Overweight limits in California

Ok there you getting all technical on us--and just when i thought i had Cal figured? and I tried to read it all but my eyes glazed over--and besides if i get stopped in Cali--I can't even do the No hablo routine--since most of em can
But good info--Thanx

 

THE CRAZY PART!

Down in the L.A. Basin...trucks can pretty much go anywhere...and generally those areas they aren't allowed the roads are signed for "NO TRUCKS"...now take it up to Sacramento and San Francisco...they get real picky about access and travel by big rigs...and I mean Sacramento County (Sac City is OK), and San Francisco proper very picky. Go across the bay to Oakland, Richmond, (880 zone) also north of SF, Petaluma, San Rafael, and Santa Rosa you will be good and roads are posted for no trucks...stay out of Sausolito...

Don't try Hwy 49 from Auburn to Cool...Warner seems to have two or three that try that one every year...those switch-back turns are not friendly to rigs...and lately there have been a bunch of England trucks trying to go from Carson City, NV over US 50 to Sacramento...not good! They are OK getting to South Lake Tahoe and to the Meyers check station...but that is where the STAA ends at Meyers...not a truck designated route (over 65 ft) from Meyers to Pollock Pines. Of course the same in reverse leaving Sac...don't go past Pollock Pines...it is very well posted that the STAA route ends at Sly Park exit!

Just do yourself a big favor when trying to find "a short cut", or a "way around the scale"....odds are it isn't and you won't...not up here in the foothills of the Sierra!

Another big mistake is to take CA 20 from Grass Valley to Yuba City...they give a lot of tickets to truckers on that run!

 

Oh believe me I have been running out there for a very very loooooong time--and know just what a pain it can be getting around--and I don't mind the DOT and totally insane bridgelaws--which are just a way of enhancing revenue! My only real problem with Cal--is the 15mph split--i really do not enjoy--once I get out of town a little--driving looking in my mirrors more than out front--but thems are the rule's and they ain't never gettin any of my hard earned money--they got me and 3 friends in the most B******T way almost 25 years ago now--and that was the one and only time they will ever get a penny of my money--other than fuel taxes!

 

We thank you for your support! JK, JK. Actually, I don't know what-all they do with the fuel taxes here. There's some pretty crappy stretches of highway in this state. For years, parts of I-80 were worse than anything
in Arkansas, like I-30 used to be; talk about a washboard road. And when you cross the Oregon-California border southbound on I-5 you know right away: kaboom! slam! thumpthumpthump! "Welcome to California."

 

Actually, neighbor (howdy!), CA 20 is truck legal, at least from 101 to I-80 and I think all the way to Fort Bragg. Caltrans widened and realigned parts of CA 20 from GV to Yuba City two years ago and put in a real nice truck-climbing lane just east of the Yuba River. From Oregon, the only alternative to CA 20 was to run south on I-5, east on I-80, then north on CA 49--screw that! Many times, going home, I went from I-5 to GV on 20. Dicey in places just east of Rough and Ready, but I never had a problem, and I sure wasn't the only trucker on that road! We used to have a customer in Cloverdale that made brake parts for Freightliner's Swan Island plant: 101 north to CA 20 east around Clear Lake to I-5; piece of cake; CA 20 was a signed truck route around the lake.

Another customer was in Gardnerville, NV who shipped loaded sets to Placerville. Legal or not, we ran 50. The carrier routed us that way, knowing it wasn't STAA. The shipper wouldn't pay the miles from Gardnerville to Reno to Sacramento to Placerville. No one was sorry when the account dried up.

I once had a two-dropper off a 53: GV and Placerville. I took 49 rather than take 49/80/Hazel Avenue/50. I laugh now. (We used to use Hazel Ave. to avoid the EB and WB Roseville scales)

San Francisco? Delivering with sets to piers on the Embarcadero or south of Market or with a 53 to that Safeway in the Marina or the Safeway out in the avenues on Noriega. I made my own routes, but I grew up in SF and I knew the lay of the land (tell ya about her someday!).

 

IMHO--until Cal-Trans starts to make sense of chain laws parts of I-80 are always going to be destroyed--especially--with the concrete slab type construction--but the amount of times they force us to chain--long b4 there is any appreciable snow on the ground is just wrong--torn up tires--torn up chains==TORN UP HIWAY
Just my $.02

 

'olhand, your $.02 is worth a lot more than that! I recall chaining up near Boomtown and running (well, crawling) on wet pavement to Truckee, cursing all d'way, and asking "Why this?" It's only in the past two years that Caltrans has started to repair sections of I-80 that have been bad since before I got into trucking in 1991. I think that the lion's share of highway funds goes to southern CA, where there are more voters, palm trees, and California girls.

 

Yes, CA 20 is a truck route with most of it being "STAA Terminal Access". However, according to the CalTrans link the section east from CA 99 to Pleasant Valley Road is "CA Legal"... so, 65 ft. maximum length.





Good thing I didn't get caught.

 

LOL--I hear ya--while not a fan of running thru there--depending on where I am going--sometimes have no choice--although more often than not--it is a toss up to go in Bottom or top(80 vs 40/58)--but will not be the first time someone says I'm nuts when everyone stops to chain and I just hang--I'm asked you gonna sit here till chains come off--"NO I'm gonna sit here until there is a reason to chain--then I'll go!"

 

10-4! And sometimes you wait and . . . chain control comes off!