I talked with a state trooper in Texas today while trying to determine what class of license is required when using a class 7 or 8 truck as a RV tow vehicle. His response was that a CDL is not required, but a class A lecense is required. Now most of us have a class C license which is all that is required for passenger cars & light trucks or medium duty trucks towing LESS THAN 10000LB TRAILERS. After that conversation, I checked out the State of Texas web site & lo & behold, what he said was confirmed by section on license requirements. Basically, a class A license is required if the GVWR of the vehicle is greater than 26001 lbs, or if the combined GVWRs of the tow vehicle & trailer are greater than 26001 lbs & the GVWR of the trailer is greater than 10000 lbs. What this implies is that if you have a 1-ton pickup with a gvwr of 12000 lbs and a 30+ ft 5th wheel travel trailer with a gvwr of 14500 lbs, you are required to have a class A drivers license instead of class C. For medium duty haulers with a gvwr of 16500 or greater & any trailer with a gvwr of 10000 lbs, the same would also apply. This means that most of us that are pulling a 34 ft or longer 5th wheel with a 1-ton dually or bigger tow vehicle are theoretically illegal unles there is some exemption which I have not found yet. I spent a couple of hours on Texas' web site & haven't found an exemption for the class A lecense. CDL, not required for recreational vehicle, Class A, I don't know. I do know that there are a lot of folks pulling trailers with a gvwr of over 10k that exceed the combined limit of 26k. Any thoughts on this comment?
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