What would you do?

I picked up a small excavator yesterday in Ellisville Ms. John Deer 120.

It was posted as being 103" wide. I took it as its paying pretty decent. Its going up to New Hampshire. $4800 for 1580 mi.

How ever, I loaded this thing and took my measurements,.. its actually 105" wide and because of the attachment I cant fold the boom up and have to have it stretched out. Its 13'8 tall.

Height isnt an issue. I do 13'10 - 14' tall loads all the time.

Whats bothering me is the 105" width. I didnt plan on pulling any permits. I figured 103" on a 102" trailer, plus my rails make the trailer wide anyway,.. I'd just run it as is. I've done about 20 or 30 Komatsu 320 rubber tire loaders, and their bucket is 104". I lay the bucket on the upper deck and no one has ever hassled me about it. Though I know they could.


Problem now is that the tracks on this excavator are poking about 1.5" over the rail on each side. Nothing dramatic,.. but I'm concerned about pulling into a scale like this with out a permit and banners.
Its dark out right now, I'll get a picture of this little beasty posted soon as the sun comes up.

I'm over in Ala right now, scale was closed. I was sweating bullets last night as I was coming up to it.
Its the weekend,.. what do you guys think? Should I run it and pocket the money I'd pay for permits or should I quit being cheap and pony up?

Hurst

 

Yeah I know, I know. I hate it when I ask a dumb question to where I know the right answer.

I guess I was just wanting someone to tell me to cowboy up and be a rebel.

I appreciate the mature reply. My wife doesnt know I havent pulled any permits yet. She'd hang foot up my spinkter if she knew I was contemplating doing this run outlaw style. LOL.

As for the dunnage,.. it gets moved down to the lower deck from time to time to make room for partials. They usually stay on the bottom until I need them back up top for what ever reason. I havent noticed any difference in MPG with them on the bottom or the top. I've seen a few guys with small racks for their dunnage to sit behind the step on the lower deck. The only problem is that I need a 3 wide rack, else the dunnage would get in the way for me to use my ramps on the upper deck.

I have a picture of that problem here.
Dunnage and tarps,.. bottom deck.


and again here. Dunnage,.. bottom deck. 3 rows of dunnage. You can see it a little better in this pic.



Hurst

 

Sun finally up enough to take some pics.

Here is the little beast in question.



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As you can see,.. its not over by much. But I can repeat a conversation I had with DOT in Florida about 53' trailer and load length.
He said,.. and I quote.

So, I'm sitting here now waiting on my permits. Sigh.

Hurst

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4267076]Hi Hurst, I think you are kind of stuck. Years ago, it wouldn't have been an issue. Heck, years ago, I hauled a freight box, and picked up something that required placards (paint) and said, screw it, threw the placards in the bunk, and went around the scales. You could do stuff like that years ago. I would never think of doing that today. You stick out like a sore thumb with a load like that, even at night, which, I believe, would add to your troubles if you got stopped ( is it still illegal to run oversize after dark?) You just can't take a chance nowadays, even for something as paltry as 3". Good luck, man, nowadays, I'd do it by the book.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I know,.. thats the whole problem. Its an excavator, soon as I pull into any scale its like a big yellow blinking light back there. If I had a regular load, pallets or crates or particularly a tarp load I would just run it. I stick out like an Amish guy in a strip club.

Hurst