Refused entry with a truck & camper

BTW there is ammunition on this webpage (near the top of the page) including the Sat Regs (P 22), a screenshot of Banjercitos permit page and a page explaining how truck weights work in Spanish.

I have looked and looked and cannot find Sat Regs anywhere - nor do I know what that term means - or where page 22 is. Is this something on this forum? Can you explain this further?

Other than the first couple of times we went down, in 2005 and 2006, I've always got our TIP on line. The last couple of years when we were supposed to give the "temporary FMM letter" to immigration, once in Algodones, south of Yuma, and once at KM 21 in Nogales, the official just looked at me with the "you stupid gringo, I don't need that" look, ignored it and stamped out our FFMs. No one ever looked at our truck.

Use Reynosa instead, we know for sure there are issues at Columbia this season, best to avoid it. Remember the Churches have crossed dozens of times with the same setup and never had issues before now. See their email below.

BTW there is ammunition on this webpage (near the top of the page) including the Sat Regs (P 22), a screenshot of Banjercitos permit page and a page explaining how truck weights work in Spanish. Best to print it all out and have it. IMO this boils down to a translation mistake. The reason I beleive that, is because the Banjercito sign up page in English says GVWR, while in Spanish is says Cargo capacity, which is what the SAT regs state.

LINK

BTW, here is an email from the Churches:

We tried to cross at both the Columbia crossing west of town and at the downtown Laredo crossing. We’re in a Chevy Silverado 3500 with single rear wheels carrying a camper. Both crossings refused us because the GVWR on our door frame sticker is 10,700. The Banjercito and Aduana representatives both told us that they would not allow vehicles with a GVWR of more than 3,500 KG to pass. They said only half-ton pickups are OK. Both three-quarter ton and 1-ton pickups are too big. I asked about pickups pulling trailers and fifth-wheels and they said the rule is the same. They said that this applies to all crossings into Mexico although whey must have forgotten those crossings into the Baja because those don’t require a vehicle import permit and we just traveled there and crossed several times with no problems.

Terri and I didn’t have the time to check other crossings because we are finishing up a Baja book and just settled in Texas to get that done. There seem to be few others trying to cross now so no information is available right now. Hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll get more reports.

This is probably not aimed at RVers but no one seems to know what the deal is. We know of several people trying to get a straight answer from the government so hopefully it will get resolved soon.

We were planning on crossing at Columbia in December with our one ton duel truck camper with tow car. We have a 10 year permit on the camper, lets not get into how we got it, but it was put on a Columbia a few years ago. Would that make it work? Also how is a 5th wheel going to cross as 90+ percent of them have larger trucks? A 5'er is much more detachable than a TC. We may have to switch to El Paso.

Perhaps Mexico is afraid you are operating a "Return to Sender" of its citizens? :P LOL!

No, after being refused at 2 crossings, they had to turn back, they are leaving the RV behind and taking their jeep down to SMA and renting a room instead.

Looks like Mexico does not care about RV's, or some officials at least

So, has anyone heard-- have Mike and Terri made it in and on the way to SMA?

Talleyho69 wrote:
Gotta say it, "Why didn't they get their permit on line?" We ALL know that if you get the wrong person, it can be an issue. They, of all people, should know that.

Is it right? That's not the point. Can they get their permit and be legal? Yes.

Not necesaarily I got an email from someone last season who was refused entry with a permit he had got on line. The trouble is you have exchange the temp tourist card for an actual one. At that point they may ask to see your registration or go out and look at the sticker on the truck.

This is where the crossing can make a diference. At Nogales its a 5 min walk to the truck and they are too busy to be bothered. That is not the case at Laredo and some others.

The key word is MOTORHOME, you do not carry cargo in it, you live in it.

Then you have the smaller pickup trucks example Ford F-150 relatively small and many Mexicans own them named LOBO the luxury one.

Anything bigger they consider as a commercial cargo caring truck, my small 24 foot Ford "C' on a Ford E-350 chassis registered in California has a commercial license plate so does my Ford F-150, the motorhome goes in to Mexico as a casa rodante not a commercial cargo carrying truck, if I had a Ford F-450 0r F-550 they are considered "COMERCIAL" trucks and need a different set of import papers, it will probably take 3 months or more to get those papers trough the government machine if you get them at all.

Some rules in Latin America are set up to "protect" or shield powerful sindicatos "unions" normally associated with ex-politicos Example taxi franchises and passenger buses in city's, or cargo transportation unions, there is always some background and in reality they some times make no sense at all, Mexicans accept a lot of laws and rules and do not complain to much,
why complain if no one listens and nothing gets done about it, just live around it.

Asi es la vida en Mexico, al mal tiempo buena cara!

navegator

You said it you have a 33,000 "MOTORHOME".

Casa rodante in Spanish, otherwise it is a pickup truck with cargo on the bed not a "MOTORHOME" that is what they are going with, the excuse is the weight and the fact that the camper is detachable as in cargo plus the narcos like the trucks a lot to haul mota.

I do understand all of that completely - and I also understand nothing has to make sense - but the point I try to make is why is a big Bus legal and a relatively small truck not legal.

As far as where to get the permit and where to cross - I have said it before here any number of times - and we have done it any number of times - we get our paperwork done south of Deming, NM - Columbus,NM/Palomas, CH - we leave the Bus in Deming and drive down in the car and park in the lot on the US side and walk over to the dentist - and we do all of our paperwork there and get all out permits without anyone laying eyes on either vehicle - then we drive across TX and a few days to a week later we cross at Laredo/Columbia - never a problem. I do not know what they look for with a pick-up or if the papers for the pick-up say anything about weight. Do they look at that stuff if they do not see the vehicle? We have also crossed there at Palomas once some time ago and they just wave us through with no inspection or even a second glance - but that was some years ago. We have several friends who are truck campers with duals so we are wanting to see them this winter - not to mention Mike & Terri - so wondering if anyone can find a solution to this foolishness.