Dot inpection?

[rwbinbc]

What is needed to pass a dot inpection of a chip truck under 26k? Is there a list? I looking at an older truck but dot seems to hassle tree guys alot. So what sould I look for to make sure it will pass a dot inpection?

I looked on google but didnt find anything helpful. I'm looking at a 1982 f700 chip truck. What are the big things to look for?

 

[dougy]

dot

things to look at are all lights,reflectors , exhaust leaks, fluid leaks of any kind , brakes, suspension , steering, brake lines or hoses depending on if you have air brakes or not.
headache racks, the frame and crossmembers, wheels, all the glass and mirrors , and any tie towns
ps if the truck has air brakes you better know how to adj them if you come to IN
hth

 

[squad143]

You are best to check with your state's DOT.

In my Province (like a State), if you are buying a used vehicle, before you can license it, you must take it to a certified garage and have a "safety inspection" done on it. The garage will check the brakes, lights, turn signals, horn, windshield, defroster, wipers, tires, steering, suspension, ball joints, etc. Here is a link to another forum that lists what is checked in an Ontario safety inspection: http://www.tbaec.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=1363

Also, in Ontario, for commercial vehicles, they require that you do a daily vehicle inspection (circle check) everyday and keep a record of it in the vehicle. Here is an example: http://www.oaba.on.ca/newsFiles/1291995001--Daily_Vehicle_Inspection_Checklist.doc
or you can use a "Driver's Daily Logbook" which is available at most truckstops.

Hope this helps. BTW..... the DOT hassels everybody.

 

[rwbinbc]

OK so as long as it doesn't leak and everything works, everything else can be fixed. Just didn't want to buy a truck that I have to worry about driving anywhere. My families trucks have dot numbers but no inpections so everytime We get checked it cost three or four hundred dollars for no medical card, or on inpection, missing stuff. I dont want to limit My self with being able to drive on the highway when ever not trying to dodge the dot pigs.

The truck I'm looking at is older But everthing works, Hell I'm planing on going thru everthing anyways tires, brakes, and all the electrical. Just dont like breaking down in a custumers yard needing a jump. I felt like crap when My chipper died on a job, The tattle tail lost the power wire. I didn't know what to do. Took a while and I figured it out. Working on a complete new wiring harness for that to.

I've had 1 ton trucks, Never got dot numbers or inpections. I was allways running on the highway and never got checked by dot. But I didn't keep signs on the truck. Maybe I just got lucky. But My future is not going to be based on luck, Cause I'm moving on Up. No more working with the "family" bs.

Thanks Everyone, For input and support.

 

[thejdman04]

I have found that at least in IL the safety sticker program is a joke. I always go to the same safety lane, go there often enough with different trucks that many times I go there, shoot the breeze with the inspector and he hands me the sticker without looking at the truck. A safety sticker really doesn't mean a lot, you can have one a day old get pulled down for an inspection and get a long list of violations. I was once told by a dot officer that he could write a brand new truck on the show room floor tickets for something, and with some cops I would believe it. Around here, some small towns have gotten wise to dot inspections and realized that is an easy way to balance their budgets and really go after trucks. With having a truck and licensing it for 25999 or less, make sure you never go over that magical number even by a pound. If you are 26000lbs or more then you open a whole big can of worms, cdl, medical card, etc etc. Some trucks, it really isn't hard to go over 25999lb number. The big things to make sure are in working order is suspension (leaf springs etc), brakes, suspension (everything should be tight ie tie rod ends etc), lights, no cracks in the frame, good tires, and no MAJOR leaks(dripping oil). Also, make sure the mud flaps are on there and not ripped in half etc. Other then that, most cops will give you a warning and work with you if it is not a major SAFETY violation. After all, that is why they are out there, supposedly, to check and make sure the vehicles on the road are safe, as long as there isn't anything that is majorly unsafe, most cops will either give you a warning, or it wont be too painful on the pocket book.

 

[bushinspector]

In Oklahoma DOT will leave you alone as long as you are under 26,000 Lbs

 

[meatwagon45]

DOT sucks - they hassle trucks for a cracked reflector but smile and wave at the car with entire tail lights missing. Basicly, you need to make sure the truck is mechanicly sound as the day it was first sold. They dont care if a rock chipped your windshield 10 minutes ago or an 1/8th of a mile up the road. You will get ticketed because they saw it.

I had the pleasure of taking a brand new truck with less than 400 miles on it into a weigh station. I explained that the truck was brand new (even had plastic on the seats) and it was on its way to the yard from the dealership. DMV didnt care. Its a truck and they needed to inspect it.

Even more fun is when the IRS joins the DMV/DOT to do inspections. They like to check the color of your fuel and see reciepts for fuel purchases. I had an inspector open the hydraulic tank on my boom truck and take a sample. Never mind the tank was labled "Hydraulic Fluid Only". The inspectors flipped out. Before they would listen to me, they had a ticket for $1000 and a tow truck waiting to hook up. I finally got the tow driver to explain to the officers that they f'ed up. I never laughed so hard.

A little known fact is that your truck has to meet the standards of the year it was manufactured. They cannot require you to upgrade or add equipment that was not available that year. An officer tried to make me add an ICC bar to the lift gate of my 1987 Mack box truck. I explained that it was impossible to do. He showed me 2009 requirements that the bar was required. I got mouthy and told him that he must be a super trooper since nobody in 22 years ever noticed this error. I went home, called his supervisor and had him come out and review the truck. He was embarassed that this was an issue. I never saw that inspector again.

 

[squad143]

Where I live the DOT has no jurisdiction to pull over private automobiles, only commercial vehicles.

 

[bigbadbob]

Here in BC DOT can and will pull over anything anybody.
The rules for commercial vehicles is quite strickt.
They have the gun!!!
There are many roadside inspections commercial and otherwise.
The dot and police, they catch an amazing amount of drug and money runners.
For simple things like tailights and speeding.
The scales do inspections randomly, ruthelessly.
Ya end up just paying more money!!!
We call them 'Mermaids" **nts with scales!!!

 

[ducaticorse]

DOT=the "no fun patrol" DOT is a FEDERAL institution, meaning every state has to adhere to the same rules. Of course, some states enforce the rules much differently from one another, but the rules ARE THE SAME.

I've been stopped and inspected twice this year, and have failed in some way or another both times (no dead lines though). Don't get me started about last year.

 

[meatwagon45]

Ok, what happened last year?

 

[ducaticorse]

Ok, what happened last year?

LOL,

Someone was transporting a 1ton with faulty lighting, and an unregistered chipper @ 5am with an apparent suspended license and their doberman.....

Nuff said.

Let's just say pre dawn convoys don't work like they do in the army

 

[bushinspector]

DOT=the "no fun patrol" DOT is a FEDERAL institution, meaning every state has to adhere to the same rules. Of course, some states enforce the rules much differently from one another, but the rules ARE THE SAME.

I've been stopped and inspected twice this year, and have failed in some way or another both times (no dead lines though). Don't get me started about last year.

While it is a federal institution each state can have MORE restrictions.

 

[ducaticorse]

While it is a federal institution each state can have MORE restrictions.

Touche,
To an extent.
DOT is a federal agency and the rules are the same country wide. If your state chooses to make it more difficult than the Feds do, they can do so. But those rules are enforced by the State, and not DOT even though generaly, the "truck team" in your state will be enforcing both sets of rules. You get whacked out by DOT a few times you can loose your rights across the entire country, cross your states governing body, and you risk loosing the right to operate in that state.
Safe to say, check with your local inspection station. I say local inpection station because many of them will differ on how stringent they are with what passes, and what fails.

 

[lwmibc]

dot

Nobody's mentioned attitude so I'll add 2 cents. Dot guys are not dummies; they're there to do a job, often a ####ty one--figure just how many drivers they see in a day. They seem to tell within 15 seconds or so if you take pride in your truck, or are trying to hide something or are combative. Give them half a chance to be nice and they probably will be, but if they get 'attitude' they're going to show you that their's is definitely more powerful.

And have your paperwork all nicely organised; a 3-ring binder with licenses, special permits, inspection documents, repair logs--when you produce something like that with everything neatly filed and tabbed you'll be amazed at the response you get! Rustle around a bunch of junk in the glove box or off the dash or floor and you can bet they'll look for more wrong.

I haul over 500 loads a year of 110,000 lbs on 6 axles, logs or lo-bed, and get pulled in to routine checks periodically and go over scales a lot; I just never have any worry going in and have yet to have a bad experience. I know they do happen, but wonder what display of attitude set it up to happen that way.

I dunno, maybe I just look to old to hassle?

 

[squad143]

Nobody's mentioned attitude so I'll add 2 cents. Dot guys are not dummies; they're there to do a job, often a ####ty one--figure just how many drivers they see in a day. They seem to tell within 15 seconds or so if you take pride in your truck, or are trying to hide something or are combative. Give them half a chance to be nice and they probably will be, but if they get 'attitude' they're going to show you that their's is definitely more powerful.

And have your paperwork all nicely organised; a 3-ring binder with licenses, special permits, inspection documents, repair logs--when you produce something like that with everything neatly filed and tabbed you'll be amazed at the response you get! Rustle around a bunch of junk in the glove box or off the dash or floor and you can bet they'll look for more wrong.

I haul over 500 loads a year of 110,000 lbs on 6 axles, logs or lo-bed, and get pulled in to routine checks periodically and go over scales a lot; I just never have any worry going in and have yet to have a bad experience. I know they do happen, but wonder what display of attitude set it up to happen that way.

I dunno, maybe I just look to old to hassle?

:agree2:
Having everything (logbook, daily inspection, insurance, ownership, CVOR certificates) readily availabe in a seperate binder and a polite attitude will definately have an effect on the officer.

I'm glad that they're out there inforcing the rules. Sure it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but the alternative would be a bunch of vehicles injuring alot of innocent people.

 

[bushinspector]

Nobody's mentioned attitude so I'll add 2 cents. Dot guys are not dummies; they're there to do a job, often a ####ty one--figure just how many drivers they see in a day. They seem to tell within 15 seconds or so if you take pride in your truck, or are trying to hide something or are combative. Give them half a chance to be nice and they probably will be, but if they get 'attitude' they're going to show you that their's is definitely more powerful.

And have your paperwork all nicely organised; a 3-ring binder with licenses, special permits, inspection documents, repair logs--when you produce something like that with everything neatly filed and tabbed you'll be amazed at the response you get! Rustle around a bunch of junk in the glove box or off the dash or floor and you can bet they'll look for more wrong.

I haul over 500 loads a year of 110,000 lbs on 6 axles, logs or lo-bed, and get pulled in to routine checks periodically and go over scales a lot; I just never have any worry going in and have yet to have a bad experience. I know they do happen, but wonder what display of attitude set it up to happen that way.

I dunno, maybe I just look to old to hassle?

Great advice for everyone!