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MNDOT at it again.

O

oldtanker

Well-known Member
Just got home from running into Henning MN. MNDOT enforcement was setting about 100 yards north of the MN 108/210 junction. As I left town they had a contractor pulled over in a 3/4 ton pickup with a goose neck on, 2 pallets of what looked like morter mix wel tied down.

Guess the state is really hurting for money.


Rick
 
Here in Iowa they pulled my buddy over gave him a $600.00 ticket for not having a red plastic gas can securely strapped down. Everything else passed inspection. The Judge threw it out of court.
 
As much as I dislike DOT, all I can say is it's about time DOT somewhere started cracking down on the smaller vehicles. As someone who has a heavy truck that pays through the nose to maintain it in a safe condition, keep tagged for the weight I haul and then some, keep insured in accordance with the applicable laws, get my health card every year to comply with the law, etc, etc, etc, it has always pi$$ed me off to see these guys with their dualies/pickup using them to run a business just like I do, yet having DOT look the other way while, at the same time, hitting up guys with heavy trucks who were actually doing what they were supposed to do and were legal in every way. The way I see it if the guy was legal then he has nothing to worry about as DOT has a right to stop any commercial, or commercial appearing vehicle, just to do an inspection, and doesn't have to have cause to do it. If th guy turned out to be illegal, or somhow unsafe and gets a fine then it's no different than any other motorist in their Honda Civic getting a ticket for speeding.

The vast majority of DOT rules are there for a purpose (ie public safety, road and bridge maintenance/life issues, etc)and if you don't care to follow them then you don't need to be driving a vehicle that falls under their perview. If you do then you'd better be legal or be ready to get the fine. I deal with that every day and have gotten two weight tickets over the past 12 years for being over on my rear axel. I have yet to complain about Them giving me a ticket for MY failure to comply with the same laws everyone else has to comply with.....So why should the guy uo talk about being stopped have any complaints about it either...especially if he is actually legal????
 
If it was a commercial vehicle (in any capacity) there should NOT have been a PLASTIC gas can in the truck in the first place.
 
there beginning to look at the smaller trucks out here too, about time, some of these 1 tonners are pulling some ridiculous weights with them and they have neither the truck, nor the experience nor the license to do it and people get hurt, its time people understand if you need to move a big load, get a big truck,
 
I agree with NC Wayne. I drove semi for 30 years and we had to live with regulations every day. What I found while we were sometimes over regulated some bozzo could buy a big travel trailer and pull it with a vehicle that wasn't fit to be on the road in the first place. Sometimes if the wind was blowing they were all over the road or going about 40 miles an hour in the left lane. When I was trading tractors I had an 18 foot goose neck trailer that I pulled with a 1972 Chevrolet, big block 400 engine and 400 transmisson, I had double overload springs on back, stablizer bar both front and rear. I got inspected on the Minnesota/Iowa border one day and all the man could find wrong was a tail lite on trailer was cracked. He said that he had to find something wrong, as everything else was OK.
 
If you just bought it new in town--how are you supposed to get it home? Walk home and carry it? He never said if it was full or empty.
 
Guys I'm going to take a little differant stand here & I don't mean to upset anyone but I am one of those guys that until just recently drove a 1 ton dually pulling a enclosed trailer making deliveries. I delivered high dollar cars & I mean high dollar sometimes over a 900K but most were over 500K dollars to customers. I also had to have a DOT health card, had to keep a log book, & had over 850K miles accident free. To the best of my knowledge I was never illegal as I was stopped quite often by DOT officers in almost all of the states at one time or another & also stopped at all weigh stations & was NEVER found to be illegal or had any safety issues. Now back to the original topic here. In my opinion I defend the BIG trucks. What I feel are some of the most dangerous vehicles out there are these people driving RYDER or U HAUL rental trucks. Most of these people set behind a desk all there life & then go rent a truck & drive it at crazy speeds sometimes pulling a trailer hauling something that anyone could see hauling something that is not strapped down correctly. There loads aren't balanced, safety chains are draging on the highway, & tarps are flaping in the wind. The second biggest violators are these idiots pulling campers & horse trailers (the only differance between them & the U HAUL drivers is they own there own vehicles) these guys & gals have NO SENSE at all out on the road & are the drivers that DOT should be stopping. Some of them don't have mirrors that reach out beyond the width of the trailer they are pulling & most need help backing up. I have seen some of those people pulling campers sucking on oxygen & have no clue where they are or how they got there. Gerald
 
If it didn't have gas in it, it wasn't a gas can, just a red plastic container.....If it has gas in it, you aren't allowed to haul a plastic container of gas in a commercial vehicle. It's that simple.
 
nothing wrong with your setup, what i have a problem with is these not to bright types, who decide they want to be in say the backhoe business, even though theres one on every street corner here, they buy a full size commercial backhoe, extra buckets and accessories, fuel tank, mount it all on a dual tandem axle backhoe trailer of 25 to 30 feet overall including dovetail then hook it all to a 1 ton pickup, because they dont want to spend any more money and pick up a used larger truck to do the pulling, the trailer and tractor is way over the need for a class A cdl but they figure running it behind a 1 ton makes it all leagle, there mighty diesel can pull the load because the same engine is found in larger trucks, but since they have no experience, they hurt and kill somebody when they take a corner at twice the speed that they should and the trailer and load pushes the light pickup over into the other lane and they hit somebody or they come up on a stop sign and find they dont have enough brake to stop the load, or they start on a hill and rip the driveline out of the 1 ton because its trying to move 5 times the max load it is rated for then they roll back and total somebody car , these are the types the dot is trying to take off the road, same as they did when the cdl system took effect, they wanted to remove the guy sitting on a orange crate, in the cab of a old 5 axle rig with the brakes working on 2 of them, and his previous truck driving experience was in a toyota i dont like the dot, im a professional driver too, i do some heavy haul, and im a magnet for them, nothing like having to pull into a inspection with a dozer that is 12 feet wide, they want to see every permit, every lite lit and spend a hour or more going over every nut and bolt on the whole rig, then if they cant find anything because ive already doted all the i's and crossed all the t's they make up something to issue a ticket over, but we just cant have dangerous trucks on the road,with inexperienced operators, it may be your family they hit
 
Didn't know they sold metal ones any more, huh. All the tow trucks in town have plastic gas cans on them to refill drivers that run out of gas. Not saying they are legal, but its what is done. Trouble with DOT is the many many many rules, and every officer has a different view of what is or isn't right. When it turns away from safety, and into money collecting, then it bothers me.

Paul
 
On a one ton and gooseneck, do you need the pickup tonnage on the pickup big enough to carry the hole unit or just the weight on the truck? Thank's
 
HMMMMMMM..... I wonder how they get the gas to the station if they can't haul it in a commercial truck?
 
Seems there are lots of opinions on here.

Honestly, if you are following the laws, you have nothing to be worried about. Keep your GVW in the correct range and all should be fine. Tie down everything, have good brakes, lights and tires.

If you really want to get to the bottom of these guys running a 3/4 or 1 ton and pulling all this weight, it comes down to insurance. If you go an get the bigger truck you need, you get hammer on insurance for that truck that you drive on occasion.

Let's be honest, you probably aren't using it for farm use going to a tractor show, but people do it.

The real problem is that every agency and company is trying to get their fair share to keep their part running. Laws were written with good intentions that cost everyone. Then enforcement was written to drive revenue.

It's all a big joke and almost makes you want to just sit at home.
 
Week ago, load on a semi didn't clear a railroad overpass at Milan, Mn. Part of his load hit an oncoming vehicle and killed driver.
 
The last time I saw MNDOT with someone pulled over it was a dually pickup pulling a long gooseneck stock trailer. The trailer was low in the front and the pickup was squatting low in the back. I don't know if it was badly balanced, overloaded, or if both right rear dual tires were flat. I felt MNDOT was doing it's job that time.
 
(quoted from post at 16:58:51 02/08/13) nothing wrong with your setup, what i have a problem with is these not to bright types, who decide they want to be in say the backhoe business, even though theres one on every street corner here, they buy a full size commercial backhoe, extra buckets and accessories, fuel tank, mount it all on a dual tandem axle backhoe trailer of 25 to 30 feet overall including dovetail then hook it all to a 1 ton pickup, because they dont want to spend any more money and pick up a used larger truck to do the pulling, the trailer and tractor is way over the need for a class A cdl but they figure running it behind a 1 ton makes it all leagle, there mighty diesel can pull the load because the same engine is found in larger trucks, but since they have no experience, they hurt and kill somebody when they take a corner at twice the speed that they should and the trailer and load pushes the light pickup over into the other lane and they hit somebody or they come up on a stop sign and find they dont have enough brake to stop the load, or they start on a hill and rip the driveline out of the 1 ton because its trying to move 5 times the max load it is rated for then they roll back and total somebody car , these are the types the dot is trying to take off the road, same as they did when the cdl system took effect, they wanted to remove the guy sitting on a orange crate, in the cab of a old 5 axle rig with the brakes working on 2 of them, and his previous truck driving experience was in a toyota i dont like the dot, im a professional driver too, i do some heavy haul, and im a magnet for them, nothing like having to pull into a inspection with a dozer that is 12 feet wide, they want to see every permit, every lite lit and spend a hour or more going over every nut and bolt on the whole rig, then if they cant find anything because ive already doted all the i's and crossed all the t's they make up something to issue a ticket over, but we just cant have dangerous trucks on the road,with inexperienced operators, it may be your family they hit
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Now that is one long sentence. You forgot your period
 
Hey I wasn't complaining. I too think it's about time. I mostly posted this thread because of the question about a goose neck on a 1/2 ton pickup. I think you are going to see more and more DOT's going after commercial and farm pickups. With some of the rigs I've see around here I have no problem with it.

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 11:45:25 02/08/13) If it didn't have gas in it, it wasn't a gas can, just a red plastic container.....If it has gas in it, you aren't allowed to haul a plastic container of gas in a commercial vehicle. It's that simple.
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Could you please provide the statute on that from the FMCSR? Last I knew a DOT approved container could be made of metal or plastic but not glass. But, things change, so it could be.
 
FWIW, in my 6 or 7 years as an NYSP DOT Inspector, we were more than happy to do an inspection and let the guy go with no tickets and of course Level 1's got the window sticker. Several of the Canadian Co.'s gave their drivers a $50.00 bonus for getting a Level 1 sticker.
 
(quoted from post at 05:37:58 02/09/13) FWIW, in my 6 or 7 years as an NYSP DOT Inspector, we were more than happy to do an inspection and let the guy go with no tickets and of course Level 1's got the window sticker. Several of the Canadian Co.'s gave their drivers a $50.00 bonus for getting a Level 1 sticker.
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In the two years I had my triaxle dump I got a complete inspection just once. As he was nearing the end he was actually getting giddy at the condition that my four year old truck was in, and telling me that I was going to get a sticker. Just as he was finishing he found a broken weld on one of the tabs for the strap that the body came down on, but he still gave me the sticker.
 
Around here, a pallet of mortor weighs about 3500 lbs (42 80 lb bags + pallet) 7000 lbs plus trailer, no sweat. I have seen masons come in the yard and pickup 2 pallets of mortor and 1/2 a pallet of brick (packed around the mortor) and run with it.
Tim in OR
 
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