HDT and overall length

[lizobiker]

Greetings! 

My husband and I will be fulltiming soon, once our house is sold this spring/summer. We currently have a 36 ft cameo carriage, which we will upgrade to a bigger 5er once we sell the house. 

We currently pull with an DRW f350, but we need to upgrade, as my husband has a business installing upgraded trailer brakes, suspension, shackles, etc-we’re realizing that the  weight of tools and parts he needs when we’re FT will require a much bigger truck.

We’re currently looking at both sportschassis MDTs and a Volvo 730 that is already built out as a rv hauler-the challenge is that the volvo is 27 ft long to pin box-which will limit us to around a 38ft- or smaller trailer to stay under 65ft; I was hoping to get a 40’ft+ trailer when we upgrade. 

For all of you HDT vets, how do you deal with the length issue? Do you have singled short beds, or shorter 5ers? Or are you overlength?

[Exile]

That topic should provide a lively conversation. 

I believe the answer to your question to be “yes”.  Someone here does each of those.

Personal preference and priorities determine each person’s answer.  

 

[Exile]

I will also go out on a limb and predict a conversation about the use of a vehicle titled as an rv for business purposes.

Hopefully you have already investigated the legal ramifications of that issue.  I see that that you do not actually say it will be titled as a rv, but that was my assumption, based on the forum’s title.

The discussion should be illuminating. 

[GlennWest]

If you don't carry a car you can have a 47' 5ther and be at 65'. When we carry a vechile it gets there or over. 

[Steve from SoCal]

Do you plan to haul a Smart car or other vehicle on the truck?     There are many trucks that have a shorter overall length and hitch location.     The truck you mention, could the hitch be relocated?    A 40' trailer with a straight pin box could have a few feet of overlap on the truck.     The actual truck and trailer combination are the only way to come up with an accurate number.      As an example my truck has the hitch location  41" ahead of the rear of the body, the body is 90" wide.    A wider body would reduce the overhang.    

If you are going to register the truck as a commercial vehicle then the 65' length limit is not a factor.   

 

Steve 

[Dollytrolley]

10 minutes ago, lizobiker said:

Greetings! 

My husband and I will be fulltiming soon, once our house is sold this spring/summer. We currently have a 36 ft cameo carriage, which we will upgrade to a bigger 5er once we sell the house. 

We currently pull with an DRW f350, but we need to upgrade, as my husband has a business installing upgraded trailer brakes, suspension, shackles, etc-we’re realizing that the  weight of tools and parts he needs when we’re FT will require a much bigger truck.

We’re currently looking at both sportschassis MDTs and a Volvo 730 that is already built out as a rv hauler-the challenge is that the volvo is 27 ft long to pin box-which will limit us to around a 38ft- or smaller trailer to stay under 65ft; I was hoping to get a 40’ft+ trailer when we upgrade. 

For all of you HDT vets, how do you deal with the length issue? Do you have singled short beds, or shorter 5ers? Or are you overlength?

Many folks just ignore the "65 ft-rule" and then drive way, way, way around Huston.........others stock up on Dr Pepper and Crown Royal and then roll the dice and take their chances.........

Once you retire you will have TONS of cash to pay tickets so dont worry too much.......remember and left over after you kick the bucket will only encourage more  unsustainable spending by your kids.........so do you kids a favor.......spend it all....

 

Drive on.........(Too long is not ......TOO Bad....sorta)

[lizobiker]

I hadn’t considered the ramifications of our part time business when it comes to the truck, we’ll have to look into that. If anyone has experience in that, would love to hear about it. Yes, we’re looking at hauling a smart car. 

[GlennWest]

Our Teton is just shy of 40'. We carry a new Smart. We are just over 65'. I could have built truck a little shorter and had 65'. This is with a large sleeper cab. A smaller sleeper gives you more room so truck can be shorter. There are couples on here that carry Jeep's. They are way past 65'. Have not heard of them being stopped. Now it has been reported that someone was. Some states allow 70'. It isn't a big deal now. What future holds is anyone's guess. I would get the HDT I wanted, build as short as possible and carry your Smartcar. Keep it neat, professional looking and likely never have an issue. Welcome to the dark side

[rpsinc]

57 minutes ago, lizobiker said:

I hadn’t considered the ramifications of our part time business when it comes to the truck, we’ll have to look into that. If anyone has experience in that, would love to hear about it. Yes, we’re looking at hauling a smart car. 

There are few things that will help with income tax but a small business is certainly a big one.  I own a construction company and I use my truck and 5er for out of town work or out of town job walks.  So that means that it is a tax write off.  Still have to pay for those expenses BUT it also means that we can write it off as an expense to our business and that means no income tax, as those expenses are cost of doing business expenditures.  It is a little bit, but every little bit helps.  The other side is that others might do that same trip and use dollars that were made on a paycheck, so that $ is already taxed and therefore there is less there, on a equal dollar value basis.  Say $100 spent, one uses paycheck income which has been taxed and the other uses cost of doing business without having been taxed, you can see the potential benefit.  Of course, this is a bit simplistic, as there are other things that are part of that same small business equation, but you can see the picture of opportunity appearing.

[rdickinson]

Here is some info you may be able to work with.  My Volvo 730 had a 229 wheelbase.  It got singled mid which means the front tandem was scrapped and the rear duals moved 2' forward.

There are 4 storage compartments under the deck about 2'x2'.  There is another on top of the deck between the frame rails 24' ish wide, 13" deep and about 40" long. .  There are a couple more on top of the deck over the wheelwells, roughly 2' square and 10" ish deep.

There is another location which could be added under the hitch between the 2 rear storage compartments, I think Phil has them but not sure.  He could post pics.

Another area not to be overlooked is the truck.  Depending on what model you get, 630 or 730 there could be empty space fwd of the fuel tanks, depending on what size tanks you have.  Mine are dual 100's. In my case there is over 4' long by over 24" deep space available if a compartment is fabricated.

Also if you get a drom box behind the cab that will give quite a bit more space for tools and parts.

One thing to be concerned with is the additional weight added to the front axle.

I can provide some pics if you want.

The trailer is 40' and the OA length is 66 ft and never had a problem.  I too was concerned when I started out, but no one has  questioned  length in 10 yrs.

[Chad Heiser]

My 5er is just over 42’ long.  I have a Kenworth T2000 singled short and I changed out my standard extended pin box on the 5er for a short straight down pin box.  My overall length with truck and trailer is 61’8”.  My goal was to stay under 65’ and I am well under that.  My 42’ 5er is as long as I want to go.  I still fit everywhere I like to go, but just barely in a few spots.  My truck has a short wheelbase at 194”.  There are a few shorter wheelbase trucks out there, but they will have a smaller sleeper than mine or no sleeper at all.  I do not have room to haul a car on the deck of my truck.  I could put a motorcycle or a decent sized drom box behind the cab, but it would be one or the other - not both.  When I need a second vehicle, I double tow my Jeep Wrangler 2dr behind the 5er.  Not all states allow double towing and when I do this, I am pretty much over length everywhere.  So far I have never gotten a second look and I have past a lot of state troopers and highway patrol towing doubles.  I am prepared to separate and drive the Jeep separately if I ever get stopped (meaning I don’t double tow unless I have someone else with me).

As for using the truck as part of a business while on the road, that opens up a whole other can of worms.  I’m assuming the truck would be used like a service truck carrying parts and tools to a job location.  If so, any medium duty or heavy duty truck used like this is going to fall under commercial rules.  If you don’t have any business signage and the truck looks like all the other HDT motorhomes here on the forum, you might get away without running commercial for a while - but you will definitely be taking a chance.  Pulling the 5er won’t be the issue, but rather running bobtail to the job location would be the problem.  This is something you want to research very carefully and make sure you have all your ducks in a row.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Our DRV is 44" by the DRV measuring, but actually 44'6" from pin to rear bumper.  There is another 2 feet of RV in front of the pin, hanging over it.  Our truck is 25 foot from front bumper to center of hitch.  So we're 69'6" if a tape measure was ever pulled on us.  

[SuiteSuccess]

Chad or Phil (if he reads this post),

Please enlighten me again because I’ve obviously forgotten something.  I know an MDT or HDT used as a service vehicle would be considered commercial but wouldn’t a panel van for a plumber or air conditioning repair be also?  Does it have something to do with road use? 

[Steve from SoCal]

Not Phil or Chad, 

I do have service trucks though, ANY service truck over 10K falls under DOT regulations, a lot of people slide by but, plumbers etc are in that group.    An interesting exemption is pipeline welders?     I wrote a long post about this subject an shelved it,  RV use such as Glenn's moving for jobs is one thing, doing service calls is another.

 

Steve

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

12 minutes ago, SuiteSuccess said:

Chad or Phil (if he reads this post),

Please enlighten me again because I’ve obviously forgotten something.  I know an MDT or HDT used as a service vehicle would be considered commercial but wouldn’t a panel van for a plumber or air conditioning repair be also?  Does it have something to do with road use? 

For the HDT it will fall back to the intent or use of the vehicle. 

[Chad Heiser]

21 minutes ago, SuiteSuccess said:

Chad or Phil (if he reads this post),

Please enlighten me again because I’ve obviously forgotten something.  I know an MDT or HDT used as a service vehicle would be considered commercial but wouldn’t a panel van for a plumber or air conditioning repair be also?  Does it have something to do with road use? 

As Steve from SoCal said, it has to do with weight (and in some instances, configuration - as in a service bed).  I am not up on the federal regulations like Phil is, but I do know the CA rules.  In CA a pickup is always registered as a commercial vehicle, but it doesn’t fall under commercial regulations until it hits a certain GVWR and/or has a bed other than a standard pickup box installed.  An MDT up to 26000 lbs used for work would be required to follow commercial regulations.  If the same MDT is used for recreational purposes, then it is exempt.  Any truck 26001 lbs or more GVWR in CA has to follow the commercial regulations.

i don’t want this thread to fall into the commercial rabbit hole.  I just want the OP to be aware there are potential commercial ramifications for what they intend to do and let them do their due diligence.  If the OP wants to get into the commercial stuff in more detail, it should be done in a separate thread.  This one should stay more about the original question of length, which most on this forum don’t worry much about and treat it as a potential “living expense” if they ever get stopped and cited for it (which has happened,  but very rarely).

[SuiteSuccess]

Chad, Others,

Thanks we have beat commercial to death.  I just couldn’t remember what the difference was.  Now back to the original programming.

[lizobiker]

Thanks all for your responses, much appreciated! We’ll be registered in OR, will need to do some research. 

[Chad Heiser]

2 hours ago, lizobiker said:

Thanks all for your responses, much appreciated! We’ll be registered in OR, will need to do some research. 

You should try to come out to the WCR (West Coast Rally) in Caldwell, Idaho in June.  It’s not too far over the Oregan border.  You will be able to see various HDT’s up close and personal and talk to owners in person about what has/has not worked for them.

[Brad & Jacolyn]

I agree that you should attend one of the rally's. Very enlightening. As for your question and remember this is just my opinion. I would go with the Volvo and leave the MDT behind. The MDT's are quite pricey and don't have as much power. Another point is that an MDT can't be titled as a motorhome.

We have been full timing for 9 years now with our 37' 5er and it has all the room that we need or want. We are singled short but did not cut off the frame so all told we are just under 64' long.

Brad 

[lizobiker]

Yes, we’re looking at trying to make it to the rally in June. Hope to see you there!

[GlennWest]

13 hours ago, Steve from SoCal said:

Not Phil or Chad, 

I do have service trucks though, ANY service truck over 10K falls under DOT regulations, a lot of people slide by but, plumbers etc are in that group.    An interesting exemption is pipeline welders?     I wrote a long post about this subject an shelved it,  RV use such as Glenn's moving for jobs is one thing, doing service calls is another.

 

Steve

I have been approached by a superintentant about hauling some equipment to job. It would be on bed, not towed. I quickly reminded him, I have no DOT numbers and no CDL. I could get in a lot of trouble. He says I don't on my dually either. One thing to take chance with you but another to ask me to do something illegal. It was dropped then. Wasn't mean about it, just don't believe he had really thought it through. 

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

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