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Weeel, there is an interesting sidelight to that. It is true you do not need a CDL to drive a motorhome and the law is very clear on that.
What puzzles me is what happens if you ask your passengers to split costs and pay for gas or other expenses like lease fees? My question comes about because if you do that under certain circumstances with an airplane and you have a private pilot certificate it is a violation of some kind with the FAA.
Yeah, I know, different agencies, but it just popped into my head when I saw the thread. Too late for me to research, maybe tomorrow.
If they are just sharing cost, no CDL is required. Like the FAA, what is the purpose of the travel and the relationship of you and these passengers? If it's friends sharing cost, no CDL. But, if you are charging them for transportation from A to B, or you are being paid to transport the RV to another location, or the RV is being used for commercial purposes; a CDL may be required.
The above posters RE: FAA and "sharing expenses" of a trip are very specific about what costs of a flight may be split among the pilot and passengers. Essentially, the pilot is limited to a per-seat split of actual fuel cost for the flight. ie, 3 seats filled on a plane means each seat can pay 1/3 of the fuel bill but not other expenses such as oil consumed by the engine during the flight. The flight must be incidental to the main purpose of the trip. There are some very limited exceptions, such as a pilot donating their time/equipment for a charitable medical emergency flight and getting compensation for some fuel, but again the primary concern is that the flight not be "for hire" transportation. NO other costs can be "shared", such as insurance, fees, pro-rata engine hour costs, etc. The FAA will put the flight under the microscope from the perspective of "was the pilot flying for hire?" or "paid for piloting the aircraft?" a "yes" there is a big no-no for a pilot without an appropriate license/medical certificate/insurance/maintenance of the aircraft per commercial standards rather than private pleasure use.
As far as a CDL goes for a motorhome, weight is also a determining factor outside of the "transport for hire" situation. If your motorhome is rated to carry a load over the minimum weight for the CDL requirement, you must have a CDL ... whether or not the over the scales weight at the time you're driving it reaches that max load.
per Wikipedia:
"Class A: Any combination of vehicles which has a gross combination weight rating or gross combination weight of 11,794 kilograms or more (26,001 pounds or more) whichever is greater, inclusive of a towed unit(s) with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight of more than 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds) whichever is greater.
Class B: Any single vehicle which has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight of 11,794 or more kilograms (26,001 pounds or more), or any such vehicle towing a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight that does not exceed 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds)."
as many folks do with a larger Class A RV, they may be towing a vehicle or trailer which makes the "combination of vehicles" "gross vehicle weight rating" exceed the 26,001 pounds threshold. Real easy to exceed the threshold when towing a boat, too.
keep in mind that individual states may have further driver's license requirements which specify a CDL for a heavy vehicle. Best to check with your own licensing state requirements.
AFAIK you would need a license based on the RV. Class B CDL here in PA(I'd assume it's the same elsewhere) is for any single vehicle exceeding 26,000 and can tow a trailer that does not exceed 10K, there is no limit on the single vehicle. 26K is a lot of weight before you will be going over the limit. A fully loaded medium sized single axle dump trump truck is going to be in this range.
Class A covers Class B and is for towing a trailer that exceeds 10K.
Then there is endorsement for things like air brakes, air brakes are superior to hydraulic where safety is concerned. There is a giant spring in the brake, without air pressure that spring sets the brake.
as many folks do with a larger Class A RV, they may be towing a vehicle or trailer which makes the "combination of vehicles" "gross vehicle weight rating" exceed the 26,001 pounds threshold. Real easy to exceed the threshold when towing a boat, too.
The 26K is the limit on the vehicle plus a trailer up to 10K.
As far as I know, you do not need a CDL. IMO, it's a huge mistake to just put a driver behind the wheel, there should be some sort of driving test to ensure the person can handle the vehicle, there should also be the same type of test for those pulling campers over a certain size....you can't just drive these things like cars.
The 26K is the limit on the vehicle plus a trailer up to 10K.
"Class A: Any combination of vehicles which has a gross combination weight rating or gross combination weight of 11,794 kilograms or more (26,001 pounds or more) whichever is greater, inclusive of a towed unit(s) with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight of more than 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds) whichever is greater.
Sorry, coalman .... but the word "inclusive" means the TOTAL 26K gross weight rating is the threshold to include the RV and the towed item for a CDL requirement.
IOW, the RV and the Trailer/Towed Gross weight rating makes up the 26K gross weight. Easy to find yourself towing a 4,000 lb vehicle, or a 7,000 lb boat such as my neighbor has on a 1,800 lb trailer.
Along the same lines, I have neighbors with 24' GN stock trailers towed by a 3/4 ton F-250 4x4 truck where the GROSS weight rating of the truck and trailer exceeds the 26,001 lb threshold and they have been required to obtain a CDL and comply with all the requirements including logbook, medical, placarding on the truck, etc. Even though they rarely haul sheep to the gross weight capacity of the trailer, it's the combination of rated gross weight that exceeds the 26,001 threshold. And they are not carrying for hire, they are only transporting their own livestock for their own purposes. Both of them found out the hard way about the CDL requirement when they got stopped in NE just over the WY border when NE DOT was doing roadside spot checks on livestock trailers. Their fines were almost $1,000 for not having the CDL.
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