[Rob Petrie E395]

If you tow a trailer with a GVW of 10,000 lbs behind anything in a commercial application you have to have a cdl.

As a example

You have a s-10 pickup and your neighbor wants you to tow their empty open car 10K GVW trailer to another location and PAYS you to do so you are a commerical FOR PROFIT operation and must have a CDL to tow the trailer there. CDL has nothing to do with how much the trailer auctually weighs and everything to do with whats on the sticker on the tongue. There are alot of states that are using this to bust landscapers and mowing companies for not having cdls. This is why there are so many trailers on the market now with a GVW of 9900 to 9999 GVW tags on them.

Now do you need a cdl to tow your race rig that depends on 3 things
1. Is any prize money declared as regular income
2. Do you take your racing expenses off your taxes or your companies taxes
3. Is corprate sponsership involved
If your if you awnser no to question 1 or yes to 2 or 3 you need a cdl
For more info goto the US DOT website and use their search feature and search 390.3 question 21
click on the one that reads "interpretation for Part 390: General"
Then scroll down to queston 21 for more details

390.3 (f)(3) is the US dot rule that alows us to use CMV for personal use without a cdl but you must follow the 3 rules above to be allowed to do so.

I did a bunch a research on this last summer and found this. I auctually printed this out off their site and carry it in the truck so when the day comes that we need it we have it handy. I have a A cdl with everything except haz mat but my wife and son do not as well as most of my buddies that go with me to the track. Now most of the time I do all the driving but a few times I have let someone else drive and this exemption is what save me from having to get them cdls to do so
Hope this helps