Survey - who has had a citation for RV overweight?

Having been in the trucking business at one time with a specialized heavy hauler and I obtained a lot of permits, the DOT scale houses are mainly concerned with weight as far as concerns to road bed or bridge damage. Part of what is called the "bridge formula", which concerns how the weight is "bridged" over the road surface into the bed underneath, covers the width of the tires, single or dualed tires to "bridge" the road and if the axles are spaced more than 10' 1"s apart.

Have you ever heard about an RV being concerned if their weight is spaced over a certain axle spread - No. Think about it for a moment, as far as the DOT is concerned, they're not interested in an RV because no matter how heavy you loaded one, you couldn't get enough weight on it to damage the road base - even during spring break-up weight restrictions when the truckers start adding more axles to "bridge" the load out.

Yes, the DOT will pull safety inspections and log book inspections on trucks - things they don't bother with on RVs. They're interested in Commercial Safety.

Bill

fj12ryder wrote:
^^^^^^^^I keep hearing that but I've never, ever seen any facts to back it up. Could you please cite a case where the overweight of the RV was considered a contributing factor and fines invoked? And how they actually decided the RV was overweight, and what they based their decision on?

Opinions are great, but facts are needed occasionally to base those opinions on.

Every picture I ever saw of an RV in an accident the RV disitegrated into shards of fiberglass and splinters of wood. There is no way to weigh that.

My Best friend is an RCMP officer and an RVer, last spring there was a mandatory course on overloaded RVs and how to spot them. He has never pulled over an RV, but has pulled over pickups that were severeley overloaded.

British Columbia, Canada is the only jurisdiction that I am aware of that has a law in place concerning weights of RV's. Their law indicates that an RV or tow vehicle with a GVWR under 5500 KGs cannot be loaded over that maximum gross vehicle weight rating. In practice it is very unlikely that a 2500 Duramax towing a fifth wheel would ever run into trouble but if a car or truck is towing something with its headlights pointing to moon and a LEO sees him he can have the vehicle weighed and charge the driver accordingly.



Fact sheet

^^^^^^^^I keep hearing that but I've never, ever seen any facts to back it up. Could you please cite a case where the overweight of the RV was considered a contributing factor and fines invoked? And how they actually decided the RV was overweight, and what they based their decision on?

Opinions are great, but facts are needed occasionally to base those opinions on.

Here's the real concern if an RV is overweight.... you and your family's safety. Not to mention the vehicles around you.

If you are involved in an accident with your RV and if the investigation determines your vehicle is over weight, whether the accident is your fault or not, the over weight condition can be considered a contributing factor. Possible liability for you and fines.

Ah the internet - America's number one source for adding unwarranted worry.

The only one I've seen was down in NC leaving ZMAX dragway and wasn't the normal trailer/fifth wheel. I was following a friend pulling a 30Ft racecar trailer with living quarters and he was pulled over and weighed. He was over his registered GVWR and received a fined which was $150 I think. They told him he was considered commercial because he received money and or products for competing. He also had the usual product stickers all over the side of the trailer.

DownTheAvenue wrote:
A friend at work said he has a friend who knows someone who got a ticket. So there.

That's enough proof for me. :B

Wadcutter wrote:
Spring time. Another 'overweight question".
Do you really think your rig or any rig is even close to approaching the max weight limits? Seriously?
As nickthehunter pointed out max axle weights are usually 20,000 lbs for a single axle, 34,000 for a tandem axle and 80,000 gross (total) weight.
When talking those 'big' numbers people's eyes glaze over and they don't have any concept of what they mean.
Let's put it in perspective looking at a 5th wheel. Your truck weights 8000 or a bit less. You have a heavy 5th wheel that weighs 15,000 lbs loaded. Total weight then is 23,000 lbs.
Now lets look at the semis running down the road. Look at one that has one of the 53 ft box trailers. The tractor unit is a long nose double sleeper, long wheelbase rig. Empty that combination will weigh about 23,000 lbs, maybe a bit less.
Look at the those numbers again. That empty semi weighs the same as if you had a heavy pickup and a fully loaded 5er.
When people truly understand weight laws then they would see just how silly these questions really are. They think because they have a 'big' camper that somehow they're in the big boy's league of hauling weight. Not even close. Think about it. Your truck and camper have tires which may be the same load handling capacity as what's on your car or maybe just a bit more. If your rig was over 20,000 axle (10,000 per tire) do you think your tires wouldn't give out long before you maxed 20,000?
And yeah, I was the weight police. The real weight police. I didn't get my knowledge from listening to some fat guy sitting around the campfire. For 27 years I weighed a lot of trucks, taught truck weight laws, was recognized by the courts as an expert in truck weight laws, and commanded the highest fine generating scales in the state of IL.

That empty semi you're talking about is a very light one. Our Kenworth weights 33,000 lbs empty without a trailer.

Wadcutter wrote:
Spring time. Another 'overweight question".
Do you really think your rig or any rig is even close to approaching the max weight limits? Seriously?
As nickthehunter pointed out max axle weights are usually 20,000 lbs for a single axle, 34,000 for a tandem axle and 80,000 gross (total) weight.
When talking those 'big' numbers people's eyes glaze over and they don't have any concept of what they mean.
Let's put it in perspective looking at a 5th wheel. Your truck weights 8000 or a bit less. You have a heavy 5th wheel that weighs 15,000 lbs loaded. Total weight then is 23,000 lbs.
Now lets look at the semis running down the road. Look at one that has one of the 53 ft box trailers. The tractor unit is a long nose double sleeper, long wheelbase rig. Empty that combination will weigh about 23,000 lbs, maybe a bit less.
Look at the those numbers again. That empty semi weighs the same as if you had a heavy pickup and a fully loaded 5er.
When people truly understand weight laws then they would see just how silly these questions really are. They think because they have a 'big' camper that somehow they're in the big boy's league of hauling weight. Not even close. Think about it. Your truck and camper have tires which may be the same load handling capacity as what's on your car or maybe just a bit more. If your rig was over 20,000 axle (10,000 per tire) do you think your tires wouldn't give out long before you maxed 20,000?
And yeah, I was the weight police. The real weight police. I didn't get my knowledge from listening to some fat guy sitting around the campfire. For 27 years I weighed a lot of trucks, taught truck weight laws, was recognized by the courts as an expert in truck weight laws, and commanded the highest fine generating scales in the state of IL.

Very well put.
I was on the other side of the counter. I drove up to 120,000 lbs for 17 years, and I made it my job to know more about the weight limits than most of the people on your side of the desk. I am not saying I was an expert, but I would often show enforcement officers the correct lines to look at in the bridge weight limit guides. Most were only interested in making sure the paperwork was in order.

I stay away from almost all "weight police" threads. Most of them really don't make any sense.