Trailer hauling to midwest.. where to find deadhead transport drivers?

[GAmes]

Here is another FMCSA reference to no vin tag, and it applies to my trailer.



Question 3: If a vehicle's GVWR plate and/or VIN number are missing but its actual gross weight is 10,001 pounds or more, may an enforcement officer use the latter instead of GVWR to determine the applicability of the FMCSRs?



Guidance: Yes. The only apparent reason to remove the manufacturer's GVWR plate or VIN number is to make it impossible for roadside enforcement officers to determine the applicability of the FMCSRs, which have a GVWR threshold of 10,001 pounds. In order to frustrate willful evasion of safety regulations, an officer may therefore presume that a vehicle which does not have a manufacturer's GVWR plate and/or does not have a VIN number has a GVWR of 10,001 pounds or more if: (1) It has a size and configuration normally associated with vehicles that have a GVWR of 10,001 pounds or more; and (2) It has an actual gross weight of 10,001 pounds or more.



http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regu...fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=390.5&guidence=Y

 

[HBarlow]

Gary,

I guess you are right about brakes not being required on a trailer with a GVWR of 3,000 lbs. or less. I always thought it was 1,500 lbs. ID has apparently adopted the Federal MC rules and exempts trailers under 3k.

It's easy to make that case on a skinny little light weight trailer with 13" or 14" light duty tires and a GVWR tag of 2950# or something just under 3,000 lbs. I'm not convinced you can successfully make that argument with a home built trailer on pickup frame and bed with 3/4 ton axle, 16" 8 lug wheels, and tires rated 3,042 lbs. at 80 psi and no GVWR tag.

 

[HBarlow]

Yup Harvey!..... you got me... . I have no experience with commercial hauling requirements. BUT..... when you transporting a few yrs ago, RV's were hot and moving all over the Nation and DOT police kind of kept a keen eye out for them. Meaning... ... YOU were scrutinized with a fine tooth comb. Are you telling me that if I hook up that trailer to my truck and tow it from coast to coast, I would get pulled over by the cops? I seriously doubt that! Why would that trailer even consider you to even pull into the weigh station... . even a DOT truck like yours or even Gary's?

The only difference is maybe... ... ... just maybe... ... the DOT enforces a little more laws out west due to the extreme grades. I don't know. I drive a truck for my company everyday that weighs over 10k lbs and I got tired of pulling into the scales and them just waving me through. So I stopped pulling in about 3 yrs ago... ... have yet to be stopped since!

Again... . I would pull that trailer and seriously doubt that I would ever be pulled over.

Perhaps you should contact the op and offer to haul his trailer for him if you are willing. I wouldn't touch it myself.

Actually, something happened during the years when I was transporting that increases DOT enforcement nationwide now rather than decreasing it. Sometime about 2005 congress abolished the old "apportionment" system which allowed interstate commercial haulers to register their equipment in only one state such as their home state but declare all the states they operated in and the miles that they traveled annually in each state. The registration fees, which were considerable for a big trucking company that owned and operated perhaps 100 - 200 tractor trailer rigs, were then divided up among the states on a miles driven basis. Congress abolished that system and never got around to replacing it - at least not when I was transporting and paying attention.

The result of that was states suddenly lost millions of dollars in annual revenues for enforcement activity. Most if not all states responded by increasing enforcement and fines to replace the lost revenue.

I haven't hauled for hire interstate since the end of '07 so I don't know what is going on now. My trips for the last two years have been made on a Goldwing. If I had to guess my guess would be enforcement is pretty heavy now on the main interstates.

Driving a commercial truck other than an eighteen wheel OTR truck around in your home state or pulling some kind of old junk trailer around in your home state is a very different activity than driving for hire on the interstate highways. The ordinary driver has no idea how complex and heavily regulated it is until he gets into it.

 

[Bob4x4]

I have a flat bed now that my son built in his high school shop class. 7x12 31x1050 x15 tires on a Toyota 1 ton axle passed inspection and registration here in Cali. It also has a matching spare mounted on the rear that is mounted to the frame. No problems

 

[GAmes]

At last, The OP has the office phone #, maybe he'll be back to tell us what the contract writer said.



Every year I hear that DOT will be cracking down on hot shotters and transporters. I have yet to see much change. Every summer there is an safety blitz where there is a push on roadside inspections. It gets so much press that drivers actually take the five days off to avoid being inspected. A year an a half ago I hauled a big cement silo from Billings to the coal mining area of VA. In the past towing one would get me a level one inspection nearly every time, so I was dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. in anticipation of the big blitz. Every weigh station on the route was closed except Ohio, where the weighmaster was in a rear parking lot BSing with a highway patrolman. I was almost disappointed. :-laf

 

[Bob4x4]

At last, The OP has the office phone #, maybe he'll be back to tell us what the contract writer said.

Every year I hear that DOT will be cracking down on hot shotters and transporters. I have yet to see much change. Every summer there is an safety blitz where there is a push on roadside inspections. It gets so much press that drivers actually take the five days off to avoid being inspected. A year an a half ago I hauled a big cement silo from Billings to the coal mining area of VA. In the past towing one would get me a level one inspection nearly every time, so I was dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. in anticipation of the big blitz. Every weigh station on the route was closed except Ohio, where the weighmaster was in a rear parking lot BSing with a highway patrolman. I was almost disappointed. :-laf

View attachment 83742

Bet that ate some fuel

 

[GCP]

At last, The OP has the office phone #, maybe he'll be back to tell us what the contract writer said.



Every year I hear that DOT will be cracking down on hot shotters and transporters. I have yet to see much change. Every summer there is an safety blitz where there is a push on roadside inspections. It gets so much press that drivers actually take the five days off to avoid being inspected. A year an a half ago I hauled a big cement silo from Billings to the coal mining area of VA. In the past towing one would get me a level one inspection nearly every time, so I was dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. in anticipation of the big blitz. Every weigh station on the route was closed except Ohio, where the weighmaster was in a rear parking lot BSing with a highway patrolman. I was almost disappointed. :-laf



View attachment 83742

Happen to recall the weight of that giant air brake?

 

[NIsaacs]

Happen to recall the weight of that giant air brake?

It looks like a good (what does it weigh, picture) so I guess 8,000# The axles look fairly small, maybe 5200#. By design, the hitch looks kind of heavy but the dually is handling it well, the truck looks level.



Nick

 

[GAmes]

I wish I had kept the weigh slip, but IIRC it was in the 8000 lb range. Actually, the axles are pretty large, they have to hold the weight of whatever cement is in the hopper when it is moved around. They are really tongue heavy, and have pintle hitches, so WD can't be used. Somewhere in the 1200 lb range, which put my overloads about 1/8th inch from the stops. I had Timbens on it in this picture, but after the beating I took on the trip I installed air bags. Wouldn't you know I haven't pulled one since. Mileage was about 8 at 60 mph.