Balloons?

I pulled through the scales today just to check the weight of my work van (Chevy Express 3500)with the trencher and trailer today. I was hoping to keep it under 10k lbs so, the way I understand it, I don't need a DOT #. Ended up weighing 12,320, oops. Maybe some helium balloons tied to it would help some . Looks like I'm gonna have to haul it with the pickup.

What it weighs has very little to do with
"Do I need a DOT #"

What the weight rating plate says is what they are looking for. So even with your balloons if the truck combo is rated for over 10,000 lbs and you are a business then you still need a DOT #.

But you might be in a catch 22 with the pickup if you are then over weight for its rating.

If you cross state lines, you also need a DOT med card, fire ext, reflective triangles, log book, be over 25 years old, and a DOT inspection striker on both the pickup. & trailer. Oh and what ever else they can dream up while you are put out of service

Here in NY the DOT laws are so numerous, convoluted and repetitive it is ridiculous. During my years as a Sheriff's Deputy I was assigned to go to NYSP truck/weight class (believe me not someting I wanted but "we need one of our Sgt.s qualified.") It is literally scarey what can be done to a driver/owner under some of the sections; I now realize why they sent me, we needed to have some idea what was going just to keep some of our "Super Cops" from ruining local owners...some of the sections allow for a dollar per lb fine and impoundment until paid; now a local dump truck owner with 4-5 trucks could be put out of business with one ticket, so between us and the Troops we had a deal where each truck got pulled and ticketed once a month for a very minor weight charge, driver wouldn't even ask to be weighed, just held on to that ticket all month to show if he got stopped again, we had serious talks with Deputies/Troopers that didn't want to honor that system. State and municipalites were happy as there was some generation of funds from fines, and Companies were happy as they weren't getting screwed, we were happy as we didn't have to break out the scales very often! We also didn't bother much with guys hauling their own equipment around locally...but like I said, the laws are so convoluted that even the most experienced weight guys don't really have many answers when ya need clarification.

You need a DOT # if you are a commercial vehicle, I have a good friend who has one on a mini van. If you stay in a one hundred mile radius of the home shop, and return there EVERY night and work less than 12 hours, you do not need a log book. I have 18,000# plates on a pick up and I am fine(Fed Reg say 21,000#. Shoot 12,000 is only a 3/4 ton pick up.

It is Nebraska rules, whatever that amounts to. Looks like I'm going to find out all the details . This was mostly a test run up the gravel road to the COOP to use their scales and decide what I need to do. Here I don't need a DOT # if I meet certain rules, one of which seems to be the weight. My wife (who is much more intelligent than I am) was the one reading up on it since I was busy looking on here at tractor pics. lol

This is the first time I have heard that you need to be over 25. I always drove semi across state lines at 21. I would have to argue on the 25 part.

You don't need a log book. Only need log book if you run outside of a 150 mile radius of home base.