It's a Team's Life
Truck Length
I had a call from a friend the other day and during our discussion we got to talking about maximum length limits of a straight truck. Our truck is 40' in length and that is one of the reasons we have the type of lift gate we have. I got to wondering what the legal length is in all fifty states. Here's what I found, from the web site ops.fhwa.dot.gov .
" Trucks or straight trucks are non-articulated self-propelled cargo-carrying CMV's. They are subject to Federal weight requirements on the Interstate System and Federal width requirements on the NN, but not to Federal length requirements. Vehicle length regulation remains with the States." I wasn't sure what NN was so I had to look that up, NN = National Network of highways. So after reading that I started looking up every state to see what the limit was for each one, I figured out this was going to take a lot of time. I got to thinking about our trusty Rand McNally Motor Carriers Road Atlas and there it was.
As listed in the atlas, forty feet is the maximum length for a straight truck in all states with these exceptions. Iowa allows forty-one feet. Illinois allows forty-two feet. Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah all allow forty-five feet. Forty-six feet in Vermont. Fifty feet in North Dakota. Fifty-five feet in Montana. Wyoming sixty feet, and Nevada seventy feet but I can't imagine a straight truck seventy feet long. Georgia is not defined. If you run in Canada twelve point five meters or forty-one feet one eighth inch is your limit for all provinces.
So the long and short of it is there are twenty-eight states that a truck over 40' cannot legally go into. Will you be measured at the short length states? Probably not, however, any state that chooses to do some measuring is well within their legal authority to do so. What will happen you are measured and found over the legal limit? I do not know, a fine perhaps, being required to purchase an over-length permit every time they go into that state, maybe. Maybe so far as towing the truck out of that state and being told never to return.
I'm not sure about reciprocity within the states about length, if the state you are registered in allows forty five feet, are all other states required to allow you to pass through without repercussions? I don't know. I looked around on the web but couldn't find anything to speak to that. A truck over forty feet in length is not one I would like to own if I was going to run the lower forty eight.
Bob & Linda Caffee
TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO
Expediters since January 2005
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