Who has ever been stopped by the Weight Police?

[spoon059]

Paul, you and the Major are incorrect. Drivers cannot be compelled to submit to a search, which a weigh-in is, absent reasonable suspicion that a traffic offense has occurred. Commercial regulations are different. The Major you referenced works in Commercial enforcement. Commercial laws do not apply to non-commercial vehicles. See https://roads.maryland.gov/mdotsha/p...spx?PageId=546 for details. It applies to COMMERCIAL VEHICLES only. It is ILLEGAL for the police to make a stop, without reasonable suspicion of a specific traffic offense, to stop a non-commercial motor vehicle.

In regards to classes of drivers license, you are also incorrect. You are referring to COMMERCIAL requirements in your post. A NON-commercial Class C license allows you to drive any NON-COMMERCIAL combination of motor vehicles with a GVWR of less than 26,001 lbs and you can tow ANY NON-COMMERCIAL trailer.

See https://mva.maryland.gov/drivers/Pag...ass-codes.aspx for details about licenses classes.

[bansai]

Would only add if it hasn't already been stated that Any weird laws requiring special 'non-commercial' licenses in any of your specific states ( a lot of states I guess have odd requirements I admittedly was not aware of) are only enforceable on residents of that state for vehicles Registered in said state.

I.E., in the example above - A person legally operating their 26,000 pound GCWR 'apparatus' down the road in MD (from out of state) doesn't have to worry that a resident of MD would need a different license for that configuration. It is only enforceable on MD titled vehicles in that example... Fed law trumps it if you are from out of state. It would only take the police a couple of seconds to determine if MD's specific, odd laws apply to the vehicle he is currently thinking about pulling over, for whatever reason.

As mentioned numerous times, CDL's are a totally different animal - they are national in scope by definition. In fact, you surrender your state drivers license when you earn one.

It has been an interesting, if not somewhat colorful conversation so far. Just goes to show even the experts aren't always 100% up to speed on all of it. ( I am far from an expert )

[PaulB12]

I don't think so in Fla. My license added a motorcycle and class B as an endorsement.
PaulB12

[Mad5581]

I've call WA state police, OR department of transportation, and CA state police (CHP). So WA and OR both Said the same thing RV's are exempt from weight regulations. You do not stop unless the signs specifically says RV's must stop. And both said only time they will do that is to inspect rv's for "road worthy condition". They will not weigh you. It would be impossible for the DOT to know the capacities of all makes models of pickup trucks. Because transmission, rear-end gears give you different capacities as well as different OEM suspension options effect your capacities also. Now if you have a US DOT# on your truck they have the ability to see what your truck is registered for by its DOT# and truck number. No DOT no way to know... CHP said any truck over 20k GVWR must stop regardless. But if it's seen its an RV they will 99% of the time bypass you. So 20k gvwr is way more then even an F450. Some motorcoachs will be in that range but few if any pickup trucks will get to that. Chp said also that big motorcoachs fly by the scales all the time without stopping and they basically never do anything about it. The scales are more or less for semi's. So don't worry about them. In WA I always get the "truck must stop" light and always blow right by the *chicken coop*. Never had an issue yet.

[NativeTexan]

Originally Posted by Bookemdanno

I probably should have added that I’ve never been pulled over for weight nor have I ever had to go into the scales for truckers.

Now...being a LEO, I have used a TX weights & measures trooper to have a F-350 dually towing a horse trailer (with horses in it) pulled over before...did I mention they were using the whole “cowboy” theme to haul dope?

You are showing your age. They have been called License & Weight for oh.... 25 years? Even mention Weights & Measures to some rookie road trooper and he will probably go "who?".

[Dave A]

A few years ago, I was rear ended in one of those chain reaction accidents. The people in front of me stopped and the guy behind me didn't. He rear ended me at 45 MPH and pushed me into the car ahead of me. Totaled the car that hit me, did a little over $12,000.00 damage to mine and I barely nicked the car in front of me. Everybody was very cooperative at the accident but later the people in the car I hit tried to sue me! They hired a lawyer and the lawyer hired a "Accident Reconstructionist" and claimed back injuries and such.

The Accident Reconstructionist determined I was speeding and driving inattentively. Trust me, you want everything about your rig to be legal cause people are sue crazy out there. The only thing that saved me was a dash cam and I had everything recorded.

Most of us have worked a good part of our lives and don't want to be sued out of hard earned money that we are trying to retire on.

I have since bought an even better dash cam (it has two cameras). Plus I weigh my own rig and keep it legal.

Be careful out there!

[LittleBill]

Originally Posted by Dave A

A few years ago, I was rear ended in one of those chain reaction accidents. The people in front of me stopped and the guy behind me didn't. He rear ended me at 45 MPH and pushed me into the car ahead of me. Totaled the car that hit me, did a little over $12,000.00 damage to mine and I barely nicked the car in front of me. Everybody was very cooperative at the accident but later the people in the car I hit tried to sue me! They hired a lawyer and the lawyer hired a "Accident Reconstructionist" and claimed back injuries and such.

The Accident Reconstructionist determined I was speeding and driving inattentively. Trust me, you want everything about your rig to be legal cause people are sue crazy out there. The only thing that saved me was a dash cam and I had everything recorded.

Most of us have worked a good part of our lives and don't want to be sued out of hard earned money that we are trying to retire on.

I have since bought an even better dash cam (it has two cameras). Plus I weigh my own rig and keep it legal.

Be careful out there!

Glad to hear your story and happy you won one. I hope to get a dash cam before I do any traveling.

Take care and be safe.