Bob-I was fortunate enough to have attended a class conducted by the Pa.State Police this past Feburary at one of our dealerships pertaining to trailering for landscapers and those hauling construction equipment. First they state that their personnel know most of the laws however the ones that we must be concerned are those like the city police, the township police and the sheriffs dept., for they only know part of the laws. The important thing is that they may stop you and write you up and be wrong, however it is up to you to hire an attorney to get yourself out of the mess.
Most of the trailering laws that he spoke of were, effective January of this year you must now go into the scales if you are a combo of 10,001 lbs, previously it was 26,000 and most of us were not effected. By passing the scales is a $3,000.00 fine this was Federally mandated that they do this. I told him that they were opening up a can of worms and everyone with a trailer would be clogging up the scales. He told me this is exactly what they wanted because they wanted to see what was in all those trailers going up and down the highway, since 911. They also told me that they have found that a lot of retirees were subsidizing their retirement by transporting drugs from Mexico,California,Florida and New York.
I understood why they were pulling over landscapers trailers, but how about my race car trailer, his answer was, is their prise money at the race, and I answered yes, then he said it is considered commercial, the same as prises at a horse show. Another thing he talked about was securing fuel cans, a bungy cord is not good enough, they must be secure, and anything in that trailer must be secured. If you run your pick up truck down the highway with the tail gate down and a chain or a block of wood is laying in the bed not secured, it is a $500.00 fine.
He told us if your vehicle was over 10,000 gvw you must take it to an inspection station and get it inspected which must be displayed on both the truck and the trailer so that the weight master can see it and either wave you through or pull you around back. You must also have a fire extinguisher in both the truck and the trailer,and triangles or safety markers of some sort. Your mirrows must also be wide enough to see behind you and all of your lights must be working. I keep a log book although unless you are over 26,000 lbs it is not necessary but some sort of a report should be kept. You must also have the medical card and a valid drivers license.
My way around a lot of this is travel on the turnpikes when possible since they do not have scales. I have tried to tell the Hemi guys at the CC Events but they seemed to think that I was crazy, so Bob, I am glad you have brought this to everyones attention, sorry about the fine.