My old Dodge Ram with Cummins diesel...

[Wallythacker]

I was a mechanic for a transport company. We had ~75 Class 8 trucks & over 200 trailers. As we also did local & long distance moves, we also had small trailers & pick-ups to use for local work. Transport Canada disagrees with you about not needing lights on a trailer. https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transpo...n-requirements

A lot of police may turn a blind eye on their way to the donut shop, but watch out for the MTO. These are the guys that will remove your plates for 3 minor safety infractions or 1 serious one Be careful running with no trailer lights...

Yep, I concede I may get in trouble but what Transport Canada says is required will not fly in an Ontario court where

https://www.ontario.ca/document/offi...andbook/towing

you only need 1 taillight vs. TC demanding 2 and you don't even need brake lights. I think those TC requirements you posted apply to trailer manufacturers.

ETA: I have been stopped more than once for not having brake lights on my trailer and the cops were a little surprised when they were told the Ontario HTA doesn't require them. I will note once I was eavesdropping the police frequency at the time so I heard the conversation.

I also noticed the MTO website specifically mentioned that only a commercial vehicle can pull more that 1 trailer. It was common years ago to see the F-150 pulling the 5th wheel and the boat trailer was tacked on behind. It appears that's still legal provided you registered your F-150 as a truck when new. If you registered your , what's the giant GM truck thing they call an SUV? Yukon? as a car I guess you are SOL to pull two trailers. I'm sure there are all sorts of qualifiers they tack on.

[Fummins]

Weird. I see that says for trailers under 6’ wide. Out here you can’t just built a trailer and tow it around, some sheriff or similar person comes and checks it out to see if it has all the reflectors and lights as required. Then they rivet or glue an assigned vin to it afaik.

Here you can tandem tow if the first one is a fifth wheel and is longer than the second trailer(iirc). I don’t know if there’s anywhere in Canada that allows tandem towing bumper pull trailers. I’ve seen it done in some states. You’d have to have things balanced just right I would think.
And out here you can tow whatever afaik as long as it doesn’t have air brakes with a normal drivers license. My bumper pull camper has a 14 or 15k gvw. Hold my beer!

[klroger]

Yep, I concede I may get in trouble but what Transport Canada says is required will not fly in an Ontario court where

https://www.ontario.ca/document/offi...andbook/towing

you only need 1 taillight vs. TC demanding 2 and you don't even need brake lights. I think those TC requirements you posted apply to trailer manufacturers.

ETA: I have been stopped more than once for not having brake lights on my trailer and the cops were a little surprised when they were told the Ontario HTA doesn't require them. I will note once I was eavesdropping the police frequency at the time so I heard the conversation.

Cool, so the MTO officers that came to the garage to give us the courses where BSing us because the "Drivers Handbook" you quoted says we don't need the lights the MTO required.. I'll never believe a MTO officer again...

[Wallythacker]

Cool, so the MTO officers that came to the garage to give us the courses where BSing us because the "Drivers Handbook" you quoted says we don't need the lights the MTO required.. I'll never believe a MTO officer again...

Do you remember the case where the guy beat a massive speeding ticket? He was caught going over 70mph or so in a 50 marked zone. Both the driver's handbook and the MTO goons would argue he broke the HTA, Then the courts stepped in and he walked because Canada is/was officially a dual measurement standard and the sign was not marked indicating the limit was KpH or MpH,
He walked, morale of my story? The only thing that matters is what the court says.

ETA2: It's also made very clear in writing that no part of the HTA can be modified by a verbal directive, no matter who is issuing it. It's up to Parliament to make the changes. I don't know if that is still the case or not. Likely is. And if the Ontario .gov website says your trailer is fine with a single red light, well, f**K the MTO goons. You'll win in court, but who wants to expend those resources over something like a ticket for a missing light.

[Eggman]

Just put lights on the trailer and let it go. What will it hurt?

[Wallythacker]

Just put lights on the trailer and let it go. What will it hurt?

this is the answer. it doesn't take a lot of effort.

[Wallythacker]

I try to keep on top of burnt out lights too. I just got into the habbit cause I didn't want to give anyone a reason to pull me over leaving my old shop at 11pm.

Now cops here don't even need a real reason to pull you over, they can just say they suspect your under the influence and start looking for reasons later. Still, I keep all my lights working. I'm sure if I got pulled over in my van by the right keener I'd get tickets for not having orange reflectors at the front corners and I might not have red at the rear. Probably get a ticket for loud exhaust.
I once got pulled over for a bs reason(had snow covering rear window of truck). Once pulled over they found I was running a dealer plate on my personal truck to move it to the shop....It cost me $500 to have a lawyer go to court and have it thrown out. Plus towing and impound fees too, and I had to miss half a day of work and borrow a tow truck to tow mine back. Good times.

I just finished getting things righted when the MTO website said I could not renew my plate then a cop pulls me over for an expired plate then the court mailed the notice to the wrong address. then things turned to s**t

[Fummins]

I just finished getting things righted when the MTO website said I could not renew my plate then a cop pulls me over for an expired plate then the court mailed the notice to the wrong address. then things turned to s**t

Just do what a buddy of mine does. Register one trailer then use it on everything. He's got a toy hauler from a salvage auction that was laid on it's side on it's way from the mfg to a dealer in Alaska. It was never registered ever and he doesn't have the nvis papers. Can't be registered. He built his own utility trailer but didn't want to pay $250 to have it inspected. So he uses a plate off one of his registered trailers. It's fine until he gets pulled over lol.

[Wallythacker]

Just do what a buddy of mine does. Register one trailer then use it on everything. He's got a toy hauler from a salvage auction that was laid on it's side on it's way from the mfg to a dealer in Alaska. It was never registered ever and he doesn't have the nvis papers. Can't be registered. He built his own utility trailer but didn't want to pay $250 to have it inspected. So he uses a plate off one of his registered trailers. It's fine until he gets pulled over lol.

Smart guy. In this wacky province there is NO trailer inspection. I could cobble together the flimsiest POS known to man, walk into the MTO, declare I made it, pay $43 or so, take my plate and then mount said plate on ANY trailer with the same number of axles and even if I get pulled over the ownership for the trailer will pass any scrutiny. I could probably stick wheels on my new tower like you suggested and get away with it.

My Dad, when he was alive, had a single trailer plate from the 70's and used it on all his single axle trailers. He was pulled over a few times during his life and there was never an issue with the trailer, even though an imbecile could see a brand new aluminum trailer underneath a plate issued in the 70's.

God, I love this idiot province at times. This is one of them.

[Wallythacker]

In fact, where I live I can play engineer and build a trailer with a gross weight when loaded of 4,600kg! That's 10,120 lbs. for my US buddies. As long as it has brakes, again I get to decide what type of brakes, surge or electric, mechanical or hydraulic, on one axle or all the axles, and meets the lighting requirements, I'll never get hassled about it. I could theorectically build it from hardwood and provided it's not obviously falling apart or you can see the cords on the tires while I go down the highway I'll never be bothered.

My judgement, entirely, gets to decide how to construct this monstrosity I'm about to attach to the Mirage and hope for the best!
5 axles, 4-80/8 tires, why not? many of those tires have a weight rating of 990 lbs. x 10 gets me 9,990 lbs. of gross weight.

Another reason I love this province