House trailer endorsement in BC

Not yet. I am also thinking of taking one soon.

And what if your are just visiting for a few weeks?

What is the definition of a house trailer in BC?

SweetLou wrote:
And what if your are just visiting for a few weeks?

I believe that it is legal for one to tow an rv over 10,200# in BC if you are qualified to do so in your own province. Not sure about the States.

nickthehunter wrote:
What is the definition of a house trailer in BC?

In BC, a house trailer is an RV over 4600 kg, or 10,200 lbs.

ssthrd wrote:
Has anyone taken the House Trailer Endorsement for your class 5 drivers license in BC? I'm wondering what the road test consists of.........

like a driving test. you pull in and park your truck and trailer where they tell you. then you get so long to do a pretrip inspection (I think it was 25 or 30 min) then you just go for a drive. they will have some route that they go on, if you have been towong for a while and dont run over curbs and such the driving part will be the easy part. the pretrip is the one that gets most people as they took a comercial pretrip and based it off that.

Steve

nickthehunter wrote:
What is the definition of a house trailer in BC?

a Pure RV or toy hauler. a horse trailer that has rv acomadations in the front doesnt qualify.

there are two different ways to go, the house trailer or the heavy tow endorsment. if you go the house trailer route then you can only tow heavy rv's over 4600Kg or 10143lbs. (thet go by the max GVW not the actual weight also) but not utility trailers horse trailer, even if it has a living quarter. it is also a permenant endorsment.

if you go the heavy tow it allows you to tow any type of trailer over the 4600Kg but it is a comecial endorsment so it is subject to comercial medicals and other requirments.

I have had my 07 endorsment for 4 years now and I have never been checked but it is probably better to get the endorsment and be covered.

Steve

StirCrazy wrote:

ssthrd wrote:
Has anyone taken the House Trailer Endorsement for your class 5 drivers license in BC? I'm wondering what the road test consists of.........

like a driving test. you pull in and park your truck and trailer where they tell you. then you get so long to do a pretrip inspection (I think it was 25 or 30 min) then you just go for a drive. they will have some route that they go on, if you have been towong for a while and dont run over curbs and such the driving part will be the easy part. the pretrip is the one that gets most people as they took a comercial pretrip and based it off that.

Steve

Thanks Steve. This is what I'm looking for.

I have years and many miles of seat time towing a travel trailer, but none with a 5er. When I get on the road soon, I have a buddy with a class one to baby sit me. Shouldn't take much to get used to it.

For the pretrip, were you allowed to have a checklist when you did yours? Most of it is common sense, I guess, but its easy to overlook a detail.

StirCrazy wrote:

nickthehunter wrote:
What is the definition of a house trailer in BC?

a Pure RV or toy hauler. a horse trailer that has rv acomadations in the front doesnt qualify.

there are two different ways to go, the house trailer or the heavy tow endorsment. if you go the house trailer route then you can only tow heavy rv's over 4600Kg or 10143lbs. (thet go by the max GVW not the actual weight also) but not utility trailers horse trailer, even if it has a living quarter. it is also a permenant endorsment.

if you go the heavy tow it allows you to tow any type of trailer over the 4600Kg but it is a comecial endorsment so it is subject to comercial medicals and other requirments.

I have had my 07 endorsment for 4 years now and I have never been checked but it is probably better to get the endorsment and be covered.

Steve

Thanks Steve.

Right about the weight in pounds. Used to be 12,500 lbs before metric was used. 4600 kg is a nice round number. It's how we roll these days.

Technically, they can require a medical and a vision test for the 07 endorsement, but just a declaration from me was enough in my case. Must be my good looks.

The word I get from ICBC is that they do go by actual weight. You can have a GWR of 4650kg and weigh 4599, and you are OK. It's the insurance you have to worry about in the case of an accident, although it would be a tough call to make in my case where I am relatively light. It would be null and void if you had an accident, did not have the endorsement, and the trailer was obviously over the minimum weight. eg, the trailer weight on the sticker was over 4600 kg.

Many Canadian 5th wheel owners that I have talked to have no idea that the endorsement is required in one form or another in every province in the country unless you have a commercial license.

ICBC doesnt know what they do. DOT goes by GVW and thats what in all the statutes as they have no way to physicaly weight you. also if you dig into the icbc paperwork it does say over 4600 gvw in some that arnt dumbed down for us people ;) the only reason they can ask for a medical is if you need one for your class 5 due to age, medical restrictions on your DL or what ever, so yes they could ask but the 020 heavy tow requires a comercial medical like you have to do with a class 1, 2 or 3.

5th wheel isnt bad, just have to get used to where the rear tires track I went from a 30 foot trailer to a 40 foot 5th , pulled it one trip then went and did my endorsment..

Steve