Under 26000# with air brakes

You mean because I miss wrote endorsement for restriction?
At the end of the day the only way to get unrestricted with air brakes is thru a CDL.

 

We are in Georgia. Our F-650 is rated at 26,000#s. It has a 13ft flatbed, gooseneck hitch, air-ride, and air-brakes. No special license required. No endorsement required. My wife drives it. In a lot of ways, it is less hassle. She can run 150 air miles, before she has to log. (We are intrastate, and considered local only, 10 hour shifts, and log exempt. I can only run 100 air-miles (117 land miles) before I have to run a log book.) She can run Tennessee without permits, because she is under 26,001#s. But she can't run a trailer on it, without a CDL.
All the answers, to all your questions, can be found on the FMCSA website. If the FMCSA says one thing, but you have heard otherwise, print the page, and keep it in your truck's book. Then, if questioned by someone on the side of the road, you can show them what the FMCSA says, and explain that you were going by that.

 

But there's a big difference there. For example, to get a hazmat endorsement, or a tanker endorsement, you most have a CDL. Air brakes, however, are a restriction that only apply to a CDL, which means that a non CDL holder can drive a vehicle equipped with air brakes with no issues. In that regard it's no different than, say, the automatic transmission restriction on a CDL.

 

Also, many campers/rvs have air brakes, no special license required.

I do have a question for the OP though, how do you have a dump truck with a gvwr of under 26k lbs? Is it just a beefed up pickup truck frame like an F450 or 550? Or do you mean the truck itself weighs 25.5k? If so, the gvwr would be higher than 26k, or you wouldn't be able to haul anything and it would be pointless. I only ask because it complete changes the dynamic of the question.

 

Op specifically says GVWR 25500.

Plenty of trucks like that, tow trucks, the dump trucks used by roofing crews and some light trucks used by landscaping crews, etc.

 

I think the problem may have occurred when they changed the weight class for cdl from 18,000 lbs to 26,000 lbs.
Even though the law says its legal for air brake under 26,000 lbs. I sure as hell don’t want a 16 year old with a regular drivers license coming down a big hill in to my town with a straight truck loaded with air brakes with not one clue of how an air brake system works.
How about the possibility of over heating the brakes or running out of air before he makes on to main st.
There are many things that aren’t illegal but make no sense to do them.
Sticking your hand in a wood chipper comes to mind.

 

How many experienced drivers do we see posting on here that have zero clue about air brakes? Quite a few I'd say.

 

This is true but to go thru a cdl licensing programs you have to have at least some institution on air brakes and air brake systems.
Non cdl air brakes it appears that a 16 year old Child with zero and I mean zero training can get in a load air brake truck and head down any mountain and be totally legal.
Anyone see any problem with this?

 

That's why I asked the way i did... I understand the possibility, just rare that small of a truck has air brakes, though, not impossible.... hence I was just double checking that he meant gvwr and not just unladen weight.

 

Air or hydraulic would make no difference in how you drive downhill and air or hydraulic makes no difference in how much heat is generated; bad techniques are not any worse with air brakes or any less dangerous/destructive with hydraulic brakes.