Illinois towing issues?

[Jeff Teuton]

Your number 3 is the 390.3.

[Don Whitmore]

Originally Posted by Jeff Teuton

Your number 3 is the 390.3.

Jeff...is the wording 'not for compensation' in section 390.3 the grey area that law enforcement can exploit with racers? Is there a specific definition in the section that defines what 'not for compensation' means?

(3) The occasional transportation of personal property by individuals not for compensation nor in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise

I used to work with US and state agencies and found they would like to take advantage of regulation wording like this.

Don

[J DeForrest]

I believe this is what Mr Jeff is talking about:

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations...390.3?guidance

Look at question 21

[Jeff Teuton]

If the rig is in your name, then you have exercised your right to use 390.3. There is no requirement to have your tax return. A great answer is "if I get a 1099 on any racing proceeds, I file it on my personal return as 'other income' ". I don't know how many of you were in Indy last year where the Indiana people put on a nice informative meeting, they were really surprised when I told them both my motor homes were titled and operated in my name along with the trailers. They asked why, and my answer was and still is, I pay tax people to tell me what to do with things like this vs. the risk involved. They provided a page with 390.3 on it. On length, they actual enforcement guy (a real street guy) when asked how many tickets had they issued for motorsports vehicles, his reply was 'none'. Sorta said it all. Indiana has no lenght for Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMV), but it was not eliminated for private vehicles, but they aren't going to issue any. The great thing about 390.3 is it specifically says money is allowed. Most of the time these officers are taught 'do you earn money for this'. They have never seen the manual, but just an honorable mention of this for private carriers is some class they took. I hope NHRA does this again. I found it very informative. Always insisit 'this is not a CMV'. Don't back up on that. Big decals on the side don't really help. And the couple I heard of about decals on the race car, a good answer is 'would that matter if the trailer were empty'. Gray areas is what you want because they don't want to go there. Remember their job is enforcing the regs on CMV's and that is what they should do. Anyone in that business takes care of the issues connected with CMV's. I would get a manual. For 15 bucks, you got something they don't.

[Don Whitmore]

Jeff...thanks for all your work and efforts to help educate the racer on this subject. It would certainly screw-up a fun weekend of racing to get confronted with this and not be ready for it, no matter what state your in.

Don

[Bill Edgeworth]

Jeff,
I have a question for you regarding this especially because you sell Mopars.
I recently bought a new 1 ton Ram Diesel. The Registration says it has a Scale weight just a little over 8,000 pounds and a gross weight of 14,000. When it was registered here in Washington they put Commercial as the use code. I asked the licensing agent about this and they said they had to put that down because of the gross weight. Never faced this issue before my Ford was quite a bit lighter.
So it’s a personally registered vehicle but use code says commercial (even though it’s not) so wouldn’t that fuel the fire if I was pulled over?

[Jeff Teuton]

States vary. DOT starts @ 10000 lbs and applies to commercial vehicles and that is federal. If you get stopped and scaled, you actual weight determines any infractions. Down here we select the GVW we want within reason related to the GVW of the truck. Your state might not have a non commercial plate for the 14k GVW. I can inquire to a few friends that handle plates for companies, but we are a little far from you. One thing it could be and we have it here; the state will charge you more for that tag. I would send a letter to your state DMV asking the questions. Can't hurt. Hope this might help.

[Mike Keener]

Great information big guy!

No wonder we have been friends such a long time!

Hope is all well...

Me & Merc

[CMcAllister]

Is a diesel dually/gooseneck living quarters set up more likely to attract problems than a motorhome/tag combo?

Other than length, what kind of laws/regs are individual states able to or likely to have in place that could effect those out of state rigs? Can they trump federal regs or just be in addition to them? Is it becoming a necessity to know the legal details in each state that one may be driving through?