Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I have never been stopped by any other state except Ohio. If you think you can be a prick towards those DOT people go right ahead & see where that gets ya, Never had a problem & I sure as hell will not give them a hard time. Like you said the best thing you can do is be polite & courteus. Most of them that has stopped me usually break the ice by some kind of joke. The hands free deal has nothing to do with how you treat them. That deal is straight up fine, No if's and's or but's. Used to drive a straight truck before they hired another guy & I didn't have much to haul, In the busy season a retired State Trooper drove it. Now I get a full inspection on this thing & pass, 2 weeks later I get a safety inspection & that guy wrote me up for not having reflective tape in the back. If there was a fine on that I didn't hear about it because that truck had been at that location since it was opened. I'm sure that still went on my CSA though.

here's a thought...go back to pickups and open trailers. Wouldn't that solve the problem?

Just throwing in my 2cents.

The Iowa DOT people are only doing their job,bottom line. And as the OP posted,there may well be something to this. I know last year in Osky,I was there for both the FRC and UC, nights. One of the two nights the IDOT,was pulling over haulers about two blocks off of the highway heading to the race track.They had their setup along the street ,or in a parking lot along the street,and I can not remeber but they may have had scales. I am thinking they did have a scales setup there in their 'stop spot".
I do remember reading some trucks ,did get written up for "over length"?

As long as the hauler is what it should be no one should be complaining other than some extra minutes being detained in route to a race track.

BC

Good thing Mr. Robert Bell isn't traveling over 100 miles and from out of state. That rig would get a lot of attention. I personally think its neat, but the D.O.T. would probably have a field day with it.

isnt this what is called profiling????

Recent changes to the FEDERAL CDL requirements are probably the cause. I tow a 24 foot, tag, box trailer with a crew cab dually. We were worried that it might not be legal. ANYTHING over 26,001 GVWR now requires a CDL. That's a Federal law, not Iowa. My Ford's rating is 13,000, the trailer is 10,400 so we're good, but, guys with 40 foot goosnecks behind a dually could be in trouble. I'll bet those are the ones they are going to look for. The one-beer deal is probably part of the CDL requirements, I don't know for sure since I've never read the book or taken the test. One of my friends was very worried about us when he heard about the new regs. I spent a lot of time talking to Iowa DOT to make sure we were good. There's a lot of misinformation out there. I imagine most of the big teams with tractor-trailers are good. It's the little guy that bought a used tractor and tried to licensed it as a motor home that need to watch out. Based on the weight, it is a commercial vehicle, regardless of any motor home licensing. At least the State Police have warned people.

If i'm being pulled over for an "inspection" i'm gonna have a hard time being courteous to a prick

thats pulling me over for doing nothing wrong. Knoxville is full of deadbeats and druggies who do

nothing but vandalize and cost the city $$$ so why target the fans who come here and spend

money? easy targets.

-Austin Rankin

You may want to read the CDL requirements again because it's any trailer over 10,000#s. It also includes all the rest of the requirements as stated in the first post plus a few. They have been getting all the landscapers and guys hauling scrap to the recyclers here for the last couple years.

IFTA "fuel reporting" isn't a problem because you're under 26,001#'s stated gvw but the rest of the requirements for your operation fit into the commercial motor vehicle not for hire grouping.

Good luck....it's a tough deal when the trooper controls your fate along side of the road. I know of two racers that got "red tagged" with crew cabs pulling trailers and had to get everything legal before they could move the units.

www.harleytrikes.com

I guess I just looked at it wrong, I thought the police were to protect and serve" not profile "out of town travelers my bad.

Grady

. 

Some of you are reading to much into the original post, They are not just
going after racers heading to Knoxville. They are doing this statewide and trust
me they are cracking down all over the country not just Iowa. Blame Federal
Government..The Department of Homeland Security and the USDOT. Since 9/11 they
have been coming up with more and more ways to regulate and track and crack down
on all commercial vehicles. If you aren't legal in Iowa then most likely you are not legal in any state. Just make sure you are legal and you won't have any problems.

It would be tough for anyone, but with commercial vehicles is that they don't need the same probable cause to stop you that they do for a car.

Well seems as though it has already started... race hauler's pulled over on 163...

What makes you think that Knoxville has anything to do with this

Go ahead and be nasty to the DOT, good luck with that

i fought the law and i won...and i was a prick to the officer because he had no right pulling me over and was just on a power trip, and there is so many cops/DOT who thing they are above the law and are on power trips

It's not ust Iowa either. In talking with PA DOT to license and register a truck, I stated that we were hobby racing and not for commercial enterprise. I was told that if you are going to a race and you are "winning" money or a trophy, it's a "commercial" vehicle. They also told me not to be surprised if we all started to roll out of Williams Grove one nite and they were set up to inspect every hauler coming out on to the road. (I never mentioned what we raced or where). She even said that Selinsgrove & Port Royal were on their list. Sounds to me like they are well aware of where infractions of the DOT & CDL regulations are. They said that they know there are a lot that are licensed as "motorhome" and "not for hire" (which actually doesn't mean squat anymore) and it does not matter - most of those have been titled wrong and DOT is about fixing MVD's errors.

If you are pulled over just simply tell the officer you are on RAGBRAI and the laws do not pertain to you. You should be fine.

As a Knoxville resident for 23 years and counting i'm stating there is much worse going on in this

town that they should focus their attention on. The county sheriff's and local polics haven't caused any

problems with me in the past but its the state dicks that seem to get on their power trip.

-Austin Rankin

This isn't the local cops or county sherriffs people, this is the State and Federal Governments.

The City and County are NOT targeting fans and teams, they were made aware by the state that they would be doing this, and they have communicated it, if the local groups were targeting the teams and fans, they would have kept it to themselves.

The DOT has been doing similar stops every weekend when the Iowa Speedway has a major race weekend as well.

If you think this issue is a big deal for the Sprint Car teams, they are actually in WAY better shape than the Late Model and Modified guys (I'd say 99% of them are currently illegal).

The DOT guys are doing their job (heck, come to think of it, I think commercial vehicle enforcement is their entire job, they don't write speeding tickets and I've never seen them pull over a car).

The big sprint car teams will have ZERO issues, as they're registered properly. It's the mid-level teams that are going to have issues. They think that by having a water supply in their hauler that their a motorhome instead of a commercial vehicle, that's just not the case anymore. And when it comes to costs, they are better off being a commercial vehicle as once they put an advertisement on their hauler for a sponsor, they made themselves a target to get pulled over.