Weight and wear limits for vehicles on roads

(a) No vehicles equipped wholly or partly with metal tires or vehicles resting on any metal roller, wheel, or other object or portion thereof in contact with the highway, the weight of which with its load exceeds 500 pounds upon any inch width of the tire, shall be operated on any highway; provided that traction engines or tractors, the propulsive power of which is exerted not through wheels resting upon the ground, but by means of a flexible band or chain known as a movable tract, shall not be subject to the foregoing limitations upon permissible weight per inch of width of tire, if the portions of the movable track in contact with the highway present a plane surface. Further, no vehicle or trailer that is equipped wholly or partly with metal tires or other hard nonresilient material shall be operated upon any highway unless a special permit for each such operation be first obtained from the State director of transportation, or the director’s representative, in case of State highways, or from the director of transportation services, or the director’s representative, in case of city and county highways. (b) No vehicle equipped with pneumatic tires, the weight of which with its load exceeds 800 pounds per inch of width per tire shall be operated upon any public highway. (c) No vehicle equipped wholly or partly with solid tires, other than metal, the weight of which with its load exceeds 600 pounds on any inch of the channel base width of the tire used thereon, shall be operated upon any highway. The total width of all the tires on any one wheel is the width of one tire. (d) No vehicle equipped with solid rubber tires shall be operated upon any public highway if the thickness of any such tire is less than as shown in the following table: Width of Tire in Inches Minimum Thickness 3 inches to 5 inches, inclusive 1 6 inches to 8 inches, inclusive 1-1/4 10 inches and over 1-1/2 (e) No vehicle equipped with solid rubber tires shall be operated on any highway when the variation in width of the entire traction surface of any solid tire due to injury or wear exceeds 15 percent, or when the variation in thickness on any part of the traction surface exceeds 15 percent, or when any portion of the rubber is not securely attached to the channel base. No dual solid rubber tires shall be permitted to be used on any highway if there is an average difference greater than one-eighth inch between the outside diameters of each of the single tires composing the dual tire. )