wa8yxm wrote:
mowermech wrote:
Montana Code Annotated 61-1-101 (82) (a)and (b):
""Trailer" means a vehicle, with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle.
(b) The term does not include a mobile home or a manufactured home, as defined in 15-1-101.
A passenger car or pickup is not designed to carry property (it is designed to carry PEOPLE), and is not designed to be towed by a motor vehicle (it has to be modified for that purpose). It is not a trailer in Montana.
Neither is a pole trailer or a mobile home or a manufactured home!
That is almost word for word the Michigan code as I recall. However a passenger car *IS* designed to carry property, how do you think the groceries get home from the store, and the modifications to make it towable constitute a RE-DESIGN. and after that it is DESIGNED to be towed in the manner specified.
So it is a trailer.. And it needs brakes.
Well, maybe...
MCA 61-9-312 states:
"Performance ability of brakes. On a dry, hard, approximately level stretch of highway free from loose material, a motor vehicle or combination of vehicles, upon application of the service brake, must be capable of stopping at a speed of 20 miles an hour within the following distances:
(1) 25 feet for passenger motor vehicles, except buses and pioneer vehicles;
(2) 40 feet for buses, trucks, and tractor trucks;
(3) 45 feet for motor vehicles registered or qualified to be registered as pioneer vehicles under 61-3-411(2)(a) when equipped with two-wheel brakes or 25 feet when equipped with four-wheel brakes;
(4) 40 feet for all combinations of vehicles; and
(5) 30 feet for motorcycles, quadricycles, and motor-driven cycles.
History: En. Sec. 2, Ch. 139, L. 1965; R.C.M. 1947, 32-21-143.2; amd. Sec. 44, Ch. 516, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 25, Ch. 431, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 178, Ch. 574, L. 2001."
A motorhome towing a vehicle certainly meets the criteria for a "combination of vehicles". Note paragraph (4). If that "combination of vehicles" can stop within 40 feet when meeting the criteria in the basic law, AUXILIARY BRAKES ON THE TOWED VEHICLE ARE NOT LEGALLY REQUIRED!
EDIT: I forgot to note that OF COURSE the Michigan and Montana laws are nearly "word for word". The Montana law is nearly word for word what the FMVSS has to say. Apparently the Michigan law parrots the FMVSS, also. As, apparently, do most other state Braking Performance Laws!
