Farm Guide
Farm Equipment on the Highway

Overview

This guide has been developed to provide general information and clarification for the laws that apply to farm equipment and select provisions that apply to farm trucks. Representatives from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and its partners have provided input into the development of the guide to ensure that questions from the farming community have been addressed. This guide is intended to help the farming community better understand their legal obligations under the law. Enforcement officers may also use this guide as a reference.

Although some of the rules of the road and component standards that apply to cars, trucks and trailers do not apply to farm equipment, it is important to remember that under Section 84 (1) of the HTA:

"No person shall drive or operate or permit the driving or operation upon a highway of a vehicle, a street car or vehicles that in combination are in such a dangerous or unsafe condition as to endanger any person."

This includes the operation of farm equipment. The owners of heavy farm equipment are potentially liable if an overweight vehicle causes damage to a highway or bridge.

Unless otherwise mentioned in this document, the operation of farm equipment is assumed to be for agricultural purposes.

Note: Check with the appropriate municipality for any further restrictions. Conversions from metric to imperial are only provided as a convenience. Imperial measurements are approximate amounts only.

Laws

Note: This is an unofficial version of Government of Ontario legal materials provided for convenience only. For authoritative legal information, refer directly to the relevant statutes and regulations. This guide highlights some important legal provisions but is not an exhaustive description of all the laws that apply.

References to the applicable Acts, regulations and section numbers may be found just under the subject headings. For example:

Ontario laws may viewed on the province's website.

Terms Used in this Document

Please Note: The following terms are used in this document for the purposes of clarity. The terms focus on farm equipment use, within the farm section of this document. For complete and official definitions refer to the Highway Traffic Act.

For the purposes of this document the term:

SPIH

means a self-propelled implement of husbandry (SPIH) that was manufactured, designed, redesigned, converted or reconstructed for a specific use in farming.

• combines, swathers, forage harvesters, etc. are SPIH.
• former trucks that have been converted for specific farm uses may qualify as SPIH.
• highway truck tractors and trucks are not SPIH.

Tractor

means a farm tractor. A tractor is not a SPIH, truck or a truck tractor.

Implement

means an implement of husbandry and includes balers, wagons, ploughs, cultivators, wheeled corn dryers, tobacco dryers, elevators, etc.

Farm Equipment

is a collective term used in this document for tractor, SPIH, and towed implement(s), whether operated singularly or in combination.

Truck

includes a highway truck tractor.

Trailer

means a plated trailer designed to carry a load and towed by a car, truck or truck tractor and does not include an implement such as a hay wagon.

Road

includes a highway, side road, gravel road, street, avenue, etc., whether operated by the Province, Region, County, Municipality or Township. Road includes the area between the lateral property lines (fence to fence).

Travelled portion of a road

means the part of the road that is improved, paved, gravelled, designed or ordinarily used by traffic. If a road is a gravel road, the travelled portion is normally between the ditches.

Shoulder of a road

The shoulder of a road, whether paved or not, is not part of the travelled portion of the road.