by Bill Kleiman

Is the trailer above a CDL setup?

My daughter was telling me about how they need a Commercial Drivers License, CDL, to haul two UTVs on one trailer to their prescribed fires. I told her that there may be a way to not need a CDL, but they are likely using CDL sized trailers. This sent me down a rabbit hole of research and I thought I would write a post to summarize what I re-learned. This is a good post for those who tow things.

Why not get a Commercial Drivers License? Most people don’t want to be bothered with the book testing, driver test, and cost involved.

Yes, the trailer above is CDL because the manufacturer rates it with a big Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, GVWR. Even without seeing the sticker on the trailer that states its GVWR a police officer observes it has two axles and eight tires. This means it is rated for heavy loads. But you don’t go by whether it has dual tires or not, but look at the sticker on the trailer.

But this one above you don’t need CDL. So what is the difference?

The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) refers to the maximum weight while loaded at which a vehicle or trailer can safely operate, as determined by the manufacturer. When you add the truck GVWR and trailer GVWR together, if that weight is over 26,000 pounds then you need a CDL to operate it. If caught with a CDL setup on a standard drivers license you can get ticketed, and your trailer idled until a CDL driver shows up to drive it away.

Above, this half ton 1500 Ram has a GVWR of 6,800 pounds, reads a sticker inside the door. But this truck can only pull a total of 10,660 pounds reads the manual in the glove box. That 10,660 pounds includes the trailer weight empty and its payload. I will get back to this point later.

This much bigger 3500 truck with diesel motor, heavy duty towing package, dual rear wheels has the same GVWR of 6,800 pounds as the little 1500. But this truck can tow about twice as much weight at 22,600 pounds.

So we are trying to stay under 26,000 pounds of GVWR. Notice the gooseneck trailer behind this brown truck above. That trailer has a GVWR of 20,000 pounds so the truck and trailer GVWR added together are 26,800 pounds. This is a CDL setup. That USDOT sticker on the door suggests this is likely a CDL setup. You can be driving this truck and trailer down the road with an empty trailer and you are still supposed to have a CDL. The CDL limit is based on the GVWR, rather than what you have on the trailer. Now, I doubt you will have trouble from the police pulling an empty trailer or with something light weight like a UTV.

This trailer above we saw previously has a GVWR of 10,000 pounds. So you add that to the 6,800 pounds GVWR of either of the two trucks above and you are at 18,000 pounds. This is well under 26,000 so you don’t need a CDL. Remember the manufacturer decides the approximate GVWR of a truck and trailer.

This trailer comes in lengths up to 24 feet long which would fit two UTVs in length, and their weight of 3,000 pounds would not exceed the trailer 10,000 pound limit. Our 1500 Ram can pull 10,600 pounds. The two UTVs would weigh 3,000 and the trailer a few thousand pounds so the truck can pull them. You would still appreciate a bigger truck but the half ton can do it.

Ok, so I covered the CDL and the 26,000 pound limit for GVWR.

But don’t put a skid loader on a light weight trailer as in this example:

So you go to the dealer and buy a 10,000 pound GVWR trailer, hook it up to your 6,800 GVWR truck and then load it with your 12,000 pound skid loader. Is this legal? No. A 10,000 GVWR is the trailer actual weight empty plus the load you put on it adding up to 10,000 pounds. Let’s say the trailer empty weighs 2,000 pounds so you have only 8,000 pounds you can haul on this 10,000 GVWR trailer. So your 12,000 pound skid loader is 4,000 pounds too heavy for this trailer. This is not safe or legal. Your trailer weight and cargo can not exceed the GVWR of the trailer.

Let’s say you have a CDL. So you think you are clever so you hook up your 1500 Ram to that first heavy duty trailer with the dually wheels and a 20,000 GVWR. Is this legal? Maybe. You are pulling a heavy duty eight wheeled steel trailer that is heavy empty and then you have two UTVs with water. And you only have a half ton, 1500 Ram. The manual in the glovebox says your 1500 can only pull 10,600 pounds. One UTV weights 1,500 pounds, so two UTVs weigh 3,000. The empty trailer may weigh 6,000 pounds. (I notice the trailer manufacturers do not give the empty weight of their trailers, so you can guess or go to a weigh station.) So perhaps you have 9,000 pounds so perhaps you are legal, but you are near the trucks capacity.

Now here is a nice trailer for a 1500 truck. The trailer is mostly light weight aluminum, aluminum deck, two axles, with trailer brakes, and a ramp. The GVWR is 7,000 pounds. The trailer weighs perhaps 1,500 pounds (the trailer sticker does not state the empty weight) so it can carry a load of 5,500 pounds (7,000 minus 1,500 pounds). The UTV with its pumper tank full of water weighs about 1,500 pounds, so you are way under the load limit of the trailer. (In fact a single axle trailer could carry this light load.) And as we saw above this 1500 Ram can pull a maximum of 10,600 pounds so you are also good on the total weight your truck can pull. So a half ton truck can easily pull one UTV pumper unit.

This little trailer is a nice setup because it is easy to tow. It is short, light in weight, and easy to load and unload and strap down. It is easy to store when you are not using it. It is easier to drive in traffic, especially if you are not used to towing trailers. This trailer is nice and easy. I know it is effecient for one truck to pull two UTVs on one trailer, but I still like easy.

Towing Skid Loaders typically requires a CDL setup.

Skid loaders have become bigger and heavier with more horsepower to run brush mowers and such. A skid loader with a brush mower attachment might weigh 12,000 to 14,000 pounds! Your trailer needs to be rated to hold this weight. Your truck needs to be rated to pull this weight plus the weight of the trailer.

Above addendum, the safety chains are crossed because if the hitch fails the expectation is if the coupling fails the drawbar will won’t drop to the ground.

Towing is challenging. Read your manual. Poke around for good tutorials on the internet. Leave me comments to improve this post.

Be safe out there.