got a tiket for hauling over size hay!!!!!

If you were not required to have a CDL then I don't see why you would have needed a medical card. Did you pay the ticket or fight it? I will mention that I have read where the DOT wants to include farmers in forcing them to get a CDL with all that entails.

 

I paid the ticket and got a medical card and dot# when I got home. Nine months later I got my CDL and prorated my truck and started hauling commercial. Getting the dot# sparked the audit. Before I went commercial I had everything in order, drug consortium etc. but during the audit my company was failed due to the trip I made across state line nine months before the company existed. I tried to fight that but to no avail. As far as hay hauling, in SD there is a "baled livestock feed" permit that allows you to be 12' wide and 14'3" high. I get an annual permit, but I think you can get a trip permit as well. Annual is $60 and I haven't heard of them dropping the requirement due to the drought down south. There must be some hassle with round bales along the way, because a lot of people are baling squares which is rarely done in ranch country. I heard that a neighbor about 15 miles away was rolling out rounds and baling them up square. If that's the case, there must be some stiff regulations along the way somewhere. The other problem is not being able to run at night with rounds.

 

Yeah, Me either... I was told with the flooding in the midwest, most of the land that they cut hay on was underwater... therefore, they have no choice but to truck in what they need now.

Now some farmers are sneaking across state lines as they never had CDL before, and now the local DOT in western MN/SD is wise to it and nailing them big time.

 

The stuff we bale for ranch use weighs between 1000 and 1200 depending on how it's put up and that isn't heavy enough for trucking. Running it much tighter/heavier starts to take a toll on machinery. A lot of people pull doubles up here, but I've heard you can't get south with doubles. We can run 75' of deck here.

 

Was in NE Nebraska this weekend and was discussing hauling hay south with family and friends who are ranchers and feeders. Seemed to us it would be cheaper and more efficient to haul the cattle to the feed rather than feed to the cattle.

 

Just to clarify, CDL requirement has nothing to do with medical card requirement.

Medical cards are required for ALL CMV's with a gross combination weight rating in excess of 10,000#. Even all articulated Farm vehicles. (26,000# is where CDL starts)

 

Thanks for posting that scalemaster, had a few so called experts telling me it was not required, my pov has commercial truck tags and a registration of 14,000 GCW.

I do have a CDL and a medical card for commercial driving as well.

 

You are correct but lets make sure we discuss a popular misconception here......CDL or CMV means Commercial and if you are not doing anything commercially then you do not fall into that catergory, regardless of how big the piece of equipment you are driving is.

I am speaking from experience here. I had (sold last last year) a twin screw semi with a 60" sleeper that I pulled a 48' van drop deck from Michigan all of the way down to Texas and back up to Montana and back accross the Dakota's home with no CDL, no log book, no medical card, no DOT # on the truck and did it legally. How? No commercial activity.
Oh sure I got stopped at every scale house with an over eager officer behind the counter looking to throw the book at me. I had to explain to them what I was and they all looked at me like I was from outer space when I told them that I did not fall under any more regulations than the Griswold family travelling through in their station wagon. Every one of them pulled out a regulations book at least 2" thick and after 30 minutes or so I was free to go.