Sprinter van and trailer

jtgeorge22

New Recruit
Owner/Operator
I am looking to get into hauling for brokers with my sprinter van, i am getting a 2020 2500 170 wb extended mercedes. the gvwr is 9050. so i will only be able to haul 950 pounds before i need to get dot mc numbers correct? i will obviously need them if thats the case. but when i am also hauling with a trailer, 7x14 enclosed 3000 pounds. do i need a cdl also?
 

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
DO NOT buy that van. You aren't ready. You need to go to expediting college before you buy anything. You wouldn't become a plumber or electrician or dental technician or paralegal without significant training. The CAREER of expediting deserves and demands no less.

First, you don't seem to understand GVWR and freight limits. 950 has nothing to do with what you can haul. You would need MC numbers if the gvwr of your vehicle was 10,001 or higher. You will get them from whatever carrier you sign on with anyway most likely but you can't haul even 1 pound over a total weight of 9050. That's the total of your empty van, your clothes and other gear you have with you, your CD collection, your Gameboy, your Kindle, any other toys/games/books/etc you bring along for downtime, your cooler with drinks and snacks, everything. Once all that is loaded into your van you go to a scale and weigh it with it as full of fuel as you can make it.

I don't know actual numbers so let's make some up. Let's say when you pick up the van it weighs 5073 pounds. You put insulation, roof air, generator, hotel battery, etrack etc so it's set up well for comfort and expediting. Now it weighs 6041 pounds. You load your clothes and the other stuff mentioned above and you are in the driver's seat and it is FULL of fuel. You drive onto the nearest scale and get your official scale ticket, 6489 pounds. Subtract that from 9050 and get 2561 pounds. That is how much freight you can accept. That puts you at your 9050 gvwr limit. My numbers are off some and the real number is probably higher, maybe 3000 pounds or so. If it were me I would subtract my scale ticket weight from 9000 pounds and tell my carrier that number as my limit. Better to have a small margin for error if the DOT greets you.

Anyway, read back for at least 4 years in the General, Newbie and Recruiter forums here. Not speed reading, reading for retention and learning. Read every single thread title. You don't have to read every word of every post in all of them BUT if the title sounds remotely educational or that it could apply to you then you DO read every single word in that thread. Only after you've graduated from that university should you consider buying a vehicle.
 
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Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Why would you pull a trailer? Nobody is going to sign on a van with a trailer. Go to Expediting College is right.
 
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