THE SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, SHERIFF’S OFFICE got one of those nifty mobile command centers last year. With the help of a Homeland Security grant, they took delivery of the $625,000 truck late last year. It is designed to be a regional command post to coordinate fire, police and rescue agencies at major disasters. But there’s just one thing wrong … it’s too heavy to legally operate on California highways.
The deputies noticed something wrong during a training exercise when the vehicle started leaning and didn’t go back to level. Putting two and two together, they decided to take it to the truck scales where they learned that the real axle was carrying 2,060 lbs. over the legal limit.
The command center was built in Ohio where it’s legal to operate as well as at most other states, so it wasn’t caught at first. The sheriff dept. also increased the rear axle load by ordering two large air conditioning units and the camera mast to be located on the rear of the vehicle.
Plans are made to drive the truck back to the builder where they’ll install a tandem axle at no charge to the sheriff. But the county will have to pay about $8,000 for the costs of transporting it out and back – three drivers and their food and lodging expenses for the 11-day portal-to-portal assignment.
Sacramento TV News10 has this video report complete with an interior tour:
The Lodi News-Sentinel reported today:
Fred Gerling, owner and founder of Gerling & Associates, said in a phone interview Tuesday from Ohio that California’s 20,000-pound limit applies only to commercial carriers, not emergency vehicles.Sheriff’s spokesman Les Garcia disagrees, citing Section 35550a of the California Vehicle Code, which states that the gross weight of any one axle of a vehicle shall not exceed 20,000 pounds except for those carrying livestock.
Redistributing the command vehicle’s weight by more than 2,000 pounds will cost Gerling an estimated $9,000 in parts and $5,000 in labor.
“As owner, I basically care to err on the side of satisfying my customers,” Gerling said, adding that he wants San Joaquin County to be a repeat customer.
Gerling said that the sheriff’s department accepted the vehicle in June 2008 and was delighted with the product, but now he’s dealing with different sheriff’s representatives who insist on reducing the axles’ load to 20,000 pounds.
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