

I've had less success finding chapter and verse on the truck weight class requirements. Any chance someone has that information??

 

So after you get the permit what else is required to finely get a class A license?

 

Take the class A DL test. Nothing but a skills test. From what I have found you need a class A driver to "supervise" you on your way to the test. I have no firsthand experience, since I didn't have that $5.00 check.........Arrghh.

Truck weight class is gray as gray gets. If you're commercial, and over 10001# it's pretty clear that DOT rules apply. PA also has some law that around 17k, or 17,500 combo things can get weird. I'd have to dig into my notes. I have found no exceptions anywhere in the PA vehicle code for RV's.

Far as I have read, and heard, while there may be little to no enforcement on RV's, license class rules do apply, as do combo registration rules. My reading through the books has come up with no conclusive, written exemption for RV's.


I mainly care because my gooseneck (14K) and dually (14K) are asking for trouble. Not to name names, but I've been warned that certain southeast PA townships have a thing for duallys with goosenecks....................Granted a gooseneck flatbed opens a can of worms as far as DOT goes Vs. a camper.

The officer that held the seminar could not grasp why anyone would have a "personal" use trailer that heavy, and that it must be commercial. I have never used mine commercially, only used it to haul scrap leftover from collapsed buildings at my grandmother's farm, rented excavators to remove stumps at my house, and the reason I bought it to drag my jeep rockcrawler to the trails. He basically said if I get stopped with the excavator on the trailer I better have damn good proof that I'm "not for commerce", and even then it could be a fight.

 

Maryland has a Non Commerical Class A for those RV'ers over 26K.
Same thing, a skills test.

 

Go back up to post #3 in this thread and follow the links I posted there.

 

Speaking solely to non-commercial applications (I can't speak intelligently to commercial), if the trailer is over 10k lbs the tow vehicle has to be registered for the combination weight. This moves the tax to the combination instead of the two separate vehicles for a trailer >10k.

For trailers under 10k, this is not necessary. This is why I keep my 5th wheel registered under 10k lbs, even though the GVWR is 11.5k. On the scales my trailer has never been over 9,500.

 

Sorry for my ignorance. I've been all over Title 75 and just can't seem to find the part about trailers over 10K. Guess I'll keep looking!!

 

Chapter 49 - Size, Weight and Load. Section 4942.

Title 75 - PA General Assembly

I personally find Title 75 a confusing and rambling piece of legislation. It would be nice if PA rewrote it.

 

So I'm in Arizona atm, gone about 5,000 miles and so far the transmission is pulling fine. One thing that's odd is that when the truck is working hard, all of a sudden it sounds like a huge blower has started up under the hood. I mean really loud. It has variable speed, and I'm assuming it's the fan behind the rad being engaged by the computer. Is that right ? It'll speed up or slow down at times, sometimes it barely comes on for maybe 5 seconds at low volume, other times it's crazy loud like a giant leaf blower. First time I heard it I thought it was the transmission coming apart.

 

It is the clutch fan. Normal. It is a electronically controlled fan.

 

must be why most commercial trailers are registered in Maine. 35 dollar registration good for 5 years and no state safety inspections.