Trailering Height Opinions Please..

[scot]

What would you guy's consider the "MAX" trailering height for occassional moves...13' 14' 15'?? Any DOT gurus out there?

UV...can I get from IH10 to Venice at 15' high?

Getting down to the crunch on some design decisions.

Thanks

[Capt. DQ]

Scot,

13'.7" I think is max ht. or 13'.5"

R,
DQ

[Rocket]

Scot, I'm not sure about Texas road legal, but 13' 6" is the standard max height in Canada and US (not sure about Mexico) It is generally considered in the industry that you don't start hitting overpasses and taking out wires until 14', however there are LOTS of local exceptions. It is possible to take higher loads around, but it often involves exiting the highway and re-entering at every overpass. Best to stick to under 13'6" or at least make it an easy fold down to get to that height. Talk to a guy at a truck stop near you who is running an Auto Hauler, they push the height limits all the time.

[In Memory of Vicroy]

The limit-er on the trip to Venice is the Belle Chasse tunnel on La. 23 (which you can detour around on a bridge) that is about 13'. Stick with 13' max and you will be OK....on the other hand the width limit in La. without a permit is 8'....I know, got stopped by the width po-lice one time pulling the B25 down I-10....almost cost me a big fine, but knew someone somewhere and got a warning instead.

UV

[scot]

Thanks guy's, I'll keep it at 13' Max, may have to make a few of the bridge components easily removable.

UV I'm going to look into the annual 10' wide permit, I understand they are not too expensive. But living on the state line ALWAYS means I buy 2 of everything. Ouch.

[bob lico]

the BOTTOM of a traffic light in a residential town is 13'6" be aware

[nic]

Good question Scot,

I had a 45 ft deep-vee sportfish trucked across Australia for a boatshow in 1984 on a very good rate. West of Sydney are the Blue Mountains, which is about where civilisation (or the city) started then and where our cowboy started taking out overhead lines. The electricity guy told me later he could not believe his screen as they were losing connections across the map, like Godzilla on a rampage. Our boy was speeding, of course and close to 17ft.

He made it down the mountains and along most of the motorway into the city before Highway Patrol stopped him. The highest point on the boat as it was prepared for transport was a 6" dome compass on the flybridge console. He took the glass off the compass on the underside of a motorway overpass, the card was intact, very slight concrete damage to the surrounding paint on the console, our man's best guess was he was doing 80mph then.

The most surprising thing was, after being woken at 3.00am by a call from the police, that they let us continue with a full escort and electricity guys in cherry-pickers lifting all the lines for the remaining 30 miles through the city to the show. We made it for the opening.

The bill for the damage, the escort and the fine came to about $16,000 in 1984...the haulage quote was $5,500 or so. We got off lightly, and yes, we sold the boat at the show.

Life seemed simpler then.

Nic

[RussP]

Scott as you know by now 13.6 is the legal limit. When we towed our 25 to the UVI a few years ago we had no problem at 13.4 to the top of the radar antena.

RussP

[thereheis]

had my intrepid trailered from venice to port a and it was 13-8..didnt have any trouble.then again i didn't pull it had done ..

phil

[Harv]

Thanks guy's, I'll keep it at 13' Max, may have to make a few of the bridge components easily removable.

UV I'm going to look into the annual 10' wide permit, I understand they are not too expensive. But living on the state line ALWAYS means I buy 2 of everything. Ouch.

Scot,

as the professional driver of this board, I can tell you that the max height for an enclosed truck or trailer in the US, is 13 ft 6 in. Anything higher needs special permits and the need to consult the state(s) for designated routing, which must be adhered to. Most overpasses on Interstate highways, are usually 14 ft. The only exception I know of is NY City, which consistantly post the heights as being at least a foot and a 1/2 lower than the actual clearence. There have been many times that I have pulled a 13/6 box under an overpass marked 12/4 on the NY City interstates. There was even a time I pulled a 13 ft box under a 10/8 sign without any problems. The only true height clearences marked in NY City are for the tunnels. Whatever they say, believe it.

[Brianb]

Scot,

The height info provided is spot on at 13 6. There are some older overpasses in Texas that are lower in the 12s. As previously pointed out the power lines and traffic lights can be much lower. There is also always a high and low side of overpasses, so you can choose your lane and pick up a few inches of height clearance. I pull my permits online at http://www.dot.state.tx.us/services/mot ... -60-90.htm

I do not get the annual any more. You will have to get bonded on the vehicle and trailer. Once you are in the system pulling new permits at any time of the day or night is relatively simple and quick, and you just print off the permit on your home printer.

I have a 2 ton cab over and have pulled my 31s all over texas, mexico and central america. The toughest thing is stopping when some idiot pulls out in front of you and also avoiding the gawkers in city rush hour traffic. Went past the galleria in Houston once at 5pm and vowed to never do it again.

Brian