Cargo and towing — Texas Permit Test
Cargo and towing on the Texas permit test — 7 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A vehicle must be equipped and maintained to prevent loose material escaping by blowing or spilling.
Gravel off a truck bed cracks a windshield at speed. The load is the driver's responsibility all the way.
A vehicle must be equipped and maintained to prevent loose material from escaping by blowing or spilling and a vehicle bed must:
A vehicle bed carrying loose material must have no hole, crack, or other opening through which the material can escape.
A crack in the bed leaks the load a handful at a time. Nobody notices until it is on the road behind.
a vehicle bed must: 1. Not have a hole, crack, or other opening through which loose material can escape
The top of a load of loose material must be covered with a canvas, tarpaulin, or other covering firmly secured at the front and back.
A cover loose at one end fills with air and lifts. Securing both ends is what makes it work.
The top of the load is covered with a canvas, tarpaulin, or other covering firmly secured to the front and back to prevent the escape of the load because of blowing or spilling
Safety chains must be attached from a trailer, semi-trailer, or house trailer to the towing vehicle when a passenger car or light truck tows it on a public highway.
If the hitch fails, the chains are the only thing left holding the trailer. Without them it goes wherever it was pointed.
on a public highway in Texas unless safety chains are attached from a trailer, semi-trailer, or house trailer to the towing vehicle
When one vehicle tows another the connection must not be longer than 15 feet from one vehicle to another.
Anything longer and the towed car swings across the lane behind. Fifteen feet is the limit Texas sets.
When one vehicle is towing another, the drawbar, chain, rope, cable, or other connection must: 1. Not be longer than 15 feet from one vehicle to another
A tow connection must carry a white flag not less than 12 inches square.
A rope between two cars is invisible until somebody drives into it. The flag is what makes it show.
When one vehicle is towing another, the drawbar, chain, rope, cable, or other connection must: 1. Not be longer than 15 feet from one vehicle to another 2. Be strong enough to pull all weight drawn 3. Attach a white flag not less than 12 inches square
No more than three vehicles may be towed attached to one another by mounting the front wheels of trailing vehicles on the bed of another vehicle.
Each extra vehicle adds a joint that can swing. Three is where Texas stops it.
When one vehicle is towing another, the drawbar, chain, rope, cable, or other connection must: 1. Not be longer than 15 feet from one vehicle to another 2. Be strong enough to pull all weight drawn 3. Attach a white flag not less than 12 inches square 4. Not tow more than three vehicles attached to it by mounting the front wheels of trailing vehicles on the bed of another vehicle and leaving only the rear wheels in contact with the roadway This limit does not apply to trailers transporting poles, pipes, machinery, or other structures that cannot be easily dismembered.
On the test
What must a Texas vehicle carrying loose material prevent?
The material blowing or spilling out. Gravel off a truck bed cracks a windshield at speed. The load is the driver's responsibility all the way. Texas Driver Handbook, p.68: “A vehicle must be equipped and maintained to prevent loose material from escaping by blowing or spilling and a vehicle bed must:”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
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- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Texas Driver Handbook, published by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TX.pdf (Texas Driver Handbook, form DL-7, Revised January 2026, Texas Department of Public Safety, retrieved 2026-09-14 from dps.texas.gov)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TX.pages.txt (plain pdftotext over that PDF; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json (sha256, folio offset 6, nonLawPages, the four extraction traps and the extraction flag, each with its measured basis)
- docs/plans/texas-exam-shape.md (the search that established that no official source states the question count, and the two decoys it disposes of)