2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 42 - VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC (§§ 42-1-101 — 42-21-106) › REGULATION OF VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC (§§ 42-4-101 — 42-4-2501) › Article 4 - REGULATION OF VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC (§§ 42-4-101 — 42-4-2501) › Part 5 - SIZE - WEIGHT - LOAD (§§ 42-4-501 — 42-4-513) › Section 42-4-504 - Height and length of vehicles

(1)
A driver shall not drive a vehicle either unladen or with load that exceeds a height of fourteen feet six inches. The department of transportation shall designate highways with overhead highway structures that have less than fourteen feet six inches of vertical clearance. A driver shall not drive a vehicle under a structure if the vehicle's height exceeds the department's designated vertical clearance for the structure.
(2)
No single motor vehicle shall exceed a length of forty-five feet extreme overall dimension, inclusive of front and rear bumpers. The length of vehicles used for the mass transportation of passengers wholly within the limits of a town, city, or municipality or within a radius of fifteen miles thereof may extend to sixty feet. The length of school buses may extend to forty feet.
(3)
Buses used for the transportation of passengers between towns, cities, and municipalities in the state of Colorado may be sixty feet extreme overall length, inclusive of front and rear bumpers but shall not exceed a height of thirteen feet six inches, if such buses are equipped to conform with the load and weight limitations set forth in section
42-4-508
; except that buses with a height of fourteen feet six inches which otherwise conform to the requirements of this subsection (3) shall be operated only on highways designated by the department of transportation.
(4)
No combination of vehicles coupled together shall consist of more than four units, and no such combination of vehicles shall exceed a total overall length of seventy feet. Said length limitation shall not apply to unladen truck tractor-semitrailer combinations when the semitrailer is fifty-seven feet four inches or less in length or to unladen truck tractor-semitrailer-trailer combinations when the semitrailer and the trailer are each twenty-eight feet six inches or less in length. Said length limitations shall also not apply to vehicles operated by a public utility when required for emergency repair of public service facilities or properties or when operated under special permit as provided in section
42-4-510
, but, in respect to night transportation, every such vehicle and the load thereon shall be equipped with a sufficient number of clearance lamps on both sides and marker lamps upon the extreme ends of any projecting load to clearly mark the dimensions of such load.
(4.5)
Notwithstanding subsection (4) of this section, drivers shall not drive the following combinations of vehicles:
(a)
Saddlemount combinations consisting of more than four units or saddlemount combinations exceeding ninety-seven feet in overall length;
(b)
Laden truck tractor-semitrailer combinations exceeding seventy-five feet in overall length;
(c)
Stinger-steered vehicle combinations for transporting automobiles or boats and whose total overall length exceeds eighty feet; except that the overall length of these combinations excludes:
(I)
Safety devices that are not designed or used for carrying cargo;
(II)
Automobiles or boats being transported;
(III)
Any extension device that may be used for loading beyond the extreme front or rear ends of a vehicle or combination of vehicles; except that the projection of a load, including any extension devices loaded to the front of the vehicle, must not extend more than four feet beyond the extreme front of the grille of the vehicle and the load or extension device must not extend more than six feet beyond the extreme rear of the vehicle; and
(d)
Towaway trailer transporter combinations that:
(I)
Exceed eighty-two feet in overall length;
(II)
Carry property;
(III)
Exceed an overall weight of twenty-six thousand pounds;
(IV)
Consist of more than a single towing unit and two trailers or semitrailers; or
(V)
Do not constitute inventory property of a manufacturer, distributor, or dealer of the trailer or semitrailer.
(5)
The load upon any vehicle operated alone or the load upon the front vehicle of a combination of vehicles shall not extend beyond the front wheels of such vehicles or vehicle or the front most point of the grille of such vehicle; but a load may project not more than four feet beyond the front most point of the grille assembly of the vehicle engine compartment of such a vehicle at a point above the cab of the driver's compartment so long as that part of any load projecting ahead of the rear of the cab or driver's compartment shall be so loaded as not to obscure the vision of the driver to the front or to either side.
(6)
The length limitations of vehicles and combinations of vehicles provided for in this section as they apply to vehicles being operated and utilized for the transportation of steel, fabricated beams, trusses, utility poles, and pipes shall be determined without regard to the projection of said commodities beyond the extreme front or rear of the vehicle or combination of vehicles; except that the projection of a load to the front shall be governed by the provisions of subsection (5) of this section, and no load shall project to the rear more than ten feet.
(7)
Any person who violates any provision of this section commits a class B traffic infraction.
Amended by 2016 Ch. 142, § 1, eff. 8/10/2016.
L. 94: Entire title amended with relocations, p. 2327, § 1, effective 1/1/1995. L. 95: (4), (5), and (6) amended and (4.5) added, p. 471, § 4, effective July 1. L. 2016: (1) and (4.5) amended, (HB 16-1298), ch. 142, p. 421, § 1, effective August 10.
This section is similar to former § 42-4-404 as it existed prior to 1994, and the former § 42-4-504 was relocated to §
42-4-603
.