Hotshot rig over 65ft

You are legal but I would get a Rand-Mcnally truckers atlas and read the restrictions that are in it.

 

Any truck stop

 

If you take the box off, you'll be legal in Florida, but with it on, you'd better figure a way to make it 1ft shorter.

 

If you want to keep the box but don't want the hassle of being over length just temp mount the box to the trailer and shorten your truck frame. Sometimes you'll haul some weird shaped stuff that needs tarped but would be better suited in a van. And then also you can haul some of those partial van loads and still have room for partial flatbed. I would definately get a pallet jack though since the fork lifts won't be able to load into it, unless your trailer is dock height. Just bouncing ideas.

 

With any truck bed at all you are considered a truck trailer combination and your equipment cannot exceed 65' in total length. Without a truck bed you are considered a tractor trailer combination and can get away with it. California, Texas, Florida and others States follow this rule. In your Motor Carrier Atlas (truckers map book) it'll show maximum length allowed listed for each State and equipment combination. You can get away with being on Federally maintained roads, for instance on the Interstates. Where you'll run into problems is on the restof the roads becuase they are State maintained.

If you're not going to remove the bed the only option you really have is to shorten the trailer. Since 2010 pickups have gotten a little longer, because of this when we have our trailers built we have the necks on our trailers shortened. Some trailer manufacturers don't want to do that so instead they'll cut a foot off the back of the trailer during the build process.

So if you're not going to remove the truck bed you'll need to find a fab shop that'll either shorten the trailer neck, or hack a foot off the rear of the trailer.

Also are you aware of Bridge Law? The Bridge law in several States is 40'. How you measure your bridge is from the center of the fifth wheel pin, or Goose Neck coupler to the center of the rear axle on your trailer. You need to be 40' or less on this measurement or there's states you will not be able to go into legally.

We had a Owner Operator that we dispatch here measured in California just before Memorial Weekend. His truck had a Custom flatbed and he was at 66' while hooked to his trailer. The Scale house Officer was making a big deal out of it until the Owner Operator got us on the phone. We informed the scale house that Interstate 5 is Federally maintained and it was perfectly legal under Federal law. They looked it up and had to let him go. Had he been on a State Hwy he would've been cited and would've had to have his trailer hauled out by a tractor.

 

I forgot to mention that you cannot permit your way around the 65' length law.