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Welcome to the Idle Pen: A specialized repertory for periodic oozings of commentary and opinion on the vast world of license plates. Whether for writing up accounts of meets, making deductions about numeric formats or variations, or simply letting off steam; this is the place!

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9-15-2009: Heavy Spottings

When you research license plates and registration systems, you learn and pick up on things that you might not notice otherwise. Heavy truck and trailer plates provide at least as ample an opportunity for this as any other type.

The upper letter in the serial formats of most of Wisconsin's truck and trailer plates is a weight code; progressing alphabetically from the lightest ("A") to the heaviest ("T"); with "X" thrown in out-of-order between C and D. Naturally, not all weight classes have equal distribution: Lighter trucks tend to be by and large more common than heavier ones, and indeed the serial progressions for some of the heavier Insert Truck classes have barely budged at all since the numbering last started over in 1994. Conversely, Tractor plates are skewed overwhelmingly towards the heaviest "T" class; which the vast majority of big rigs fall into: I've only spotted two recent tractor plates in use that weren't in the T series, and the serials of "T" Tractor plates numerically dwarf the other series in use.

Semi-trailers rate their own plate, so the "regular" Insert Trailer plate is reserved for "full" trailers that support their own weight. Like Truck plates, Insert Trailer plates tend to be skewed towards the light side of things. The comparisons end there, however: Insert Trailer plates in heavier weight code classes are so scarce on the roads that they might as well not exist at all. So, my eyebrow rose at the chance sight of this:

[Wisconsin 2009 trailer]

This is a current-series (2009) Insert Trailer plate in the "L" weight class; indicating a maximum gross weight of 50,000 pounds. Although L isn't the heaviest class (M through T still have it beat), this is nevertheless the heaviest class of Insert Trailer plate I've seen so far, and the serial belies that: The number of the plate is LR 979; which becomes significant when you consider that less than a thousand numbers in the series have been issued since the numbering began over fifteen years and two reissues ago.

[Wisconsin 1998 special-Z]

Moving from the uncommon but explainable to the downright inexplicable, I was genuinely excited to come upon this registration artifact today: An older (and well-knackered) Special-Z plate in the 20,000 pound "F" weight class, spotted on a flatbed vehicle trailer. But, just what the heck is "Special-Z" supposed to mean? The Wisconsin DOT guide says nothing on the topic. The April 2001 ALPCA newsletter describes the type as "special seasonal equipment;" which doesn't get us much farther. The only other description I can come across is from a defunct collector website; which summed up the category as thus: "Special Z plates are used on miscellaneous heavy vehicles such as circus trucks." It's anyone's guess how a prosaic flatbed trailer qualifies; or why they chose the letter Z for the purpose...and I'm not even going to begin to worry about the Special-UX class; which seems to be more or less the same thing.

Regardless of what Special-Z plates are issued to, however, they're a rare find...even moreso since the type was discontinued in 2004 and heavy vehicle plates were reissued last winter. This is the only Special-Z or Special-UX plate I've seen in use since beginning my Wisconsin plate-spotting project a year ago, and I don't expect to come across another one any time soon. I'm not sure whether the Special-Z series started at 1 or 1001 (WI offers no predictability on that note), but it's a pretty low number in either case.


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