Drivers License R Endorsement for fifth wheel combo units

[kimbashaw]

I have owned a 40' Alpine (15,500 Lbs GVWR) for two years and tow it behind a Silverado dually (13025 GVWR). I recently learned by reading several different forums that I have been driving out of class all this time.

Apparently most states have a law if the combined Gross Vehicle Weight Ratings for your tow vehicle and fifth wheel exceeds 26000 Lbs you must have an R endorsement to legally be on the road.

I took my road test today in New York for my R endorsement. There is no written test. The cost for this part of the endorsement was $10 which allowed me to take up to two road tests.

When I got to the road test site in Northern NY the DMV test admionstrator came up to me and said "I don't think you need and R, you need an A-O for this rig" I told her according to NY motor vehicle regulation a personal use vehicle is exempt CDL. She said she had placed a call to Albany to clarify. She told me in her years she has never given a road test to someone pulling a fifth wheel.... only motorhomes. Around 10 minutes later, she came over and said lets go, they decided you need an R endorsement. She was actually very nice during the entire process.

We went for a tour of the town, down a side street where she had me parallel park, then back the rig up along the curb for approximately 50-100 feet. We then went into the busier section of town and drove through some traffic and ended back where we started.

She proceeded to write me a 10 day temporary license and I guess I now go to DMV to get a new one.

I think the whole process will cost around $25 and I think it is probably a good thing the state does it. The problem is most people towing these rigs don't know they need anything other than their regular D license.

[Bob Vaughn]

New York has found another way to gouge their residents......

[kimbashaw]

Originally Posted by Bob Vaughn

New York has found another way to gouge their residents......

NY and the other 50 or so States that have similar requirements.

[Bob Vaughn]

Nope not so , Florida and the other states that I know of do not require an endorsement for towing your own 5th wheel.....I retired from DMV...

[MnTom]

Sorry, Minnesota does not have anything like that. A class D and over 18 years old is all that is required.

[kimbashaw]

I stand corrected as to the number of states that require something. See link:

RV Driver's License Requirements

Stand by, its only a matter of time until they all do it.

[chief02]

Parallel park a fifth wheel...hmmm odd.

[kimbashaw]

Originally Posted by chief02

Parallel park a fifth wheel...hmmm odd.

I told her this isn't something I would normally do in real life....

[normanmcgill]

She just wanted to see if you could back your rig without taking out a building. Glad you passed ok. Pete

[chief02]

Sounds like she made up a road test on the fly.. FMCSA DOT CDL test do not even require parallel parking.

[Traildust]

Nevada requires that you go through almost the same road test but the state also has a written test. One last little catch, if your RV has a GVWR of 10K or more then you will need the special endorsement.
Bill

[D Lindy]

kimbashaw; being from NY, yes I'm aware of this requirement, and you were right in that the law doesn't differentiate between MH's, 5th Wheels, etc. It's any unit/combination that's 23,000 lbs or over. I'm willing to bet that at least 30% of NY'ers with units over 23000 are NOT licensed properly. When we bought our MH (GVW 34000) the dealer straight up said they didn't care if I was licensed properly or not, that that was my problem not there's.

[L.C.Gray]

Originally Posted by chief02

Sounds like she made up a road test on the fly.. FMCSA DOT CDL test do not even require parallel parking.

A long distance straight line back up and parallel parking were part of the CDL test when I took it in 1995. As far as I know they still are.

If you touched the curb during the parallel parking it was considered an accident and -31 points triggering a failure. The smart guys would only make a half hearted attempt at it staying far from the curb and take -5 and go on rather than risk failing.

[chief02]

I was a transportation safety manager as a second career with 300 semi tanker trailers. Never saw parallel parking at hundreds of CDL road tests I observerd for class A haz-mat tanker endorsement.