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In all cases mentioned one thing is key, to be commercial, you must be "for hire" or "for commerce". The hard part is convincing the DOT man of this. If you have a company name on the vehicle, advertisement, fancy logo's, big painted murial on the side of your van trailer, sponsor stickers, trophies laying in the back seat, and on and on they can claim you to be "for commerce". This is the only way they can write tickets. So they will look for any reason to call you "for commerce". A commercial vehicle (over 26,000 lbs) can be used for non-commercial uses and not fall under the commercial rules. Just have to make sure you are not being compensated in any way for what you are doing. This includes writing off part of your "hobby" on your taxes. Don't use your company truck on the weekend to haul your toys and think it doesn't apply to you. Best bet, chain everything down legal, drive at or below the speed limit, act like you got some smarts, and answer the DOT man's questions correctly. If he writes you a ticket, thank him for it, and then get in touch with that state's commercial informance division and speak (or email) their disputes review folks. If you can convince them you were not being compensated ($5 trophy included) then they should reverse the ticket. Want to make a difference in all this mess!!?? Call and write your Congressmen, Senators, and State Representatives and tell them the "RV" classification needs to be expanded to include us folks that use CMV's to play. Then we can get $35 tags, cheap insurance, and no hassle on the scales!
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