pulling a trailer with a one ton pickup

All the talk about this brings two things to mind. The guy that I bought this place from, a retired trucker with emphzema pulled out of here (Bristol, IN) in a caravan of vehicles and trailers that should never have been on the road headed to their new home in Florida. Ive got a couple of pictures here showing my old AC B (Mark Krzyzanowski's mower), and one of them is my lab by the rear of his trailer as he was gettin ready to pull out. That tractor (Chevy Astro, not GMC Atsro) hasn't been made in at least 20 years, and that trailer (absolutely overloaded to the gill) sat on the property for years, broken and dry rotting. Pieces of junk. He drove it there with no CDL (retired before CDLs), and made it, sneaking over a 3 day period. Said had to replace 5 tires on the way on that unsafe piece of junk alone. The small block chevy engine that he put in the '80s ford 1/2 ton gave out pulling a 20 foot enclosed Wells Cargo 2 axled trailer, which lost 2 tires and brakes itself carrying a '40 something Dodge, and other stuff for who ever was driving it. Those are just some of the things in that 5 vehicle caravan of unsafe misfits that pulled out of here that will drive the troopers nuts, and for good reason.

When I put up my new barn, tried to grade it myself with a back blade on one of my tractors. Didn't work, or I just aint good at it. So had a guy come in and do it with a dozer for $65 an hour (was cheap). He, a former amish guy, brought in a Case dozer on the back of a 20' goose neck that gave his 3/4 ton Ford the working over of it's lifetime. He sneaked in here on back roads from 2 counties over, did the job, then asked me directions for some different, less travelled back roads so he could sneak it back home. Real nice guy though.

Mark.

Its gets real tricky because every state has its own rules and even if it has a rule it may or may not be enforced.

Such as my state..... Our law reads every thing one ton and above must stop at a scale. The rule is not enforced though with all the people buying one ton pickups lately. A lot of states set it as commercial has to stop. This is why you can often see large U-Haul trucks blow by the scales without a second thought. But on the other hand I have seen the weight masters chase down a 1/2 ton pickup that was obviously over weight. Our state allows 650 lbs per inch of tire.

As long as your tag is current and of the correct size and you can prove you own everything truck; trailer; load; I would stop. It only takes a few seconds and most times they will just flag you on. May save you the displeasure of making them mad and being chased down. Now if you get over 26,000 lbs that would be a different ball game.

Willie J (deisel pilot retired & former licensed peace officer)

Did get pulled over in Wy. by a DOT trooper but when he saw I was from Oklahoma, where we don't tag trailers,all was fine. Super nice guy too, collects Mustangs.

I was doing a phone repair in a State Police Barracks one time when got a frantic call from a trucker that was hauling something big from Iowa to Indiana, and got pulled over. His problem, whatever it was, was so big that needed an escort, and called ahead. He arranged an escort by calling the nearest SOI Police Barracks to Iowa, and arranged it. But what they didn't bother telling him, and he certainly didn't know was that "HE" needed to call and arrange escorts in all in each District that he passed through. Sure enough, got to the Illinois line from Iowa on I80, and got his escort as planned. They escorted him to the end of their District and dropped off, and he kept going until got pulled over for not having an escort, and they stopped him dead in his tracks until arranged one. Was a frantic call to where I was working. All I could think at the time was, poor guy tried to do the right thing and no one bothered to even offer a helpful hint or tip. It wasn't as though they didn't know what he was doing when he arranged it, right? Holy cow.

Mark