Subject:  Boat Trailers- anyone who travels through NC please pass this on.

Some information that should be passed on to club members that trailer. The North Carolina state police are cracking down on a law that I have never heard about in my 35 years of trailering. This law also applies in Virginia but so far I do not know about them enforcing the law.

When you go to DMV to get tags for your truck/car and they ask for the weight of the vehicle most people are just using the weight off the title for the Gross vehicle weight for their tags. That's fine as long as your not towing anything. The state police in NC have purchased a set of portable scales and are stopping all the towed vehicles they can and fining them for being overweight. The fine is based on the amount you are overweight. The guy I know was fined $530.00.

If you trailer a boat to Oregon Inlet you need to be prepared to be stopped. To prevent getting fined you need to go to DMV and re-register your vehicle for the combined weight of your truck/car + boat + gas and equipment + trailer. My truck is 6500 pounds and my boat + trailer is 8500 pounds. I got a tag to cover 18,000 pounds to be on the safe side. This tag cost $130.00. I would recommend making sure all your trailer lights work because when the police get pissed off that you have the correct tag I'm sure they will be looking for some other reason to get some money from you once you have been stopped.

Another thing they are looking for is the weight of the vehicle being towed. If the boat & trailer that you tow is over 10,000 pounds then you have to have a class "A" trucker license. That will be an additional fine to the overweight fine.

Finally, if your boat or trailer is over 8' 6" wide then you have to have a special over sized permit. This permit is $95.00 annually. The problem with this permit is that you cannot tow down the highway from sun set to sunrise. You also cannot tow on Sundays or holidays or with in 12 hours of a holiday. Since many of us tow before sun rise on Sundays & holidays you better watch out. This is the kicker on the oversized vehicle. Many people have float on trailers. Most of these float on trailers have the PVC horse shoe at the back to help guide the boat onto the trailer when loading. If your boat is 8' wide and the PVC pipes extend beyond 8' 6" then you are considered oversized and subject to a fine.

I'm sure that if NC is successful in generating enough revenue then it won't be long before Virginia jumps on the bandwagon. Remember this is not a new law, just one that is starting to be enforced. If a operator is pulling and oversized load over 10,000 pounds with out the proper permits, the fine will be in excess of $1,000 and they are going to confiscate your boat until you pay the fines and get the proper permits to haul it away.