Legal limits, escort triggers, permit fees, the superload line and the police escort position for Wisconsin — every figure carrying the state document behind it.
8 source documents on fileoldest revision 2021-06-01last retrieved 2026-09-0510 escort rules in effect1 source conflictsFree · no account needed
The short version: a Wisconsin single-trip permit starts at $0 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at over 16' wide; and the load becomes a superload at a gross weight the state does not publish. Everything below carries the Wisconsin document it came from, that document's own revision date, and the date we read it.
Legal limits
1. Wisconsin legal limits
Anything over one of these needs a permit. Every value links to the document that sets it.
§ 348.25(8)(a)3. prices the single-trip overweight permit as "10 percent of the fee specified in par. (b) 3. for an annual permit for the comparable gross weight, rounded to the nearest whole dollar". Par. (b)3. is a flat-stepped gross-weight ladder with a $100-per-10,000-lb-or-fraction tail, so the single-trip fee is the same shape at a tenth of the money. There is no mileage component anywhere in the subsection.
Charges exist and no schedule is published. Wisconsin publishes the FORMULA and not the rate, which is a different finding from either of the other two kinds. Wis. Admin. Code Trans 320.05(1) lists the fee components — "(a) Duty hours. (b) Rate of pay. (c) Vehicle mileage. (d) Mileage rate. (e) Meal allowance." — and every input is set outside the published code: Trans 320.02(13) defines the rate of pay by "collective bargaining agreement or state of Wisconsin compensation plan", and (6)-(7) define the allowances by reference to the internal departmental manual TAM 8-6, obtainable only by writing to the Division of State Patrol. § 348.26(2) attaches no dimensional trigger at all — a traffic officer is required "whenever the officer or agency issuing such permit deems it necessary". The one fixed figure in the scheme is a $100 surcharge for cancelling with under 24 hours of notice (Trans 320.03(15)).
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".
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.
Who issues it
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.
Source conflicts
10. Where the sources disagree
Two official documents, both in effect, giving different answers. Neither has been adopted.
legal overall length
70'Wis. Stat. ch. 348 — Vehicles: size, weight and load — "2023-24 Wisconsin Statutes updated through 2025 Wis. Act 247 ... in effect on September 4, 2026. Published and certified under s. 35.18." rev. 2026-09-04 · read 2026-09-05
Wis. Admin. Code ch. Trans 230 — General permit provisions — Wisconsin Department of Transportation — page footer "Register November 2024 No. 827" — a publication stamp; the chapter dates from 1962 with its last recorded amendments in the 1970s rev. 2024-11-01 · read 2026-09-05
Wis. Admin. Code ch. Trans 250 — Permit fees — Wisconsin Department of Transportation — page footer "Register November 2024 No. 827"; rule text created Register September 1983 No. 333, eff. 1983-10-01 rev. 2024-11-01 · read 2026-09-05
Wis. Admin. Code ch. Trans 252 — Escort vehicles — Wisconsin Department of Transportation — page footer "Register November 2024 No. 827"; rule created Register June 1989 No. 402, eff. 1989-07-01 rev. 2024-11-01 · read 2026-09-05
Wis. Admin. Code ch. Trans 254 — Single trip permits — Wisconsin Department of Transportation — page footer "Register November 2024 No. 827"; rule created Register December 1990 No. 420, eff. 1991-01-01 rev. 2024-11-01 · read 2026-09-05
Wis. Stat. ch. 348 — Vehicles: size, weight and load — Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau — "2023-24 Wisconsin Statutes updated through 2025 Wis. Act 247 ... in effect on September 4, 2026. Published and certified under s. 35.18." rev. 2026-09-04 · read 2026-09-05
WisDOT MV2600 — Single Trip Permit Application (fee chart) — Wisconsin Department of Transportation — printed form stamp "MV2600 6/2021"; the PDF modDate of 2026-02-13 is a re-render, not a revision rev. 2021-06-01 · read 2026-09-05
Common questions
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in Wisconsin?
The single-trip base is $0, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.
When does Wisconsin require a pilot car?
The first width trigger is over 16'.
What is a superload in Wisconsin?
Wisconsin publishes no gross-weight superload threshold in the documents on file — see the superload section, which shows the dimensional triggers it does publish.
Do Wisconsin's own documents contradict each other?
Yes, in 1 place(s) we hold both documents for. They are set out in full above, each with its pinpoint citation, and none of them has been adopted.
