Weigh Station ??
We were driving our 38 ft Class A MH West on I-20. As we entered MS a sign said "All Vehicles Over 5 Tons Must Enter". I didn't. Surely they meant DOT vehicles and trucks, right? Is a RV ever requ...
Forum Discussion
Rick Jay wrote:
Hi,
I always thought that the weigh stations only applied to commercial vehicles.
So item #3 in the "Weigh Station Rules" link posted above states:
"Passenger or specialty vehicles that weigh over 10,000 pounds must stop for weighing in Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada and Pennsylvania."
Once I had 3 of my trucks captured in a county just east of home. My lawyer did not know how things would turn out, so I went to court with her. (Legal tickets, we where stealing. I had promised my hands if they run fat I pay 70% of the fine) But for the sake of discussion, over half of the defendants where guys that did not license their pickup heavy enough for the GCVW of pickup and boat. Now we where all caught by portables, not a scalehouse.
As for checking if we were over the weight of our tires for safety.... Is that even a possibility? Most of the weigh stations I do see usually have the trucks rolling along and not even stopping. How the heck could they weigh an RV and then make a determination that it was over its axle ratings or tire ratings and was a safety concern.
At any time, a switch can flip, stop part of that line. So the possibility is there. Is it probable? No. Most likely outcome is you get waved thru. But if the LEO thinks you should of stopped, runs you down, the fines or lawyer fees will add up.
I always assumed that the commercial vehicles had maximum weight ratings specified by the D.O T. for the type of truck and number of axles. They didn't check to see if the rig was "safe" carrying that weight.
Axle spacing is more important than weight rating when it comes to legal weight. When it comes to trucks, (Not tractor/simi-trailer) tire rating is most likely to be issue on steering axle, because everybody has tires on the other axles for the 20,000 limit. But you better believe that the trucks are subject to safety inspection at the scale. If weight watcher sees number on the scale that looks big for the size of your tires, you will have a issue. Of course, just like "If we don't test we won't find cases" Just because you don't know the weight on your tires, the tire does. Bang is always inconvenient, but can be deadly.
