Looking for advice on hauling hay

[RLHannink]

Just go around the scales.



Don't stop to pick up the bales that fall off on the highway. The guy in the Beemer who hits it will be pretty mad.

 

[Grizzly]

The biggest problem I had when I had horses and hauling 70 lb bales of alfalfa on my 16' Big Tex, 7,000 lb tandem axle trailer was tires. Make sure you have the right tires for the weight and correct inflation on them.

 

[HBarlow]

Depending on where you live you can get by some DOT regs by buying the hay yourself and reselling it. Now you aren't hauling for hire you are hauling your own stuff.

Sorry, that's the among the oldest and dumbest ideas floating around. Enforcement officers refer to it as "buy and sell" and they are very aware of it. It is bogus and won't fly.

Even if DOT officers were willing to overlook the "buy and sell scam", transporting products you own for later sale is still a commercial endeavor. All DOT rules still apply.

What a lot of folks don't understand is using a motor vehicle in furtherance of economic activity is commercial and someone trying to do it not in compliance and/or unlawfully is depriving the man who has spent a lot of money and time getting into full compliance of his income.

The penalties can be severe.

 

[HBarlow]

Just go around the scales.

Don't stop to pick up the bales that fall off on the highway. The guy in the Beemer who hits it will be pretty mad.

Bad advice. DOT officers know all the tricks including the routes that bypass the scales. Driving past the scales is often tried but scale officers watch for it and send troopers to chase the offender down. I was in a scale house in MT one Sunday morning a couple of years ago having my documents checked and the scale operator said, "look at that fool!" He said, "he'll be back. " "We've got a trooper working up ahead. " Drivers do get away with it occasionally when the scales are busy but the fines for bypassing scales and getting caught are established to make drivers regret their decision.

If a DOT officer sees a driver with an unsecured load or worse, sees him losing cargo on the highway, he will certainly stop the driver and write him tickets for unsecured load and other tickets of opportunity.

Folks, our Cummins- powered Dodge Rams will pull huge loads but owning a Dodge Ram pickup doesn't make us commercial haulers.

 

[RLHannink]

HBarlow, you are certainly correct. My advice was an attempt at some humor. I have seen officers sitting on the country roads that go around the scales (sometimes within sight of the scalehouse), waiting for the scale dodgers. Better advice would be to do as others have said in this forum: calculate what your legal load would be and stick with that. Also, the regs can change from officer to officer about what is needed for tie down. I know, I hauled hay commercially in CA for several years when the state and federal regs were unevenly applied. Finally CA went to federal regs in order to get fed $ for the highways.

 

[HBarlow]

My advice was an attempt at some humor. /quote]

Sorry, I didn't realize you were joking. Many who have never entered into the world of commercial hauling have no idea how regulated and restricted the industry is and are completely unaware how severe the penalties can be for ignoring or being unaware of them.

 

[cksh8me]

HBarlow It might be old and the dumbest but it is still done on a regular basis by many people. If you fall under the watchful eye of the dot you will get grief.

 

[HBarlow]

If you fall under the watchful eye of the dot you will get grief.

Yep, that is true.