My truck and trailer is too Long per DOT

This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. A bed, or lack thereof, determines how long a hotshot rig can be? What does the bed have to do with it?

 

For some reason, it seems the bed on the truck is the menace to the hwy, if the combo is over 65’.

 

My understanding of it is
-With any type of bed it has the ability to carry freight on the power unit. Causing it to be classified as a straight truck & trailer. Not a tractor & semi trailer. Then falls under total combination length of 65' some states have..

Dump truck pulling a tag along falls under the same 65' law. I used to feel the law was geared towards that type of combination for maneuverability or lack thereof. But now I think it's more to do with not having a competitive advantage of more loadable footage than a 53' semi trailer..

 

Are oilfield winch trucks with a 5th wheel in the bed subject to the same rule?

 

According to Texas, #4 looks like it falls under oil & gas production & it exempt.



But seem there are exceptions for trucks with drom decks or boxes from the past.. It's another silly & confusing law that varys by state that makes running the lower 48 so much fun.!!

 

The regulations used to be a maximum length of 65 feet for semi trucks too until the mid 1970s when they added another 10 feet.

That is why you don't see cabover tractors anymore.

I don't know if those lobbying for the change didn't care about truck/trailers or if there was a technical reason but semi-trucks were the only ones that got the exception from the 65' limit country wide.