[Chevy454]

I don't know how it is anywhere else, but here in Missouri your tow vehicle tags have to cover the whole thing. From front to back, top to bottom, truck/trailer/load. For instance, on my dually that I sold not too long ago, we had 18,000 lb. tags on it, but was over that pretty easily with the double trailer. Heck, the trailer alone weighed 9k lbs., and the truck weighed 7k...load the cars and throw in some tools, and we were WAY over the limit! Now, we pull the same trailer with a soon to be crew cab TopKick, and have 36,000 pound tags on it, which are pretty salty.

The CDL thing is a whole other fiasco. Everyone we asked, from the license bureau, to truckers, to the MOHP, they all told us something different. But, the main theme seemed to be that you could drive as big a vehicle as you wanted, from 6K to 60K (or whatever!), without a CDL, as long as it wasn't for profit or for business...thus NON-COMMERCIAL. The very second you start seeing any money, is when you need a CDL, even if all you are driving is an old Ford Escort. It's kind of ironic, but I frequent the Studebaker newsgroup and a couple of members were talking about making the trip to the national meet in South Bend, when one of them mentioned that he got pulled over last year(?) in Colorado headed to the Stude meet, and had some parts in the back of his truck. When the officer asked what he was hauling the guy said his luggage, and some parts to sell at the swap meet. WHAMO! No CDL, which meant no log book, permits, etc, and meant he left with something like a $2,500 fine. On the same note, I got pulled over by the Colorado DOT last year, had to run across the portable scales, go over the rig, and jump through several other hoops before I could leave. The only thing that saved me was the guy I was meeting (I was delivering a car) happened to see us, and stopped, and new some of the DOT guys...he asked them what the problem was, and smoothed it out.

Look out for the DOT... [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]