License plates by weight

lbrjet wrote:
7K is the standard Indiana truck plate. When I registered my F250 she got out a 7K plate and I said what is the next step up from that. She said 9K and I said I'll take that. She said that is going to cost me an extra $20 per year are you sure that is what you want? I said yes. She said but your truck weighs 6600lbs why would you want the 9K plate? I said please just give me the 9K plate.

Yea. I had my 3500 Chevy Dully originally licensed at 7000 pounds, then found out if I ever hauled anything that brought to total weight over 7000 I'd be in violation. So, about the 3rd year I owned the truck, I switched to a 11,000 pound tag. Reason? The pay load is slightly over 11,000 pounds.

One other thing I learned, the "pay load" does not include the weight of the trailer.

Let's say the truck weighs 7000 pounds by itself, empty. If the trailer is hitched and the tongue or 5er pin weight adds (let's just say) .. 1000 pounds, that 1000 pounds is NOT added to the weight of the truck (for traffic violation purposes) although the actual weight on the truck is now 8000 pounds.

But if you haul a load of rock in the bed of your truck and it weighs 1000 pounds, you've just added 1000 pounds (total) weight to the truck (for license purposes) you are now overloaded 1000 pounds.

So if your total weight goes over the license plate weight, you (could) get into legal trouble. Now, I keep a shell on my truck all the time, the possibility of loading it to 11,000 pounds will probably never happen. I could have stayed with the 7,000 license plate, but I wanted to make sure the truck was licensed to accommodate (anythng!) ... it's max weight (for license purpose ... not necessarily for the actual capacity of the truck itself).

Indiana is a real confusing state!