CA form 4008

My experience was about twenty years ago. I had a GMC 1.5 ton with a flatbed. It had comercial plates but they were for a pickup. Apparently the CHP called my license plate in and found it was licensed as a pickup. He gave me a citation for improper registration. To license for the flatbed, I had to weigh the truck. The officer did not weigh the truck but had scales and could have.

Personally, I have never seen or heard of the CHP weighing a RV of any kind. I had a 4200 lb TC on my '96 2500 SRW for over ten years, went halfway across the USA and Canada. Never questioned.

Reddog1 wrote:
If you have commercial plates on your truck it is not likely you would be pulled over with cargo. If you had non commercial plates on your truck and had cargo in the back you probably would be cited. The numbers and letters are arranged very differently. I am referring to California.

Years ago my dad had truck with a camper shell on the back. The truck had non commercial plates. He used the truck with camper shell for his work tools. He loaned the truck to a friend. The friend took the shell off, and had a wheel borrow in the back. He was stopped by a policeman and given a citation for using a non commercial vehicle for commercial use.

On occasion you will see a CHP pickup on the road. He is the one most likely to check your weight status. I have had that experience.

Did the CHP weigh you on the side of the road or make you go to a scale? Did they go by the declared weight or the GVWR? What happened? If this thread is the wrong place to ask, please PM me.

As we all know, the older 2500 and even 3500 4WD diesels had a laughable GVWR almost any camper puts them well over. This is the main reason I haven't purchased a camper for my 1997 2500 Dodge.

joeshmoe wrote:


Yeah, I'm done with state. Increased Fuel taxes, sales tax, tax, tax, tax. Fees, fees, fees. :S

Add that it is still raining in CA, at least Northern part ;)

cewillis wrote:

work2much wrote:
Getting ready to find a new state to call home...

That's good thinking. (I did 16 years ago)

Yep. we're out of here as soon as possible. I can't take being wallet raped anymore. One thing really chaps my azz is back in 2010, they retroactively required consumer diesels to be smog checked going back to 1998. Really? In 2005, my truck was exempt. Now, it's not.

The gov't is not "supposed" to compel anyone to purchase anything or otherwise buy something in order to comply with the law. Certainly not for something purchased years prior. But they do it anyway, all day long.

Yeah, I'm done with state. Increased Fuel taxes, sales tax, tax, tax, tax. Fees, fees, fees. :S

work2much wrote:


At this point the dealer is still in the process of registering my truck. They sold it to me without any conversation regarding this. Weeks after they cashed my check I am now getting the urgent need for me to classify my truck. The cynical part of my head tells me that this was info that was withheld at time of sale as to not foul the deal. This dealer sells a lot of big trucks.

I custom order my F350 from big CA truck dealer as well.
Took 3 months for the truck to come and in that time I sold CA house and bought Las Vegas house. So at the time of pickup, I gave them Las Vegas address. The salesman was thinking loud "Can we register truck in Nevada, yes we can" so I drove on temporary tags for over a month and later the plates have arrive to my Las Vegas house.
The registration is showing Las Vegas address, but the plates are California plates :S
I filled up refund request to DMV, but if DMV refuse, somebody wasted my $780 and there is nothing they will do about it.

Never mind.

Kayteg1 wrote:
No offence to people in transport, but it doesn't take college degree to drive semi-truck, while I think lot of this forum members do have one.
Don't overthink the issue. If you don't plan to use your truck for hauling the cargo, get it with camper on to DMV for inspection and reclassification.

Thanks Kaytag. I see what you are doing and may go that route as well. Appreciate your perspective and common sense approach.

I don't have a college degree and never wanted one myself. Worked in construction as a supervisor and made enough money to retire pretty young. Huge need for people here in CA that can build complex construction projects.

At this point the dealer is still in the process of registering my truck. They sold it to me without any conversation regarding this. Weeks after they cashed my check I am now getting the urgent need for me to classify my truck. The cynical part of my head tells me that this was info that was withheld at time of sale as to not foul the deal. This dealer sells a lot of big trucks. They can't claim ignorance. Or they may have not trained salespeople properly. Either way it is a bit of a wildcard for us using the truck to travel now. We wanted to be on the road and now I am spending time to weigh the truck and mail documents back to the dealer. Presumably with further correspondence needed between myself and the DMV to arrange more payments.

I am ok with paying my fair share of taxes for the state I live in. That is part of being a citizen. I am an adult and accept that. But holly heck. Seriously how far do I have to pay for a **** truck.

No offence to people in transport, but it doesn't take college degree to drive semi-truck, while I think lot of this forum members do have one.
Don't overthink the issue. If you don't plan to use your truck for hauling the cargo, get it with camper on to DMV for inspection and reclassification.

Kayteg1 wrote:

work2much wrote:


The only things I will be using the truck for is a TC and later a 5th wheel rv trailer.

I keep hearing the RV's are exempt. Is this just common knowledge or is there anything in writing I could hang my hat on in court? The form you linked is what I have received from the dealer. It makes no mention of RV use.

Obviously this is not something DMV or CHP advertise willingly.
It is your business to save money not theirs.
That beside the legal language they made up to make it hard to understand. I do have CDL for commercial trailer towing, but not for semi-truck driving. The endorsement was written in language the DOT officer could not make sense of.
I forgot the term DMV uses for non-commercial truck registration, but I drove to the office and told the inspector I want the combo registered as RV and he figured it out.
Funny part, later on I called DMV hotline asking about towing trailers and the answer was that I can pull commercial trailer with pickup registered as an RV as long as the camper is on it.
With 5th wheel I heard the requirement is that the trailer mount has to be on the bed all the time and no "wheelbarrows".
Can't tell you what it would take to have non-commercial truck registration for travel trailer, but DMV has hotline, that will call you back 1 hr or so later, making it quite convenient to call them and not to spend 1hr on hold.
Bare in mind that the laws are so complex and complicated that even if you ask the question DOT officers, each one might have different interpretation.
I spend time to pull to one of DOT weight station that had "no pickups" sign and ask the officer in the office about pickup definition.
Took him about 15 minutes of digging in fat books to find me the 13.xxx lb explanation.
Try that trick with any CHP officer ;)

According to the CA DMV due to the weight and GVWR of my truck it is NOT a pickup. The protocol outlined by the DMV is to sticker my doors. I can only assume that with stickers and a commercial vehicle I should be labeling my truck and stopping at scales with my RV as if I were working for hire to transport.. The language and definitions in the CA DMV are not ambiguous and do not give relief for people not in the business of transport.

Reddog1 wrote:
work2much, I really think you have a lot of misinformation. Consider making an appointment with the Placerville Office of the DMV. I have always found them exceptionally helpful and knowledgeable.

Wayne

At this point my best and most pertinent source of information is the link I posted to the CA DMV which directly addresses my truck and hauling an RV. Did you read through it?

I am happy to talk to different DMV's hoping for varied opinions but I highly doubt they will give me anything concrete in the way written proof that would clear or correct what the CA DMV states in no uncertain terms on their website. Certainly nothing I could hand to a compliance officer on the side of the road.

As I see it I have 2 choices. To declare my truck and weight I plan to carry and pay for that as a commercial vehicle, the same as a truck for hire or business. Or lie and hope I don't get caught.

I have done a bunch of digging including old posts here and other truck forums and have yet to see anything resembling an option for people buying pick up trucks in CA for the intent to use as a personal non commercial truck (aside from perm mounted camper) without getting dinged hard by the DMV in heavy fees.

At this point I will pay for a weight that covers my TC. Wife and I are traveling for the next year including looking for a retirement state destinations. The truck reg is only one part of why we feel we need to move to a state that fines their citizens less to reside. CA hit us hard agin this year with income taxes that dwarf this truck penalty tax.

Just need to move on. Life is too short.