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carlson1 wrote:I have only ventured into Oklahoma, Louisana, Mississippi, and Alabama. I have not actually personally pulled my 5th wheel since 2012. It is almost enough to make me want to sale it.

We had a 37' 5th wheel trailer we used a lot until the boys got so involved with youth and working on the kids ministry team that we didn't have time to camp. It sat for a year before we sold it and the truck. Now I'd really like to find a much smaller camper for the wife and I.

krieghoff wrote:

Charlies.Contingency wrote:So I have to go get all of my farm trailers inspected? Does this mean when it comes around for registration, I have to tow each of my trailers to town to get them inspected so their registration stays up to date? I bet Obama's not excited about all the diesel I'll be wasting to tow them, and all the carbon waste I'll be emitting to comply with this law, all for trailers I use once or twice a year.

If less than 34,000 lb.gross weight and if it has a farm plate on it, it's exempt from a state inspection. I too would be burning up a lot of fuel to inspect 5 trailers since it's about a 40 mile trip to do so!!

I was at DPS this morning checking it out. Turns out all my stuff is exempt anyway, so no worries here.

carlson1 wrote:I have only ventured into Oklahoma, Louisana, Mississippi, and Alabama. I have not actually personally pulled my 5th wheel since 2012. It is almost enough to make me want to sale it.

We have over 50K miles on our RV and have had it in many States (minus some of the NE) and Canada without incident. It can be challenging (like barely pulling into a State Park in OK before a ranger was pounding on our door, telling us to go the the bathrooms if we heard a siren). We belong to an RV group with members who are like us and have traveled a lot. Other than breakdowns, there is almost no problem anywhere over RV related inspection or licensing rules. Getting a proper license is more of an annoyance than a problem.

There are a variety of very good reasons from health to the activity just no longer being fun for people to give up their RV. I hope that a license or an inspection problem is not your only consideration. Please let me know if there is anything that I could do to help you get past those. I'm sure that my inspection guy would work with you, too.

chasfm11 wrote:

carlson1 wrote:I have only ventured into Oklahoma, Louisana, Mississippi, and Alabama. I have not actually personally pulled my 5th wheel since 2012. It is almost enough to make me want to sale it.

We have over 50K miles on our RV and have had it in many States (minus some of the NE) and Canada without incident. It can be challenging (like barely pulling into a State Park in OK before a ranger was pounding on our door, telling us to go the the bathrooms if we heard a siren). We belong to an RV group with members who are like us and have traveled a lot. Other than breakdowns, there is almost no problem anywhere over RV related inspection or licensing rules. Getting a proper license is more of an annoyance than a problem.

There are a variety of very good reasons from health to the activity just no longer being fun for people to give up their RV. I hope that a license or an inspection problem is not your only consideration. Please let me know if there is anything that I could do to help you get past those. I'm sure that my inspection guy would work with you, too.

I'm probably in need of a Class B license....
Our DP coach GVWR is 35,320 lb.
GCWR is 45,320 lb. - that gives us 10,000 lb. for the trailer (trailer is rated for 9,995 lb.).

BTW - regarding trailer inspection, it's a 28' box (33' overall) enclosed car hauler, local inspection place on NW Highway (just East of Main St.) in Grapevine did it lickity split. Said he inspects tractor trailers all the time too.

Charlies.Contingency wrote: I was at DPS this morning checking it out. Turns out all my stuff is exempt anyway, so no worries here.

Farm stuff? Why is it exempt?

I can tell you that getting DPS to give an appropriate written test for Class-A has been quite the challenge. Between my wife and I, we've probably spent 6 hours, taken 5 different written tests, and DPS finally issued our Class-A "learners" permits which enable us to take the driving portion. Per DPS paperwork, only a single written test should be required (Commercial rules).

It's a bit of a mess. Class-A includes the ability to drive class-B and class-c vehicles, but typically Class-A setups do not have air-brakes and Class-B setups do. I've taken 3 CDL written tests, my wife has taken 2 - sorta silly. The requirements for which tests you take will vary depending on the DPS location and what particular second of the day it is. I have yet to run into a DPS office location (I've been to 3) that understand what non-CDL class-A is and the DPS employees often take that out on the customer. We're continuing to escalate this with DPS customer service - it's hard to get an escalation and seems to only be available via email. I'm hoping that they'll provide a written policy for reference.

If you're near DFW - Denison, Texas seems to be the place to be that will help sort this out. If near Austin, I hear Marble Falls is good. I can't get either of these locations to pickup the phone in multiple days of calling, so expect to spend some amount of time visiting...

If you guys think this is a hassle, I'm not sure it's a good enough reason to stop driving. I've read of a few obscure tickets in east Texas and out of Houston, but in order for the ticket not to be a guess, they'd need to know your GVWR.

Once you're covered in Texas, you should be good everywhere. I believe states like Ohio actually require CDL.

cb1000rider wrote:

Charlies.Contingency wrote: I was at DPS this morning checking it out. Turns out all my stuff is exempt anyway, so no worries here.

Farm stuff? Why is it exempt?

I can tell you that getting DPS to give an appropriate written test for Class-A has been quite the challenge. Between my wife and I, we've probably spent 6 hours, taken 5 different written tests, and DPS finally issued our Class-A "learners" permits which enable us to take the driving portion. Per DPS paperwork, only a single written test should be required (Commercial rules).

It's a bit of a mess. Class-A includes the ability to drive class-B and class-c vehicles, but typically Class-A setups do not have air-brakes and Class-B setups do. I've taken 3 CDL written tests, my wife has taken 2 - sorta silly. The requirements for which tests you take will vary depending on the DPS location and what particular second of the day it is. I have yet to run into a DPS office location (I've been to 3) that understand what non-CDL class-A is and the DPS employees often take that out on the customer. We're continuing to escalate this with DPS customer service - it's hard to get an escalation and seems to only be available via email. I'm hoping that they'll provide a written policy for reference.

If you're near DFW - Denison, Texas seems to be the place to be that will help sort this out. If near Austin, I hear Marble Falls is good. I can't get either of these locations to pickup the phone in multiple days of calling, so expect to spend some amount of time visiting...

If you guys think this is a hassle, I'm not sure it's a good enough reason to stop driving. I've read of a few obscure tickets in east Texas and out of Houston, but in order for the ticket not to be a guess, they'd need to know your GVWR.

Once you're covered in Texas, you should be good everywhere. I believe states like Ohio actually require CDL.

Right off the bat they told me I had exemption status being registered under our farm. So... as long as I don't surpass the GVWR limits, I'm fine.

The ones around San Antonio are fairly decent compared to the other DPS offices I've visited. That's not saying a whole lot though, but at least they'll talk to me and not just blow me off like I'm an imbecile.