[AT] [at] towing tractors with a pickup

[James Peck]

California is a major agricultural state. Some organization paid for the lobbyists to create that ag equipment friendly legislation. I wonder which one? Farm Bureau?

I have mentioned taking robot courses after the great recession caused me a period of underemployment. One class room we used before going to the robot lab was mainly used by a law enforcement training program. The whiteboard lecture writings left gave an indication of how laws were enforced rather than how they are written.  Writing books about how laws are actually enforced is usually deemed to be practicing law without a license.

[Grant Brians - Hollister, California farmer of vegetables, edible flowers, herbs and other crops]  James, in California (not exactly the least urban state) there is a very specific section of the vehicle code that covers this and eliminates the tickets unnecessarily being written - it is called "Implements of Husbandry". The requirement is that the trailer or other farm machinery being transported on a road must have a SMV placard facing rearward. With this proviso, tractors, harvesters, trailers, tillage implements, farm trailers, etc. can be moved on the road and normal width and other limitations are almost all waived. Longtime members of the list will remember my story of towing the 15' 10" wide Mower-conditioner I bought back in 1982 being towed on US 101 and the clueless CHP officers who had to call SACRAMENTO to confirm what was in the vehicle code. It was pretty hilarious to listen to the radio traffic that took place for them to learn what they should have learned before entering a car.
     I will note that since the section was written, in the 1990's there was a limitation added - no more than 25 miles at a time on an Interstate highway.

[James Peck] <snip> A revenue hungry law enforcement official seeing the farm wagons going down the road behind a pickup might deem it pulling an unlicensed uninsured unbraked unlighted trailer on the public highway without an approved ball hitch or safety chains. We are lucky enforcement is so lax. <snip>