anyone doing hotshot with a swd truck legaly

Tanhand your sticker on your 3500 will be 11,500 lb

 

Wedge what kind of set up do you have? Truck GVW and Trailer GVW length of trailer (trailer weight)

 

Sorry you started this thread with this information.

 

As long as the axle weights on your tow vehicle add up to no more than 9,600lb, you'll be legal. I'm in the same boat as you Wedge with my '05 Dodge 2500. It's got the perfect engine and tranny combo (5.9 cummins mated to a 6 speed manual) but the GVWR is only 9k. I wish I could've found a dually in the same condition with the same running gear. I too am considering swapping in a one ton suspension for better payload capacity, even though the B-pillar sticker will show 3/4 ton info.

 

You guys with your 2500/f250s need to understand a couple things.

1 - the guy who enforces the laws will see you pulling a three car with SRW truck and pull you over. He will pull out the portable scale and weigh you right there on the road. You will be overweight, and depending on his mood, you may just get a ticket or you may be put OSS until you get another truck that can pull the trailer or take the cars off the trailer.

2 - say you get into an accident, say you hit me and I end up in the hospital. I will own everything you have by the time my lawyer gets done with you. He will do an asset investigation, document everything you own, owned and may have your name on so he will figure out how much to get it from you through the courts because you are using an underrated truck in a commercial application and it is unsafe. Now you may think a LLC will protect you, forget that idea. You may think shifting things into other's names will help, forget that, there is a paper trail. AND don't think your insurance company will cover you, they will do their own investigation, find out that you are using an overweight truck and not pay, so it ends up in your hands to deal with. The best thing to do is to use the right tools to cover yourself. If you need a dually that can haul a trailer with 12,000 lbs of metal on it, then get it right from the start.

Oh and the last thing, there is a lot of engineering that goes into these trucks, don't think you can just put springs on it and run it overweight - see my second point.

 

Some of us don't haul anything above 10k, and I keep my axles below the limits. BTW, I used to be one of "the guy"s in your first point so I have an excellent understanding of the laws, and how to keep from tripping over them.