New laws pertaining to legal size of wheel houses??

[Big Buck Buster]

A buddy of mine told me today that they changed the maximum width limit on wheel houses to 8 feet wide, instead of the DOT limit of 8'6". He was told this by a fish house manufacturer.

Has anyone heard of this?

The other thing that they told him was that when you license the house, and if it were built by someone other than a manufacturer, that you had to show that the builder of the frame was a licensed/certified welder.

Is there any truth to any of this?, or is this company that desperate for business?

[jigginjim]

Maybe best to contact DOT. I can see where some of it could come from on the welding. I saw a guy weld a snowmobile trailer,I thought the welds looked a little weak, came it a kick as a joke and 6 welds broke.

[Big Buck Buster]

Maybe best to contact DOT. I can see where some of it could come from on the welding. I saw a guy weld a snowmobile trailer,I thought the welds looked a little weak, came it a kick as a joke and 6 welds broke.

I tried navigating through the MNDot HSOforum, and couldn't find anything about it. I had a tough enough time finding the size limits for trailers.

Would it be a better idea to just email them, or to call the number?

["Just Add Ice"]

It would be hard to think they would put a width limit just on fish houses. I know enclosed trailers can still be 8.6 so why would they just limit this to wheel houses. Also what if you all ready have a 8.6 wide fish house. How would they grand father these in. I would count on this.

[fisherdog19]

I believe the width is measured from the outside of the wheels. Limit is 8.5'.

[hawkeye43]

It sounds to me that fish house manufacturer is looking for a way out of making 8'6" houses. Maybe they don't want to change their jigs or something.

[Big Buck Buster]

The owner of this company said that all the fish house manufacturers got letters stating this. I think they are full of it.

I looked again on the dot HSOforum, and couldn't find anything about it.

[castmaster]

Legal for enclosed trailers is still 102" (8'6") so idont know why wheel houses would be different.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Ask them to show you the letters they received.

[Phred52]

I agree with you boilerguy. Have him 'put up or shut up'. The maximum legal width on trailers (without special road permits) is 102". Whether the trailer is used for hauling solid gold bars or liquid manure, makes no difference. Phred52

[Big Buck Buster]

I agree with you both 100%. He didn't see any proof of this. He was just told this by the manufacturer. I don't see why they would implement any smaller width restriction just for wheel houses either. I just thought that I would throw the question out here to see if anyone else heard of such nonsense.

This manufacturer also said that a certain house manufacturer filed for bankruptcy again this year, and that they already fixed more than 40 bent axles that were made by this company. I would believe the axle part, but hard to believe the bankruptcy part.

[Eric Wettschreck]

In honesty, the whole thing smells of lutefisk to me. Sounds like either bad blood or mud slinging politics in the wheel house manufacturing world.

If you're shack is 102" or less, you're good to go.

I also have a very difficult time believing the certified welder part. There are a great many trailers out there not fabricated by a certified welder and no problems with licensing.

Methinks someone's fibbing.

[JSK76]

I also have a very difficult time believing the certified welder part. There are a great many trailers out there not fabricated by a certified welder and no problems with licensing.

I agree, there is a lot of things going down the road that could be just as dangerous as a bad weld that are being performed by non certified people.

[Big Buck Buster]

I have to agree with the bad blood part. There are three fish house sales companies not far from each other on the same stretch of road in this location. I am not going to sweat it.