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It’s nice to live in California for many reasons. There are a lot of things to do, the weather is nice, and Vegas is close. What is not nice about California for enthusiasts are the CARB and DOT laws surrounding a modified vehicle. Another instance where California sucks, are their vehicle length basic laws. According to California’s legal truck length, no semi-trailers total length can exceed 75 feet, including room for load. The physical dimensions of the truck are further reduced to 65 feet. Some race teams pulling full size trailers along with trucks containing campers are having problems with CalTrans.
Top Fuel pilot Steve Torrence and team CAPCO have reported that they were nabbed by CalTrans, their rig and trailer disconnected, with their trailer transported out of state. It is unclear how many teams have been effected by CalTrans at this time, but we do know there will be one less Top Fuel team in qualifying at Pomona this year.
Steve has reported the following on his Facebook page:
As we were all aware of, many trailers including mine are not in compliance with the laws of california because of length. I called CalTrans last week in efforts of obtaining a permit to avoid any problems with this issue and was notified that there “IS NOT and WILL NOT” be a permit given.
We were stopped at the scales, pulled over and inspected. This is where our trailer was measured and entire rig taken out of service and deemed illegal. Through many conversations and with CalTrans I was told that the only way that my trailer was allowed to leave the weigh station would be by hauling it out on on a lowboy trailer. There suggestion was to hire a crane company to come out, lift the trailer and load it to haul. But under no circumstance would we be able to move the trailer. Not even to get it to a better location for loading.
Through much help from a few other race teams, I was able to contact someone who had a stretch trailer that would be long and low enough to back our trailer onto. Unfortunately by the time we were able to get everything taken care of, we would not have enough time to make it to the track for qualifying.
I have no issue with paying a fine or buying any type of permit that would eliminate this problem. Being that we are in no type of points chase and using the last few races of this season as testing for next year. I made the decision that hauling my trailer “on a trailer” in and out of the state of california was not feasible nor something I wanted to do.
