# Mn DOT



## swmnhay

Heard at sale barn the other day a guy was bringing in 2 bales of cornstalks on a flat bed behind pickup and got a ticket for unsecured load for $145.They brought $8 each.OUCH.


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## downtownjr

Ouch is right...you know I was talking to one of the troopers here and they are under pressure to stop people for about everything. States are out of money and they do have quotas and they have been upped here. Handing out tickets is becoming a major revenue source. Things they may have overlooked in the past are stopped today. Be careful out there and especially watch the construction zones and areas such as the sales barns and even going to the fairgrounds or large events. They are also watching for farm tags hauling for non-farm operations and weight limits on the side roads.


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## chadl

Our fine government at work. There should be exceptions to the dot and ag. I was hauling my bales in another state. The dot had a feed truck pulled over. I am not sure how far the farmer lived from there but am sure it was close. They were doing a full blown inspection. I dont think I have ever seen a feed truck that would pass dot after the first week of feeding cattle.


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## swmnhay

Heard another one a guy bought a flat bed load of sm sqrs and was pulling it home with pickup and got a ticket for unsecured load.Story is that someone lost some sm sqrs on highway and was hit by a car in the dark and now the DOT is hounding everyone.


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## Production Acres

People should get tickets and fined for being too lazy and irresponsible to secure what they are hauling! A guy came in here last year and wanted 18 4x5 rd bales put on a 24' flatbed gooseneck(thats 2 bales wide, 2 bales high) - not a problem, we do it all the time. But then he refused to strap it, and when the load fell off 2 miles down the road, who has to go pick it up - and he has the audacity to chew me out for poor stacking(did not go over well and he got a 20 minute lecture and told to never come back without 1 strap per 4' of his load. Have people come in here all the time with no way to secure their loads - we either have to sell them straps or use baling twine to hold their load secure. Years ago, we had a guy come in here from fl all the time who would load loose square bales on a 24' straight truck, put a tarp on it with dry rotten bungie cords and leave - no straps whatsover. We used to believe that you could put rd bales on a trailer 2 wide on the bottom and one down the middle and tie the back bale and go down the road - they do it here like that all the time( and every year, there are 20-50 bales seen in the ditches and sides of the road) I lost one bale one time and a little old lady came around the curve and ran into it doing all of 15 mph - no one got hurt, but we don't ever leave a load unstrapped now. Someone's life may depend on you doing the right thing!!!!!!!!


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## swmnhay

Common sense goes along way.I always strap the loads that are 2 wide & 2 high.On loads that are 2 wide on bottum and 1 row on top I always strap the back of the load.There is absolutly no way the top bales would come off sitting between the other bales.But to be legal it is supposed to have a strap every 4'.This is with 5' wide rd bales,4' wide is a different story.They need to be strapped every bale,way less stable.


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## Production Acres

5' wide rd bales should be ticketed every time they leave the farm. You cannot see around your truck - you have no way of safely going down the highway - I have personally hauled several thousand of them and will not ever put another one on my trucks - Even with very good mirrors, they should not be transported!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unless you are going to put oversize placards on the load and escort it like a proper oversize load going down the interstate, don't haul them. Some innocent person doesn't need to hear how you couldn't see them out you mirrors and that is why you killed their mother! The weigh stations are starting to crack down on these loads and rightly so!


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## swmnhay

Must be a here and there thing.80% of the hay is rd baled here.90% of the rd bales around here are 5x6.99% of them are hauled two wide.Semi's normaly 2 rows on top also straped.It is illegal to haul rd bales on interstate in Mn if over 8.5' wide. but you can in SD.SD is a more farmer friendly state.I geuse they still remember were there food comes from.Did see a hay hauler in western SD with a 3 wide live bed trailer going down interstate.Wide load sign and red flags are required here.

I don't see any more danger hauling a 10' wide load of hay than driving my 18' wide combine down the road.Or a tractor with a 20' drill behind it.Every thing has lights,blinkers.As I say common sense goes a long way including the driver in the car if he can't see blinkers or brake lights it is totaly his fault if he runs into me.

Common sense on my part we try to stay off road with eq and hay during busy traffic times.Use back roads when possible.Don't go on road at night with anything wide.I actually can haul a load of hay 10 miles and not meet anyone on the road somtimes.


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## Production Acres

The danger of 10' wide rd bales is almost never meeting someone. The danger is the guy doing 50mph on a county rd on his motorcycle passing the slow farmer with his load of rd bales that he cannot see behind at the same time the farmer makes a left turn down the road to his barn. Or the danger is being on a 4 lane highway and needing to switch lanes, and you don't see the little 4 wheeler that snuck up beside you, and you either run them off the road or squash them, because they don't understand wide loads or big trucks or anything, they just wanted to drive in the country for the weekend to grandma's house.

A swather or tractor with duals, or a combine are all different than a load of hay in that they are equipped with mirrors and you can see what the traffic behind you is doing. You cannot see behind you with a load of hay. Oncoming traffic is almost never the problem, the problem is almost always the nut behind you that left 10minutes late for work trying to make that time up on the road.


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## haybaler101

State highways and interstates, we follow all the laws and do our best to be road legal. County roads in Indiana, we play by our rules. Since we pay a unGodly amount of property taxes and roads still receive no upkeep, we do what we need to get it done. If some [email protected]@ wants to ride his motorcycle 50 mph into the back of my semi that is 10 ft wide with round bales, I will just have to clean his greasy spot off of the back of the truck. The point is We hog the county roads, we are proud of it. Listen to Craig Morgan's International Harvester.


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## Production Acres

Ten years ago, I was pulling a disc down the road getting ready to pull into a field. The disc was 14' wide on a county rd 10' wide. Yes there were lights and flashers on adn we only had to travel 100 yds on the highway from 1 field entrance to the next. There were no shoulders on the road at all, adn with the tires at the edge of the pavement, the disc still hung over 2' into the oncoming lane. There was a small car coming so I came to a complete stop as I was fixing to turn. She (young 20 yr old girl - possibly even on her cell phone) got the deer in the headlights look and turned into the disc. She missed the first gang and sheared the second set of discs clean off the tractor. Her car then rolled about 100yds before comming to a complete stop overturned in the field. Then a 3yr old and a 6 yr old kid climbed out of the car! All three just had scratches - nothing serious! I was very thankful they were not grease stains on my disc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like the song very much and am as big of a purponent of farming as you can find; however, I don't want any grease stains haunting my dreams. I do enjoy holding up traffic occasionally and enjoy spreading chicken litter in town ocassionally to remind people where their food comes from.


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