Let's get creative, no CDL...

Okay so I don't want a CDL license. Let's get that out of the way. I own a small towing company and have been hauling with my extra rollback. Have my DOT and MC. I'd like to haul more than one on the bed and one on the wheel-lift. The rollback weighs 14k lbs, so even if I tried to pull a two-car trailer on a ball-hitch, I'd be well over 26k lbs with three cars.

What's the most reasonable way to haul

Trailer is about 100lbs per foot, so a 30 foot trailer is 3k lbs.

Dually pickup: 9k lbs
40ft trailer: 4k lbs

That makes 13k lbs and leaves another 13k lbs for vehicles. I could do three cars or small suvs with that, but when we start talking trucks and large suvs, I hit CDL level pretty quick.

I don't need a cushy pickup as my F550 rollback isn't the model of comfort. I'm thinking there's got to be chassis cabs (fuso, isuzu, etc) that used to have beds/boxes on the back that might be wrecked and could be had for cheap-ish, that a gooseneck mount could be installed. Maybe these would be lighter?

Any creative ideas? Not looking to pull the trigger quick here, rather brainstorm and learn what you folks have to say.

Thanks.

 

Thanks ZVar. Okay so I'm more ignorant than I thought here... from Wikipedia...

(Need a cdl for) "any vehicle towing a trailer with a Gross Trailer Weight over 10,000lbs where the combination weight is greater than 26,000lbs."

So without a CDL, I can't have a trailer that itself plus cars (all together) weighs more than 10k lbs? If so that means a 4k lb trailer (40ft/3cars) would only be able to handle another 6k lbs, certainly not enough for 3 cars.
With the above is true and then it seems that without a CDL the most vehicles I can haul on a trailer will be two, is this correct?

the alternative interpretation of the statement from Wikipedia is that the combination of truck and trailer weight matters, not just the trailer. For example the truck weighs 9k, and the trailer with cars weighs 13k (even if it's rated for 10k, safety aside), is be at 22k, less than 26k. With this interpretation I would not need a CDL.

How to interpret?

I'm realizing my initial question is ignorant to weight ratings. Somebody school me!!!

Thanks,

Erik

 

Okay so the North Carolina commercial class A CDL states as follows,

"Required for any combination of vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 pounds or more (provided the gross vehicle weight rating of the vehicle or vehicles being towed is more than 10,000 pounds)

So is the following interpretation correct? Say my truck GVWR is 10k and my trailer GVWR is 15k. As long as the combined GVWR does not weigh more than 26k, I'm good, right?

Piggybacking on that question, what if I tip the scales at 25.5k?

 

Okay, hmm, my rollback has a GVWR of 19k or something. If I'm over that at the scales it's a problem? I routinely go over that.

Back to the truck and trailer scenario, say my truck shows a GVWR of 10k and my trailer has a GVWR of 10k, but I top the scales at 22k, that's a problem then, right?

Or are you saying the truck's sticker has a GVCWR, say of 20k. Trailer has a GVWR of 10k. I weigh in at 22k, but I know my trailer is still under 10k (I know that's a heavy dually truck, but it's a hypothetical example).

Sorry for the nuanced examples, but this is all new to me.

 

Ziggy, fair point. Thanks.