Vehicle combination weights & keeping it under the Non CDL weight

Hopefully they do know the rules, and the rules state you are wrong. PA follows FMCSA guidelines on what requires a CDL. Here is a PDF of a flowchart from PA's website. It's identical to the OK one I posted earlier in the thread.
https://www.psp.pa.gov/law-enforcement-services/Documents/CVSD/CDL Flowchart 5.29.14.pdf
Here is another PDF from PA's DOT that says the same thing in words...
http://www.dot.state.pa.us/public/dvspubsforms/BDL/BDL Fact Sheets/fs-cdl.pdf

It would be so much less confusing for the op, and everyone else, if people would look at the regs before spouting wrong information. It's even worse when the correct information has been posted and people still post wrong information.

 

Well then I guess the various PA DoT cops that gave me citations we're all wrong then? We can all go round and round until we're blue in the face, but once you're on the side of the road with a stack of tickets that Officer Friendly just handed you, the situation becomes very real.

This quote is from another thread. I think it's pretty safe to say, if the OP wants to do things by the books 100%, thereby eliminating any issues, he or she would have a valid CDL while running such an operation. That way, he or she is covered either way. After all, it's pretty simple to get, just look around at a truckstop.

 

What you register a vehicle for at least in Texas can be anything. I could go down tomorrow and register my pickup for 5k, 10k, 15k whatever number I tell them. Doing this doesn’t change the class of the vehicle. If it did I could take a semi tractor and go register it for 20k or whatever it weighs and be legal to drive it with a class C. Or for that matter I could take a Ford ranger with a single axle trailer and register it for 30k and the trailer for 15k have a class A vehicle and take the road test for a class A CDL in a Ford ranger. Registration weight amounts to paying taxes for the weight of a vehicle to be able to run it on the road. It has nothing to do with the license class required that I am aware of. Manufacturers issued GVWR is what matters.

Are you saying you had a trailer which from the manufacturer had a GVWR less than 10k and you went and registered it for over 10k and got a ticket?

 

No. The trailer was had a gvwr of 14k, registered at 14k, and a curb weight of around 5000lbs. Truck registered at 23500 gcvw if my memory is correct (this all happened in 2000, so the truck number may be off).

Anyway, I was hauling a John Deere 4400 compact utility tractor, with a loader and backhoe attachment. The tractor weighed about 6000lbs. I was nowhere near my weight limits. I was pulled over by DOT just outside of the town where I worked. And was given a ticket for no CDL. When I protested the ticket, I was told by the cop that because the trailer was rated (and registered) for 14k, I needed a CDL (class B minimum) to pull it.

I went through the exact same deal a few months later with the same truck and trailer, hauling a skid steer.

Neither cop ever said a word about the truck registration of weight ratings. They focused solely on the trailer being over 10001lbs.

After that, I went and got my Class A and never had any issues afterwards. I'd been stopped a few times, and left go.

I just noticed in my earlier post I said class A, I meant class B.

 

Just an FYI, when you register under a weight, that does not count outside your state.

It isn't what you register the truck, trailer but what they are rated as.

Many officers will let it slide from one reason or another but when it comes down to it, all states operate under fmcsa rules and uses manufacturer ratings to keep things straight.

 

That cop was a moron. First of all, if you would have taken it to court it would have been dropped is it was not a valid ticket. I already posted the proof for PA, and the federal law.
This is from Title 75
"Commercial motor vehicle." A motor vehicle or combination designed or used to transport passengers or property:
(1) if the vehicle has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight of 26,001 or more pounds or such lesser rating as the department shall adopt under the provisions of section 6103(c) (relating to promulgation of rules and regulations by department), as determined by Federal regulation and published by the department as a notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin;

(1.1) if the vehicle has a gross combination weight rating or gross combination weight of 26,001 pounds or more, whichever is greater, inclusive of a towed unit with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight of more than 10,000 pounds, whichever is greater;

That is the actual law from PA. I highlighted the word inclusive, as that matters. Just a 10k+ trailer means nothing. I'm sorry you got the ticket and you met a moron cop, but it happens. A bad cop does not a law make.

 

What was the combined vehicle weight rating? My guess is it was over 26k lbs? If the truck was 23k and the trailer 14k, then yea. As per all the laws I've shown you would need a class A.
But, that is Combined is greater then 26k in that case and that's why. The 14K trailer simply means it would require a CDL A. One can have a 14k trailer and 12K truck and still not need a CDL.

Go and read the flowcharts, they are accurate to the laws,

 

Been stopped in PA. plenty times. Truck 2000 F350 dually 11,500 Trailer 14,000. Registered 26,000 this setup can be operated with a class c license been running since 2008 I am registered in the state of Ohio. Your state may different but since I am legal in my state other states I am traveling thru h ave to recognize it or I would have been ticketed.

 

ZVar knows the rules and where to find them. I can only tell you my experience since running my numbers.

 

Get a CDL, you will avoid lot of troubles you can even get a CDL with the dually but you will have restrictions on your CDL like no air brakes, no 5th wheel... If you insist on going this route get the 12k lbs Ultralight, it will have more resell value.