My dad will be borrowing my truck this summer for vacation. It will be hauling a 7 X 14 two axle trailer with electric brakes. The truck is registered in Texas and the trailer will be registered in Iowa. He just got new plates for his 94 Chevy truck and it was registered for ~3000lbs towing. He was wondering what the standard rating is with the Texas truck registration. I am thinking that it is around 10000lbs but could not find clarification on this. The trailer empty is 3800 and the truck is around 7000 without gear/people. Loaded, this should land in the area of the 12000 GVWR that the reciever hitch is rated for. The questions are will this truck need to be registered in a different class and will he need to be stopping at weight stations as he is crossing state lines? The states he will be going through are: Illinois, Indiana, Ohion, maybe West Viginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington DC. Any help is appreciated!

After doing research on this, if the truck goes out of state, it is supposed to adhear to federal DOT regulations. Does anyone know what they are?

Ok, I'm not catching your math.

Your 2500HD Tow vehicle is: 7000 lbs dry tare weight?
Trailer tare is: 3800?
Payload on trailer is: ?

What is the trailers rated weight capacity?


Help me out here and I'll be able to help you figure if you're going to be good.

With your truck being a classic civilian rig, in all honesty as long as you don't exceed the GCWR of the truck/trailer combo, don't exceed the rating of the trailer, and don't exceed your hitch capacity, you should be good and not really need to worry about any LEO's pulling you over. God knows if DOT had wanted to pull a pickup over crosscountry, every state would have had a ticket pre-written for me.

Thanks for getting back with me. I will find out the trailer capacity by tomorrow evening. The payload in the trailer will be 800-1000 pounds. I don't think this thing will be out of spec, but dad wants to know for sure to cover all of the bases.

Spoolin,
The GVWR for the trailer is 7000 pounds.

lol that means you're going to be hauling around a 5000 lb trailer behind a Duramaxs Diesel.

If your truck could not legally and physically handle that load, i would take a .44 magnum and go shoot the truck myself because it'd be a disgrace!

It's not a question about handling the "load". it is a question about how much the truck is registered to handle and how the DOT will look at it. I highly doubt that there is anything wrong here. I am just looking at a possible scenario about him getting pulled over due to pulling more than the truck is registered for. Am I making sense? I personally would just go and not worry about it. He wants the bases covered

On Edit: I understand Texas looks at the trailer plus the truck for the registration. Truck ~7000 empty, trailer~ 3800 empty puts total at 10800 unloaded. Loaded, the total may be above 12000. Is the standard truck registration in Texas for this amount or would it legally have to be bumped up to the next weight class?

Is this what you need?

ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/vtr/fees/fee2005.pdf

That helps, but wouldn't I be over 8000. Is there a page 2? BTW, I looked forever for something close to that. You must be more talented than me. :)

This is where I'm looking. I just searched Texas DMV. I have lots of experiance looking for info. :)

http://www.dot.state.tx.us/vtr/vtrreginfo.htm

So it looks like I need to research the gray area in between the 8000 pound max for the standard truck plate and the 34000 max from a farm truck plate. Thanks a lot for your help on this!

want some advice? stay out of ohio and you probably will be just fine.

I don't know what all the confusion is. If you are not hauling for hire but for your personal use and the truck is registered in Texas you don't have a problem at all with any trailer.

Most all dealers tag pickups based on 1/2 or 3/4 or 1 ton not by actual weight. I have questioned this practice and they do it to save money for the buyer on the registration. One day the will discover the missed revenue. I say this to say that all you have to do to get the actual GM truck gross wt on the registration is go to the tax office and have the wt rating changed to the GVWR on the door frame. Actually, however other states have to recognize the Texas registration. The only vehicles that have to stop at weight stations are commercial vehicles unless there is some very specific specification on the weigh station signs. I commercially haul travel trailers, etc. and we don't stop at weigh stations unless it says ALL COMMERCIAL VEHICLES or some such words. I do not remember any weigh stations that stop and weigh private vehicles but I have not been to all of them either. In some states there are some farm vehicles that are required to stop but that is rare.

Hook on to the trailer and do your thing as long as you ain't being paid to do it.

Tom

Thanks for the replies. I did some talking to people this weekend and found some things out. I called DOT weights and measures and they said it is a utility trailer not for hire, so it is fine. The tax place said I can raise the Gross to whats in the door. I think to cover both ends, the trucks registration will be raised to 12000 pounds and question is anwered.