The short version: a South Dakota single-trip permit starts at $25 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at over 10' wide; and the load becomes a superload at a gross weight the state does not publish. Everything below carries the South Dakota document it came from, that document's own revision date, and the date we read it.
1. South Dakota legal limits
Anything over one of these needs a permit. Every value links to the document that sets it.
| Measure | Legal limit |
|---|---|
| Width | 8'6"rev. 2005-07-01 · read 2026-09-06 |
| Height | 14'rev. 2020-02-26 · read 2026-09-06 |
| Semitrailer length | 53'rev. 1998-07-01 · read 2026-09-06 |
| Overall length | None published |
| Kingpin to rear axle | None published |
| Front overhang | None published |
| Rear overhang | None published |
| Gross weight | 80,000 lbrev. 2021-12-01 · read 2026-09-06 |
| Single axle | 20,000 lbrev. 2021-12-01 · read 2026-09-06 |
| Tandem axle | 34,000 lbrev. 2021-12-01 · read 2026-09-06 |
2. When South Dakota requires an escort
| Measurement | First escort trigger | First police escort trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Width | over 10'rev. 2023-05-01 · read 2026-09-06 | None published |
| Height | None published | None published |
| Length | None published | None published |
| Rear overhang | None published | None published |
| Gross weight | None published | None published |
Every escort rule on file, in full5 rules
- Over 16 ft wide on the interstate system — one escort, riding in the rear because the interstate is divided — Four limbs, two of which enumerate named highway segments by endpoint. The freshest South Dakota document on file. rev. 2023-05-01 · read 2026-09-06
- Over 10 ft wide on any of the twelve named Black Hills segments — one FRONT escort, whatever the road type — Four limbs, two of which enumerate named highway segments by endpoint. The freshest South Dakota document on file. rev. 2023-05-01 · read 2026-09-06
- Over 16 ft wide on any of the seven named regional segments — one FRONT escort, whatever the road type — Four limbs, two of which enumerate named highway segments by endpoint. The freshest South Dakota document on file. rev. 2023-05-01 · read 2026-09-06
- Over 20 ft wide on all other state trunk highways — one escort, in front on two-lane roads and in the rear on divided roads — Four limbs, two of which enumerate named highway segments by endpoint. The freshest South Dakota document on file. rev. 2023-05-01 · read 2026-09-06
- A load that encroaches more than 2 ft into an adjacent lane, or that leaves less than a 10 ft passing lane, requires special traffic handling — The lane-encroachment rule. Thirty-five years old and still the operative text; an old rule in force is not a stale document. rev. 1991-04-08 · read 2026-09-06
3. South Dakota single-trip permit fees
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Single-trip base | $25rev. 2004-09-06 · read 2026-09-06 |
| Transaction / card | None publishedrev. 2021-12-01 · read 2026-09-06 |
| Route analysis review | Not yet covered |
| Route with no bridges | Not yet covered |
4. How South Dakota prices overweight
ARSD 70:03:01:02: "An overweight vehicle shall be charged an additional fee of two cents for each ton or fraction of a ton that its gross weight exceeds the following weight limits, for each mile traveled on state trunk highways. This additional fee may not be less than one dollar." A per-mile mechanism, not a band and not a flat charge — and the six thresholds it then lists are selected by AXLE COUNT rather than by weight, which is why the rate rows carry an axle band.
5. South Dakota's superload threshold
Above one of these, the state stops issuing over the counter and prices the move after an engineering review.
| Trigger | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Gross weight | None published |
| Width | None published |
| Height | None published |
| Length | None published |
| Short axle spacing | Not yet covered |
6. Route survey and bridge review
The dimensions at which South Dakota triggers a physical route inspection or an engineering review, and what the agency charges to review it.
| Measurement | Inspection / review trigger |
|---|---|
| Width | Not yet covered |
| Height | Not yet covered |
| Length | Not yet covered |
7. Police escorts
Charges exist and no schedule is published. Neither the South Dakota Highway Patrol nor the Department of Public Safety publishes an escort fee schedule, hourly rate, mileage rate, administrative fee, minimum hours or cancellation charge for commercial motor carrier escorts. The Motor Carrier Handbook says only that "some permit applications require review by the Department of Transportation or the Highway Patrol" — a review of the APPLICATION, not an escort of the load, and ARSD 70:03:01:20 requires no law-enforcement escort at any width, length, height or weight. The escorts South Dakota does require are civilian pilot cars.
This is a positive finding: we searched and there is nothing to quote. It is not the same as "no police escort is ever required here".
8. When you can move it
Holiday, curfew and night-travel windows are not yet encoded for South Dakota.
South Dakota spring thaw restrictions →
Why those windows are absent rather than estimated
They are not guessed at here. What we do publish is the seasonal weight-restriction picture, with the date we last read each state's own bulletin — a curfew invented from a plausible pattern is worth less than an honest gap, because a reader cannot tell the two apart on the page.
9. Permit office
The agency behind each figure above is linked from that figure. We publish no per-state permit-office phone number.
Why there is no phone number here
We are not publishing per-state permit-office phone numbers yet, and the reason is worth stating: the two seed lists available for them are both demonstrably stale — the federal one gives two different states the same phone number — and a wrong number on a page like this costs somebody a morning. The agency behind each figure above is linked from that figure, which is the part we can stand behind today.
11. What this does not include
Named rather than gestured at, because each of these can exceed the permit itself. Every item is listed; open one for why it is excluded.
Line haul, fuel and driver time
This is a permit fee, not a freight rate.
Civilian pilot car rates
We hold no rate data, and the two commercial sites that publish market rates disagree by nearly a factor of two on the same service.
Route-survey engineering
The agency's review fee is shown where the state publishes one; the engineer's own fee is a private cost with no schedule.
Bonds and escrow
Set per move by the agency, and in at least one state the escort is billed at actual cost against it.
Utility coordination and line lifts
Arranged with each utility, priced by each utility.
Second-issuer permits
A toll, bridge or city authority inside the same state issues its own permit, and a state total that omits it is missing a whole permit.
12. Every source behind this page (8)
Every document behind South Dakota8 sources
- ARSD 70:03:01:01 — Definitions, including the highway systems — South Dakota Administrative Rules — Defines the interstate, state highway and state trunk highway systems. The escort rules add "two-lane"/"undivided" against "divided" without defining either.
rev. 2003-06-02 · read 2026-09-06 - ARSD 70:03:01:02 — Permit fees; overweight ton-mile charge — South Dakota Administrative Rules — The whole fee model: the $25 flat permit, the $0.02 ton-mile charge, the axle-count fee thresholds, the "fraction of a ton" rounding, the $1.00 floor and the public-agency exemption.
rev. 2004-09-06 · read 2026-09-06 - ARSD 70:03:01:20 — Escort vehicles required — South Dakota Administrative Rules — Four limbs, two of which enumerate named highway segments by endpoint. The freshest South Dakota document on file.
rev. 2023-05-01 · read 2026-09-06 - ARSD 70:03:01:20.01 — Special traffic handling — South Dakota Administrative Rules — The lane-encroachment rule. Thirty-five years old and still the operative text; an old rule in force is not a stale document.
rev. 1991-04-08 · read 2026-09-06 - SDCL 32-22-14 — Maximum height of vehicles — South Dakota Legislature — The freshest of the three legal-limit statutes.
rev. 2020-02-26 · read 2026-09-06 - SDCL 32-22-3 — Maximum width of vehicles — South Dakota Legislature — The state's own statute host. Corroborated by the SD Motor Carrier Handbook chapter 5.
rev. 2005-07-01 · read 2026-09-06 - SDCL 32-22-8.1 — Semitrailer length; no other length limitation — South Dakota Legislature — Carries the express negative that makes `overallLengthIn` absent: "No other length limitation may be imposed on the vehicles described in this section."
rev. 1998-07-01 · read 2026-09-06 - South Dakota Motor Carrier Handbook, chapter 6 — Permits — South Dakota Department of Transportation — The operational document. Source of the processing-queue thresholds, the 10% overweight cap and the triple-axle-width rule.
rev. 2021-12-01 · read 2026-09-06
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in South Dakota?
The single-trip base is $25, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.
When does South Dakota require a pilot car?
The first width trigger is over 10'.
What is a superload in South Dakota?
South Dakota publishes no gross-weight superload threshold in the documents on file — see the superload section, which shows the dimensional triggers it does publish.