Emergency Vehicle Weight Limit????

Load Rating for the FAST Act's Emergency Vehicles - Load Rating - Bridge Inspection - Safety Inspection - Bridges & Structures - Federal Highway Administration

cmv regs and restrictions stay the same depending on jurisdictions.

 

Glad it wasn't just me that got puzzled by that one.

What is the fire truck supposed to do?

Come to a screeching halt and make a 10 mile detour to get to the burning house?

 

Our area out here used to be rural and had very few fire hydrants and in places none at all for miles. Only stock ponds or the Guadalupe river 8 miles away. My grandfather and uncle were off and on with the vfd and had a water truck they owned but let the vfd use it if necessary. In 2016 the town next to us that allowed a developer to come in and build a couple thousand homes but still had to use our police and vfd resources decided to restrict all trucks through the area. Even farmers and ranchers that have been out here since the 1800’s were getting harassed and ticketed for trucks during harvest or hay moves. Well in July of 2018 that neighborhood had a lighting strike that set 3 houses on fire and was spreading to some acreage behind the hood and low and behold they needed that water truck that they banned because they did not consider it an “emergency” vehicle at the time.

 

If a stupid woke community rates a rd at 35k emergency use to discourage all truck traffic and buys or has to rely on another jurisdictions 85k fire unit, they better change the road rating fast. As these clowns out here found out.

 

I hope they were told to eat a bowl of razor blades.

 

These are some of the weight limit sign changes that Tejasdot did in 2012 up through last year.
Some newer signs I’ve been seeing read like 54,000 lbs per tandem is the rd or bridge rating. Due to our ex-mayor’s family owning the grocery store, feed store, and the only grain silos in the area connected to the UP/SP rr line, my town council passed “no thru trucks” ordinance on anything above 50,000lbs per axle weight. Lol!

 

cuz they too are indeed CMV's.

take nearly any class B truck, weight, then fully loaded.

compare that to a pumper truck, hazmat truck, those weights add up really fast.

plus, nearly all emergency vehicles above xxxx pounds, requires at the very least a class B license, the others, a class A

 

They were forced by the county to put in a pipeline with lots of hydrants. Did it during covid lockdown. One every 50 yards or so. Looks strange having hydrants just sitting out in the middle of brush country or a corn field.

 

Do not need cdl to operate emergency vehicles in Tejas. Rural Vfd’s would not be able to operate if so.