Wanderers

Oledog3, I went to Texas.gov and TxDPS.gov and did not find any public accessible information on what tests are required for the Class A exempt. You could try calling the DPS service during the work week, working through the menus until you talk to a human and see if they can point you to the requirements. They really need to do a better job of explaining the requirements for RVers. I had to educate the folks at United RV because they did not know about the requirements for when their clients might require a Class A or B exempt license. If the RV dealerships don't know, how can they expect the rest of us to know? I know the Texas legislature was working on a bill to allow for CDL type training facilities for RVers. But never heard what happened to that bill. Best Regards, The Wanderers

Oledog3, Unfortunately I did not speak to the supervisor directly, the young lady I was talking to following the test took the initiative to ask a couple supervisors. I might have been sounding a little frustrated since I notice a few other people looking at me while I was explaining why the air brake test should not apply. She did not know an air brake from an electric brake. Best Regards, Wanderers

Oledog3, I guess I was persuasive in arguing my Fifth wheel did not have air brakes so it did not make sense to make me pass an air break test. I had to go through up the chain until I found someone who would agree. Maybe David and Cheryl have more references to the code they can provide. good luck, the Wanderers.

Hi folks, I just finished my Texas Class A exempt test. I took it at the Fort Worth mega center off Brentwood Stair road in East Fort Worth. I took the vision and written test in Early April. There was a LOT of confusion when, after waiting four hours, I told them I was applying for a class A exempt license. They thought that was a CDL and I went through three different people until they seemed to figure it out. They did the vision test, finger prints, and took the $11 fee. Then told me I needed to take two written exams. I told her I was informed there was only one, but she insisted I had to taken two. I decided to go along with it and see what the second test was. I figured if I passed, it was no big deal, and if I failed I could always argue. The second rest was on truck air breaks. Needless to say I failed that test, but passed the normal test described in this post. I successfully argued my case about the air break test ( after going through three supervisors) and they dropped it. Later that day I tried to schedule my driving test at the same mega center, but when I selected "Recreational Vehicle" on the website it kept trying to send me to a drivers test location over 200 miles away! Tried to call the mega center and of course all calls are now routed to a central line in Austin. They had no explanation for the websites behavior. Best they could offer was for me to go back to the mega center in person. Which I did a couple days later. The folks at the information desk did not believe me when I told them what was happening with the website until they tried it for themselves. The solution was to select class A CDL instead of Recreational Vehicle and I was finally able to schedule my drivers test. Went for the drivers test today with my F-350 and our 43 foot New Horizons fiver. At first I pulled into the waiting area where all the other Class A vehicles were waiting which is where I had seen other RVs in the past. Found out I needed to go around the back of the building where they did the Class C tests. So I had to back out into traffic on Brentwood Stair. Fortunately they held traffic for me. Then drive through the parking lot which was a very tight squeeze for my big rig. Made it around back only to find where they had directed me had a overhang that had only 12 foot clearance ( our rig is 13.6 tall). Fortunately I stopped short. Then they directed me to go down the fire lane and park. Waited about 30 minutes for the instructor to come out. Very pleasant young lady. She did a quick safety inspection then climbed in the truck and directed me out of the lot. I did NOT have to back up for the test. She took me through a series of neighborhood streets, left turns, right turns, merge onto the freeway, changed lanes, and then finally back through that tight parking lot and around back. I had scrubbed the trailer tires on the curb on the turn in the parking lot and one other tight corner. That cost me a few points, but I did not climb the curb. She told me if I had climbed the curb it was an automatic failure. I had not heard this before. So watch the tight turns!! So, it's a painful process because the mega drivers license centers don't handle enough Class A exempt applications to allow them to treat as business as usual. But perseverance, and knowing the information from this post, will get you through. David and Cheryl did a very thorough job of explaining the process. Thank-you for all the attention to detail and the references!!