Statutory Height 13.6/Cardinal 13.6 ???

[wbduckman]

A friend looking at Forest River 5thWheels ask me a Cedar Creek owner, these question in which I did not have a answer. Hoping some of you will.

1.
Why would Forest River, or any other Co. for that matter, build a 5th Wheel 13.6 or over (the Cardinal for instance is 13.6) when the majority of the States have a Statutory Height requirement of the same height according to Rand McNally Motor Carrier?

Is that not coming real close to asking for a bad disaster? For instance, roads that have added several inch's of asphalt, or towing Nose high will put you OVER 13.6.

And 2.
Does that make someone Technically illegal on the road if you are over 13.6 in a 13.6 State?

Any thoughts please.

[CHICKDOE]

it has me concerned! i have measure our cardinal a couple of times and it is 13'6"! but it is allowed. semis can go up to the same height and they go just about everywhere. the problem isn't the cardinal. there are many videos or pictures of rv's or trucks that tried to get through bridges much lower than 13'6". I've seen bridges down to the 11' range. you have to know your height and avoid dangerous bridges.

[18CrewDually]

It's pretty simple. Know your height. Pay attention to posted height restrictions.
Another thing commonly ignored by RVers is weight across bridges.

[AquaMan]

They can't build anything over 13'6" high, at the highest point, on level ground. It's then up to the owner to make sure it's properly hitched. I was at the 13-6 mark with my Sierra and as others have pointed out, pay attention to posted heights of overpasses. I wouldn't (and didn't) go under a bridge that had a posted height of anything under 14'.

[cbvp]

Had a Cardinal for 10 plus years and now a Cedar Creek for 4 years. Both were at least 13.6
No height problems.
Just keep watch ahead of you.


C.B.

[ba964]

Added asphalt doesn't make your unit taller. It's 13'6" no matter how thick the asphalt is.

[BandJCarm]

Originally Posted by ba964

Added asphalt doesn't make your unit taller. It's 13'6" no matter how thick the asphalt is.

It does if they don't raise the bottom of that overpass equally, and measured it at 13 1/2 when first layer went down!

But.......I've heard this asphalt worry a lot. All across America, I haven't had any issues, anywhere. Well, yeah......in my subdivision because the city won't trim the trees to 14'!!!!!!!!!

[rjshiflet]

We were pulling thru a small Florida town once and came upon a 12'6" bridge suddenly with no warning. Fortunately there was a very small parking lot that was almost empty just before we got to the bridge. Otherwise, I would have been clogging up traffic backing up to get out of that mess.

I pulled into the parking lot and managed to get the 40' trailer turned around and off we went.

[spock123]

I know how high my camper is from the tallest point. I set my Garmin RV760 and it keeps me away from low bridges. My camper is 13 feet but a friend on this site , his Wildcat hooked up is 13ft 7in

[DrLewie]

Going from Maine into Canada we came to a sign that said "All commercial vehicles turn left to Canada." Our truck and 13' 5er aren't commercial, ao we went straight, following the GPS directions. No problems going through th US barrier, but when we pulled into the Canadian barrier we saw an underpass on the other side with 12'6" clearance. The border guard stopped traffic so we could turn around. The border guard in the US booth asked us how long we were in Canada. When I said "three minutes" he seemed a bit skeptical.