Heavy Haul and Machinery Moving in Arlington, TX

A heavy haul is a truck move of a machine too wide, too tall or too heavy for Texas's legal limits, and around Arlington two things decide it: a TxDMV permit and the route limits in TxDMV's Fort Worth and Dallas District lists. With no permit, TxDMV lets a load run 8 feet 6 inches across and 14 feet tall on a truck of up to 80,000 pounds gross. Past those figures the permit sets the route, the hours and any escorts, and posted limits still bind, such as the 14 feet 6 inches height cap on set ramps at the I-30 and SH 360 interchange in Arlington. Machinery moving is the other half: getting a machine out of a building, across a plant floor or onto the trailer. Our written quote lists the permit, any escorts and each charge.

The loads on a heavy haul are machines that break the legal limits before anything rides on them. Komatsu lists its PC220LC-12 excavator at an overall width of 10 feet 5 inches and an operating weight of 53,352-54,675 lbs, already wider than the 8 feet 6 inches Texas allows, and DEVELON lists its DX350LCR-7 at 79,702 lb. Crawler cranes travel in pieces: Manitowoc's heaviest MLC100-1 transport piece, the rotating bed with boom butt, weighs 91,500 lb, and the LTR 1100, Liebherr says, travels on "two standard low loaders." All-terrain cranes drive, but their counterweight follows; Link-Belt says the 300|AT carries its maximum 162,000 pounds of counterweight in four overflow truckloads. Those figures set the trailer, the permit and the escorts; our crawler crane rental page covers moving and assembling a crawler.

Freight prices here are national, and the permit fees are the State's. One national freight marketplace, on its 2023 heavy-equipment page, puts long hauls at $2 to $4 per mile and gives examples: around $1,500 for a mini excavator of 8,000 lbs, $3,500 or more for a 30,000-lb crane, $500 to $1,000 more for trailers built for oversized loads, and prices up 10 to 20 percent in peak construction seasons. TxDMV charges $60 for a general single-trip permit, and above 80,000 pounds gross it adds a highway maintenance fee by weight. For rented equipment, the Comptroller's Rule 3.294 says "All transportation charges billed by the lessor to the lessee related to the leased property are taxable." The crane cost page lists the crane and machine ranges these moves serve.

TxDMV's no-permit envelope is a width of 8 feet 6 inches for anything but a passenger vehicle, a height of 14 feet for every vehicle, 45 feet of length for one motor vehicle (a two-vehicle combination's semitrailer may reach 59 feet), and weights of 80,000 pounds gross, with 20,000 pounds per single axle and 34,000 per tandem axle group. Past any of them, the load needs an oversize/overweight permit from TxPROS, TxDMV's online system, where "Most permits can be self-issued." A general single-trip permit covers one movement up to 254,300 pounds; a superheavy permit covers loads that "exceed 254,300 pounds total gross weight" or are "between 200,001 pounds and 254,300 pounds with less than 95 feet of axle spacing," and TxDMV asks for it "three to four weeks before the permit is needed." Daytime travel is the rule under TxDMV's 43 TAC section 219.11, with daytime "the period beginning one-half hour before sunrise and ending one-half hour after sunset" under Transportation Code section 541.401.

Around Arlington the route needs its own plan. TxDMV's Time Permit Curfews list, effective September 30, 2025, keeps all oversize vehicles off Tarrant County highways in the weekday morning and evening rush and notes "Mobile cranes are not affected." TxDMV's district lists add the route limits in the table below. Off the state system, "The carrier is responsible for contacting the appropriate jurisdiction for all non-state maintained travel," and TxDMV's list of local notice rules shows none for Arlington, Tarrant County or the nearby cities. The City of Arlington's code bars running "any traction engine, the surface of whose wheels have cogs on them or are otherwise rough or uneven," on a paved street unless the wheels are covered. Road work adds closures: the City of Burleson's notice of October 7, 2026 says SH 174 will run one lane in each direction at Hulen Street during TxDOT's culvert phase there, and Kennedale lists an Eden Road bridge expansion scheduled for 2026. Our pages on crane rental in Burleson and crane rental in Kennedale cover both cities.

Send us the machine's maker and model, its length, width, height and weight as it will ride, and its axle spacing if it travels on its own wheels; TxDMV says an applicant "must know the exact dimensions and weight of your vehicle and load." Add the pickup and delivery addresses, the door, dock or ramp the machine must pass, the floor it crosses inside, any overhead lines on the way in, and the dates. The written quote lists the trailer or crane, the permit and its fees, any escorts, the rigging and the travel, each priced, with the tax line.