Can Oversize Loads Travel at Night? Rules by State

Usually not. Most states limit oversize loads to daylight, roughly half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset (some use plain sunrise to sunset). But many states allow night travel for loads under set width, length or height limits, or for overweight-only loads, and a few require night moves for the biggest loads. Whatever your permit says wins.

The table below covers 22 of the 48 contiguous states, including the ones drivers ask about most: Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio and Colorado. Each row is taken from that state’s own source and was checked November 14, 2026. We left out states where we could not confirm the rule from an official source. Where a state’s own documents disagree, we say so.

This page answers one question: which loads can run at night in each state. For reading every time window on a permit, such as rush-hour curfews and city limits, see our guide to checking curfews and travel restrictions on an oversize permit. For Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, see oversize load holiday restrictions by state.

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The short answer, in three patterns

Across the states we checked, night rules fall into three groups:

• Daylight by default, with night exceptions by size. This is the most common pattern. Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, Washington, Wyoming and Arkansas let smaller oversize loads run at night, often up to 10 or 12 feet wide and 100 to 120 feet long, sometimes with extra lights or a pilot car.
• Daylight only unless the permit says otherwise. Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico, Florida, Kansas and Virginia keep oversize loads to daylight, and night travel needs a specific approval or endorsement on the permit.
• Night is the default or a requirement. Kentucky allows travel 24/7 unless the permit says otherwise (mobile homes excepted), and Minnesota says travel is generally not restricted. Minnesota requires loads over 16 feet wide in the Twin Cities metro to move between midnight and 5 a.m. on weekdays, and Virginia says some superloads may be required to travel in darkness.

Overweight-only loads, meaning loads at legal size that are just heavy, are often treated differently. Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming let them run around the clock or outside daylight limits, and Arkansas and Missouri allow night moves for them under conditions.

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Night travel rules by state (22 states)

Read across each row: the default hours, what can run at night, and any weekend or extra time limit stated in the same source. On a phone, swipe the table sideways. Each state name links to our state guide or, if we have not written one yet, to the state’s page in the JaloPermit Atlas.

States not in the table were left out because we did not confirm their night rule from an official source on November 14, 2026. That does not mean those states allow night travel. Check the permit and the state permit office.

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Where official sources disagree

We found these differences between a state’s own documents. In every case, follow the permit and ask the permit office if it’s unclear.

• Iowa, night width. Iowa Code § 321E.11(2) sets the night limit at 11 feet wide. The DOT rule, 761 IAC 511.3(5), says 12 feet. If your load is between 11 and 12 feet wide, make sure the permit allows night travel.
• Illinois, the 24/7 band. OPER 993 (Rev. 08/07/24) lets loads up to 12 ft wide, 13 ft 6 in high and 200 ft long run 24/7 with an extra pilot car at night. The older text of 92 Ill. Adm. Code 554.422 (read November 7, 2026; the site did not load for us on November 14) gives loads up to 12 ft, 13 ft 6 in and 115 ft daylight hours, seven days, and has no 24/7 band. The provision sheet attached to your permit governs.
• Pennsylvania, weekends and nights. The statute, 75 Pa.C.S. § 4962(f.3), allows permitted loads from sunrise to sunset every day of the week. The regulation, 67 Pa. Code § 179.10(7)(i), still lists sunset to sunrise, Saturday after noon and Sunday as times when movement isn’t authorized. Both keep night travel off for most loads. They differ on weekends.
• Louisiana, the night exception width. The DOTD 2026 Rules and Regulations book lets loads at legal width and length run at night (if they also meet the height and weight limits). The copy of LAC 73:I.309(D)(3) we read says the width must not exceed 8 feet, which is narrower than legal width.
• Florida, weekends. Rule 14-26.012(5)(e) bars weekend and holiday moves unless the permit says otherwise. But paragraph (7)(a) of the same rule says loads up to 10 feet wide may move “all days” in daytime.
• North Dakota, who decides. The administrative code allows night over-dimensional moves only if the superintendent authorizes them. The Highway Patrol’s policy 9-6 sets that authorization at 12 feet wide and 120 feet long.
• Colorado, source type. The Colorado row comes from CDOT’s own permitting FAQ, which cites its rule § 408.3. We did not read the rule text itself. Check with CDOT if your load is close to a limit.
• Texas and Louisiana rule copies. We read the Texas permit rule (43 TAC § 219.11) and Louisiana’s LAC 73:I.309 on Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, which reproduces the state code. The Texas statute and the Louisiana DOTD book are linked from the state agencies themselves.

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How night and daylight limits show up on the permit face

The table gives you the default. Your permit tells you the rule for your load. Night and daylight limits are usually printed in one of these places:

• A travel-hours or time-of-movement line. Look for words like “daylight only”, “daytime”, “sunrise to sunset”, “continuous”, “24 hours” or “7 days a week”. In Indiana, the hours depend on the load’s size class on Form M-204. In Illinois, they are on the OPER 993 provision sheet, which can override the default (“unless specified otherwise on the provision sheet or permit”).
• A night-travel approval or endorsement. Washington permits for bigger loads carry “Nighttime movement approved”. Oklahoma can endorse a permit for night travel. New Mexico allows continuous movement only if it is written on the permit. If you don’t see the approval on your permit, plan on daylight.
• Special provisions and attachments. Required night moves, like Minnesota’s midnight-to-5 a.m. window for loads over 16 feet wide in the Twin Cities, and extra pilot cars at night, such as Illinois’s extra civilian pilot car or Colorado’s 12 to 14 foot rule, often sit in the provisions rather than the hours line.
• Lighting conditions. Night travel almost always comes with extra lights: clearance lights at the load’s widest points, red lamps on overhangs, amber flashing or rotating lights. Pennsylvania, for example, requires lighting visible from 1,000 feet on all sides for early-morning moves in urbanized areas. If your permit lists night lighting, the move may be allowed at night only with that equipment.
• Curfews still apply at night. Washington says every night move must follow its published curfews, and city rush-hour windows (Kentucky’s five counties, Virginia’s city and town limits, Pennsylvania’s urbanized areas) are separate from the daylight rule.

Sunrise and sunset change every day and with location. Several states (Arkansas, Louisiana) tie them to National Weather Service times. Check the times for the place you’ll be when you start and when you plan to park.

Our guide on how to read an oversize load permit walks through each part of the document. For a trip across state lines, where the night rule can change at the border, see planning a multi-state oversize permit trip. To see every limit on one card, drop the issued permit PDF into the JaloPermit decoder: it lays out the route, pilot cars, curfews, travel hours, dimensions and limits so you can check them against the original.

JaloPermit, which publishes this guide, is a reading aid for issued permit PDFs. It is not a permit-filing service and it does not plan routes or provide navigation. The issued permit always wins.

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How we built this page

Every row comes from the state agency’s own permit page or form, the state’s administrative code, or its statute. All are linked in the table and were checked November 14, 2026. We did not use private by-state tables as sources. We put the general daylight rule first and the night exceptions second, and copied size limits as written (for example, “up to 12 feet wide” means 12 feet or less). Weekend notes appear only when the same source states them.

We plan to add more states once we can confirm their rules from official sources. State guides with more detail: Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana and Virginia. For every state, the JaloPermit Atlas has the basics on one page.

Questions about how JaloPermit reads a permit? Email support@jalopermit.org.

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FAQs