Just a little story about my drive home from Canadian Nationals.  Everything was going fine considering the length of our trip, no flat tires, minimal construction and an easy border crossing.  We had just finished a 2 hour rest stop at a lovely Iowa rest area with shaded area to park under and fresh cold water for the horses.  I was ready to get back in the truck and start my "tank of gas" shift.  We were back on I-29 heading south nearing the Missouri border when I noticed an Iowa state trooper fly past me and pull up next to the truck and trailer I was following.  Next thing I know we are both on the side of the road with drivers license and registration in hand.  We were only doing 60mph, seat belts on and I was pretty sure we both paid for fuel at the last stop.  After an hour on the side of the road it was my turn to sit in the cruiser.  It turns out I was in violation of 12 regulations, there were more but officer no.394 was nice enough to stop there.  Apparently the F-350 dually and 3 horse living quarter trailer I was pulling was considered a commercial motor vehicle and I was not qualified to drive it nor was it in compliance with the regulations of a CMV.  The GVWR of my truck(10,000) and trailer(20,000) is 30,000lbs There other truck and trailer was also cited being that it was an F-550 and 8 horse trailer and over the GVWR.  Both "rigs" were over the weight limit of a Class C driver's license, which we were informed is a combined truck and trailer GVWR of 26,001 pounds.  The list of 12 violations included, no in truck fire extinguisher (the one in the trailer doesn't count), insufficient warning devices (triangles), no record of duty status, driver failing to retain previous 7 days log, driver vehicle inspection report, operating a CMV without a periodic inspection (got that one twice), not being licensed for type of vehicle being operated, no drivers medical certificate on driver's possession, no pretrip inspection and finally a log violation. Also we did not a DOT number displayed or an ID number or name on the side of the truck.  Fortunally, I was only cited for three of those offensed, officer no.394's printer ran out of paper, my lucky day.  He also informed me I was now "out of service until qualified" and had it not been 97 degrees outside he would have pulled us off the road.  After 3 hours on the side of the road he didn't want the horses to ge sick.  So we got back on the road and got the hell out of Iowa and made sure to call all the other farms headed south and told them to avoid I-29.  A few hours later we got a call from another farm who had just passed through Iowa and said a road block had been set up for all horse trailers on I-29 and they had them lined up on the side of the road. 

After returing home and trying to sleep I did a little reasearch.  I remember hearing about some type of regulations on horse trailers about 20 years ago, but I have not had in trouble in that amount of time.  I went to the FMCSR website which was mostly useless but I did find out that the tickets and violations I recieved on my pick up truck and recreational horse trailer do fit under the CMV regulations.  A class A drivers license is required for any combination of vehicles with a GVWR of 26,001 or more lbs. provided the GVWR of the towed vehicle is in excess of 10,000lbs. Don't some two horse trailers weigh more than 10,000lbs.  After I got the tickets I was curious about the actual weight of my truck and trailer.  At the next fuel stop I weighted it on a CAT scale, with a full tank of diesel, 2 horses, 14' living quarter with a generator, 7 peoples luggage, and 4 dogs it came out with a gross weight of 22,760lbs.  It breaks down like this steering axle 4540lbs., drive axel 7560lbs. and trailer axel 10,660 lbs. 

I just wanted to pass on my experience and see if anyone else has gone through something like this.  With just the little reasearch I have done it seems as though these laws and regulations are really going to hurt the horse industry.  I encourage all of you to haul to do some research and really think about the impact this is going to have on your life, whether it is your livelihood or just for recreation. I will post some links and other information soon and would encourage others to do so as well.

Thanks

We went thru Iowa the end of July with a 3500 Dodge dually pulling a 4 horse 14 ft lq trailer.  No trooper.  Suggest you might want to contact some branch of Iowa state government as this situation sounds very weird to me.  Personally I think I would start with the Office of the Attorney General.  Surely Iowa does not want people avoiding the state like it has plague....especially since so many of us east of the Ms River need to travel thru Iowa to get to the Dakotas etc.

Also you may want to contact any breed organizations about this.... AQHA maybe?

My understanding was that if we were legal in our home state then we were legal everywhere....but what do I know.....

Or was the State of Iowa on a fundraising mission?

Boy...that stinks.  I can see citing you if you had been driving recklessly, speeding or something like that, but sounds like the p.o. was just in a bad mood, to not let you off with just a warning.  I wonder if this had anything to do with the NAIS?  Getting to be that you have to have a lawyer to haul next door......

Why would  AQHA be of any help? PS- candaian nationals is an arabian horse show.......

This is a matter for a good lawyer.

I live in Iowa and to be honest, if you ask 2 different officers, you will probably get two different answers.

I found this on the Iowa DOT website, make sure to check out page 30 and 31 of the Document (I did a search for horses).

http://www.iamvd.com/omve/truckguide.pdf

I have some friends who are in the law enforcement field, I will try to get an answer from them.

I live in Minnesota My wife manages a feed store. For a spring promotion she had a DOT lady come in and go over trailer laws with her customers on a saturday. We used her cousins trailer for a demonstrator vehicle. When she was done with his truck and trailer she said that she could have gave him a long list of tickets along with an out of service tag. But since he was there being a good sport for education he got told to fix it.

If you are hauling your own personall horses in a living quarters trailer it is considered a RV and a Class A/ DOT requirements are not required.

If you do not have a living quarters or the horses are not yours you are required to follow all Comercial vehicle requirements for you vehicle over 20lbs. Now no matter what the weight is in Minnesota if you are commerical hauling you need full Commercial insections as well.

His truck and trailer. 2003 F350 4x4 shortbox non dually with a 4 horse featherlite big horse. She said wether he used for his business or not ( he is a farrier and horse transporter)

 He needs to have a class A license which he did have, but what he didnt have was:

A dot number, Dot inspection, Federal Fuel tax permit ( he transports out of state), Job application in glove box, Name on the side of the truck, marker lights on the roof of truck,  log book, Working break away cable.

I have to say something here,and I may get blasted from people about it,but,I'm used to that on here.I personally think that is a bunch of BULL S---!!

You can pull all the sorry looking crap you want to all over our state,most without tags,ect.Big farm trucks,running up and down the roads during harvest (I'm not protesting because we're farmers) but who the H-- cares if those guys trying to make an honest living getting a crop out has a commercial license,ect.?

I see all sorts of rigs going up and down the road in Missouri,too,not to mention Mississippi (we won't even talk about stuff on the road there and in Louisiana.) And what does anybody care THERE? They don't.

I don't think they have enough to do up there in Iowa,myself.It's just about the silliest thing I've ever heard,and a blatant all out discriminatory effort to find a way to stick it to some out of staters going through there pulling a horse trailer,for crying out loud.

How the H--- do they think that everybody passing through each state using the highways that tax dollars out of every taxpayer and consumer in the country have paid for is going to know each law in each state?

I think those cops need to be worried about things a little more serious that are affecting this country than some horse trailers passing through THEIR territory that they can take advantage of.Such as:drugs. I'm sure Iowa is not an exception,hickey as it is (And I'm from the king of Hickey states myself,I'll admit) in that they've got them there,too.

There are no real freedoms anymore.Pulling over horse trailers? Come on.I don't think they are busy enough.

We were taking our LQ trailer that we had traded up to Missouri to meet up with the man bringing the other one at a certain designation.

We were pulled over by one of Arkansas' finest,and he must have known exactly where to sit to pull US over with over 40' of rig,because there was only one place we could pull over at that spot.Had he not caught us there,we would have had to have driven several miles,lights flashing and probably several other hillbilliy gestapos on the way before we could safely pull over.

Anyway,we couldn't imagine what in the world he was stopping us for.We were by no means speeding,trying to climb a long hill,truckers and others flying by like we were sitting still,ect.He was polite,asked for  driver's license and insurance proof,and walked around the trailer,looked in the bed at the hitch,I'm assuming,since Arkansas recently enacted safety chain laws (can you believe it??)

Then he tells us calmly,'You guys are running with your park lights on,you know,that's illegal to do here."

I thought,"WHAT???" Pull us over with a rig that took half a football field to get into,people passing by all the while like they were going to a fire,and we'd met deer hunters by the tons that day with old trailers/no tags,probably had stolen 4 wheelers loaded on them,no tagged deer,ect.already.(First day of deer hunt.)

We have automatic light function on our truck,and he'd turned the lights on manually,but just had not turned the switch far enough over for the headlights to come on.We explained it to the officer.We had no idea,but we knew about the parking light law anyway.He politely gave us a warning and sent us off,and went on his way,presumably to catch another big horse trailer coming through.

We met about 6 cars down the road driving with their park lights on.I'd loved to have been able to turn around and go back,see what happened.

I live in Iowa, and this has been going on for several years now.  One of my friends was pulling his living quarters trailer down the interstate with no horses in it, and drove past the weigh station without pulling in.  One of the DOT officers then proceeded to chase him down and made him come back to the scales.  They then threw the book at him similar to what happened to keeponhaulin. 

The DOT in Iowa seems to think that there is some easy money to be made cracking down on laws that pertain to the trucking industry.  An officer from the DOT spoke at the Iowa Horse Fair this past spring, and he primarily explained how they interpret the law. If your GVW rating of your truck and trailer combined exceeds 26,000 pounds, you are required to have a CDL and meet all the requirements that having a CDL entails, no matter why you are hauling.  If you are under 26,000 combined, you are OK with a class C license, as long as you aren't using your vehicle for commerce.   However, they define commerce as anything that adds value to your horse, such as showing.   Also, they consider hauling a mare to a farm to get bred as commerce, or selling a horse at auction.

I asked specifically that since I don't deduct any expenses for my horses on my taxes, and consider it strictly a hobby, if these regulations applied to me.  His response was that they aren't the IRS, and yes they do apply to me.  My wife and I then decided that if we are ever stopped by the DOT, we are always coming from a trail ride, and never a show or a roping.

The only exception to the above laws is if you can get your vehicle registered as an RV, then these laws don't apply to you.  The frustrating part is that there can be an 85 year old guy driving his Freightliner pulling a huge 5th wheel travel trailer and they can't touch him, but they can get all over me because I've been to the local horse show and had a chance to win $10.

I think the horse industry needs to get a better organized and get some lobbyists, as that is what the RV industry has done.  Until this happens, unfortunately we'll hear even more of this kind of thing, whether it's Iowa or some other state that decides that there is some easy ticket money to be had.

OK   I admit that I did not know that the Canadian Nationals was an Arabian horse show.  Now as to AQHA, they are large, well organized and very interested in everything that affects the use of horses in the United States.  They offered legal assistance to the Shawnee and were rebuffed (yeah, I know....goofy). 

Having said that, I am a lawyer.  We are legal in TN and our trailers DO NOT have tags because we are a farm.  We tried to get the BRAND INSPECTOR in South Dakota to come inspect our horses and papers.  He REFUSED to come to the camp;  wanted us to load up and come to a town where there was NO PLACE to unload the horses safely.  THAT counts as a REFUSAL.  We did not get stopped anywhere, BUT I was READY and LOADED for BEAR.....AND LITIGATION. 

 I still think Iowa is looking for easy money because people will get the h--- out of the state and just mail in the fines.  In the olden days, there were certain counties in certain states that always had speed traps looking for out of state plates for this reason.

So again I say, if you are legal in your state then you are legal everywhere.  It is called the Commerce Clause in the US Constitution.....that is why you do not have border crossings at every state line.  IMO Iowa is VIOLATING the US Constition since they are IMPEDING interstate commerce.

I wonder what DOT would do if EVERY dually owner simultaneously asked for DOT numbers

AND every farm trailer likewise

  Rose, Go get em girl!!!!

 dbhocker, I have a small part time golf cart business and sell small equipment trailers to go whith them.

This is the information I get from my trailer supplier.

The axles with 5 lugs are #3500, the axles with 6 lugs are called #5200, the ones with 8 lugs are called #7000.

Now for the funny part a #5200 6 lug axle actually weighs more that the 8 lug #7000.

I just looked at our big 4 horse, it has 8 lug wheels but has an id tag of 10,400 GVR.

Now I'm completely confused.

Mike and darcy, I believe you can actually get 5,200 lb. and 6000 lb axles that have 8 lugs.  My guess is that you actually have 5,200 lb axles instead of 7,000. The only way to really tell for sure is to crawl under your trailer and the axles should have a tag on them which indicates what weight they actually are rated for. 

The ironic thing about all of this to me is that people have been preaching to make sure you have enough truck for your trailer, make sure you are safe.  Now that some people are following this advice and upgrading to a truck that is safer, it's coming back to bite them in the butt.

ok out of curiousity I looked up the weight stuff in the Tennessee Code and I am going to try to copy it here:

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Sorry about all that computer stuff.  I could not get rid of it.  Anyway, horses are LIVESTOCK  and this is another reason to keep horses designated as LIVESTOCK.

IMO Iowa s---s

One more way that Iowa gets us is that horses aren't considered an agricultural product in Iowa, so any exemptions that apply to farmers don't apply to horse hauling. 

Farm logos don't automatically make you commercial, but they are just one more red flag that makes the DOT that much more likely to stop you.  I do know of several people that have taken off any logos off of their trailer for this very reason.

While this latest incident has happended in Iowa, there have been several articles in various magazines lately of this happening in other states also.  I don't want people to think that just because they don't drive in Iowa they should be OK, it's happening all across the country.

But they are clearly interpreting the law strictly to suit their own interests.Any competent attorney would be able to look at the law,specifically 49 CFR 390.3 and see that it excludes such as yourself,me,and keepontruckin.

Part a: "The rules in SUbchapter B of this chapter are applicable to all employers,employees,and commercial motor vehicles,which transport property or passengers in interstate commerce. " Then comes the rules,bla bla bla.

Part f:"Unless otherwise specifically provided,the rules in this subchapter do not apply to---"(f3)"The occasional transportation of personal property by individuals not for compensation nor in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise."

Just their interpretation of  what "THEY" think is compensation or commercial doesn't make it so,and a good law firm would love to get ahold of it and tear somebody in Iowa and elsewhere a new one over it,I'm sure.It shouldn't be the responsibility of honest decent people on the road persuing a hobby whether it's hauling to a show or breeding a mare to PROVE to these arrogant little Hitlers in their perceived  places of power that they are indeed ,in all honesty,not commercial haulers.

They've found another way that they THINK they can line their coffers with and promote themselves in their public offices,also,in which they were put there in the first place by taxpayers and voters that can have them dethroned.

If you don't stand up and holler loud enough from the rooftops about something,you give everybody like this the eternal right to do the same thing over and over and over.Greed and dishonesty feed on themselves.