CA form 4008

HMS Beagle wrote:
I have researched this a great deal, and have all of the relevant CDMV regulations right in front of me.

The situation is, in California if you want every to carry anything in your pickup it must be registered commercial. This has always been true. A permanently attached camper allows you to register it as an RV, but you can never take the camper off. "Permanently attached" is poorly defined but certainly most campers would not qualify.

Even though a pickup had to be registered commercial, it they were a "pickup truck" as defined by the regulations, they were exempt from many things applying to other commercial vehicles. They are taxed on their empty weight, not gross, they don't stop at scales, they don't have weight stickers on the doors. The problem is, pickup trucks have outgrown the CDMV definition of "pickup truck", which is 11,500 lbs gross weight. This changed early in the 2000s, now any new DRW pickup is going to be 14,000 or more. These are no longer "pickup trucks" by the California DMV definition, strictly read. The legislative intent was probably not to exclude them, but the law has not caught up with the Big Three manufacturers. The result is you must register them as "commercial other" (since there is no described category to put them in), pay weight fees based on declared gross (the minimum is 15,000), stop at every truck scale, and display weight stickers on the doors. That is the way the law reads. Not displaying the stickers is an administrative infraction, but not stopping at scales is a criminal misdemeanor.

Your local DMV employees are completely unaware of these nuances in the law. Probably the CHP that stops you too. My F350 was registered by the dealer as "commercial other" and I got weight stickers along with my plates. I spent nearly a whole day in the DMV explaining to a number of counter staff and eventually the office supervisor (who consulted unknowns in the Sacramento dept headquarters over several hours) that I just wanted a pickup, registered as a pickup, just like the last 4 pickups I have owned. I took them outside and showed them: "see? it's just a pickup..." It is very difficult to change the category of registration - requires re-isssuing the ownership papers - but it can be done. The only loophole you have available is if the empty weight of the vehicle is less than 8000 lbs, you can call it a pickup, declare the gross weight is 11,499. The law is fuzzy enough on this to get away with it. You can never carry more than that (if you get caught) but the weight of the camper doesn't matter because as soon as the camper is put on it becomes an RV which is exempt from pretty much everything. With the camper on you will never get stopped.

Many DRW 4x4 crew cabs are well over 8000 lbs empty and you technically do not have this loophole, though you may be able talk your way through. According to the Ford technical data my DRW 2x4 supercab comes in at 7950 or so and on scales it is a couple of pounds shy of 8000 as long as the fuel tank isn't too full.

I should add I have not completed my change yet, it has been two months and is supposed to be in process. So I may get tripped up yet.

Thanks for taking the time to explain all this. I have found similar results. After talking to the dmv woman at the dealership I have declared on the form 4008 "vehicle operated under 10,001 pounds" As I understand looking at the code rv's are exempt from load counts. This still allows me to carry up to 10,000 GVW or about 1000 pounds of whatever I want in the bed. The primary use of the truck will be for RV'ing. Despite all the research and opinions here and elsewhere I still don't know if I am 100% correct with my assessment/declaration and still need the dmv to approve and register my truck. We will see if they do that.

The sucky part is that we are heading off to Alaska tomorrow and will have to continue any further paperwork vis a neighbor checking our mail and from the road.