Gas And Cdl Class

[beatngu]

well so far ive heard gas is going up to 4 dollars a gallon,NICE! i cant even drive yet but even when i can i wont be able to afford to. but if i dont buy like a stupid $50,000 car every other year like my mom i should be able to afford it so yeah. and i was wondering, what letter cdl do you need to drive a class 6 truck?(70,000 ibs.) like a a,b,c? my dad was a trucker so i wanted to ask him but i have not seen him for about 3 years and he is always at a bar so ill just ask here.

[ThaddeusW]

well so far ive heard gas is going up to 4 dollars a gallon,NICE! i cant even drive yet but even when i can i wont be able to afford to. but if i dont buy like a stupid $50,000 car every other year like my mom i should be able to afford it so yeah. and i was wondering, what letter cdl do you need to drive a class 6 truck?(70,000 ibs.) like a a,b,c? my dad was a trucker so i wanted to ask him but i have not seen him for about 3 years and he is always at a bar so ill just ask here.

Ok in New York the CDL requirement was changed recently. 18000-25999 pounds is class 6 which does not require a CDL, even if it has air brakes (at least thats what I was told by penske rentals). A strait truck with a GVW of 70,000 pounds is a class 8 vheicle(greater then 33000), which will require a class B CDL here in NY. If your going to tow a trailer that weighs more then 15000 your going to need a class A as now its conciderd a truck trailer combination (this might have changed though ill have to check up).

CDL licences work like this:

before they changed the law anything under 18000 did not need a cdl (normal Class D)

Class C up to 26000 with or without air brakes. trailer up to 15000.

Class B strait truck with air brakes, or tractor only. dont know about max weight, 80k maybe. trailer up to 15000.

Class A truck with either a trailer, full trailer or semi trailer. weight isnt limited I think.

If you took the class A test with a regular trailer (for example: a dump truck with a 20 ton tag), you get a restriction that says you cannot drive a semi trailer. A full trailer is like a wagon, the drawbar has no weight on it. Or a better example would be a dump truck towing a converter dolly with a semi flatbed trailer hooked to it.

Well I have a tahoe that burns gas like there was a hole in the tank. Stick to a cheap 4 cylinder car that gets you from point A to point B. Save your money for the dog .

[ThaddeusW]

Here is what I pulled from the NYS CDL manual:

You must have a Commercial Driver License (CDL) to operate any of the following CMVs:

• Any single vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 26,001 pounds or more.

• A trailer with a GVWR of more than 10,000 pounds if the gross combination weight rating (GCWR)

is 26,001 pounds or more.

• A vehicle designed to transport 15 or more passengers (excluding the driver) or a vehicle defined

as a bus under Article 19-A, Section 509(a) of the NYS Vehicle and Traffic Law (VTL).

• Any size vehicle that is used in the transportation of any material that requires hazardous

materials placards or any quantity of a material listed as a select agent or toxin in 42 CFR 73.

I was wrong about the trailer weight being 15,000 its 10,000. It also appears it doesent say anything about air brakes so I guess if its under 26,001 its safe to drive air brakes without a CDL.

[rsmartyn]

Hey Thad, Boy am I glad I'm an old fart who was grandfathered into a CDL and only had to originally take the computer test. And I'm really an old fart "cause I was grandfathered into the auto-articulated licenses that came out around '77. I started reading your post with all those regulations and my eyes got crossed and my head got dizzy. What I want to know is how all these Mexicans, Turks and other foreigners read, understand and pass all this crap. To tell the truth, most guys my age (53) and older got a job truck driving the same way - BS'd their way in. Can you drive that truck? would ask the boss. Yeah sure, you'd answer and make a fool out of yourself but eventually you got the hang of it or found someone desperate enough to hire you. And those were the days of duplexs, triplexs and quadboxes, talk about grinding gears! Construction equipment operating was the same way, machines were much more difficult to run but you'd BS your way in and get fired and get a little more experience till you found somebody who needed anybody. A lot of places it's still like that. Enough of my stroll down memory lane, I just wanted to say that it is tougher for todays generation to get started than mine but in a lot of ways the roads are safer for it. Bob

[ThaddeusW]

Hey Thad, Boy am I glad I'm an old fart who was grandfathered into a CDL and only had to originally take the computer test. And I'm really an old fart "cause I was grandfathered into the auto-articulated licenses that came out around '77. I started reading your post with all those regulations and my eyes got crossed and my head got dizzy. What I want to know is how all these Mexicans, Turks and other foreigners read, understand and pass all this crap. To tell the truth, most guys my age (53) and older got a job truck driving the same way - BS'd their way in. Can you drive that truck? would ask the boss. Yeah sure, you'd answer and make a fool out of yourself but eventually you got the hang of it or found someone desperate enough to hire you. And those were the days of duplexs, triplexs and quadboxes, talk about grinding gears! Construction equipment operating was the same way, machines were much more difficult to run but you'd BS your way in and get fired and get a little more experience till you found somebody who needed anybody. A lot of places it's still like that. Enough of my stroll down memory lane, I just wanted to say that it is tougher for todays generation to get started than mine but in a lot of ways the roads are safer for it. Bob

Yea, the guy I worked with did the same thing. He had his chauffeur’s license from Florida which was a written test that allowed him to drive trucks. When he moved to NY he was grandfathered in with a simple written test and got his class A. Thankfully the law was changed recently because without a CDL you could not drive a truck over 17999 GVW, and no air brakes.