Commercial registration on New Truck Questions

Years ago I was buying motorhome in Maryland to bring it to California.
At the time I was facing about $1800 tax + 1st year registration and about $400 a year later.
Tried to get temporarily plates in MD, but the state did not had such, so having cousin in MD I gave her address to buy 2-years stickers for .... $90
Few years later the "Montana RV registration" become famous ;)

An advantage of having Commercial plates here in Seattle WA (copied from an earlier post):

Depending on where you live the difference in registration fees can be enormous.

I live in Seattle. By far the largest component in registration costs is the Regional Transit Authority Tax (RTA). The tax for a car or motorhome is 1.1% of the value of the vehicle per year. But note, the value of the vehicle is not what you paid for it but is MSRP x (depreciation), And they define depreciation, its 5% in the first year, another 10% in the second, and so on.

This means the motorhome with the MSRP of $100,000 that you negotiated the sales price down to $75,000 will cost you $1,100 in just RTA fees in the first year (plus other state and city charges). When it rolls around to get your tabs in the second year the state says it will have only depreciated 5% and you will have to pay $1,045 just for RTA.

And don't think buying used helps you either. The state still charges you MSRP * (their depreciation schedule) independent of what you payed.

Now, compare that to my truck camper. The camper itself (AF 1150) has a Total registration fee of $15.25. The truck (2013 F350 DRW), being over 6,000 pounds is considered commercial and is exempt from RTA fees. Total charge is $139 a year.

(To show you how crazy it is my 11 year old scooter costs my $157 to register.)

Devocamper wrote:


Could not go regular passenger car plates would have had to go combination but would have had to register the truck at 12500 which would have meant I would have been overweight and could face a fine which I don't think would ever happen, here anyway, if I was at or near the actual GWVR of 14k. I can not use the parkways here in ct but would never go on them anyway with the TC since the overpasses are so low , in fact I think even the max combination weights are restricted from being on the parkways here so I did not used them with my old truck with was 11500 GVWR.

When each state has different laws, it is not passenger plates you are seeking for your truck/camper combo, but RV plates.
California has different name for them, but everybody understands what they are for.
I had RV plates on my 16 tons bus conversion and in CA the registration was about $120 a year. Insurance was very cheap too.
I tried to insure my truck/camper combo as RV, but they did not agree.

well called my insurance agent and they said I was ok with having commercial plates and the truck on my regular auto policy but in searching around I found that is not always the case with all insurance carriers some require commercial insurance for commercial plates. Thanks for the replies
Mike

6door74 wrote:
I would have went the route of regular passenger plates!
i bought a ram 1500 back in 2005 (in NY) and the dealer gave me commercial plates because the weight was 5000+. They told me i had to wait until i got the title to go to the DMV and get passenger plates. In that time, i received multiple tickets where i lived for parking a commercial vehicle on the street overnight. You obviously may not have that issue but you may have others. Will you be able to drive on the merritt parkway (assuming you do) or other parkways in CT? i can't remember if commercial vehicles are allowed on parkways in CT. I had to sneak and drive with my fingers crossed on the parkways in westchester where i lived because of the "no commercial vehicles allowed" law.

That said, my insurance policy was regular policy. There was no need to tell them how it was registered. they just needed to know it's use and it wasn't for commercial use.

Could not go regular passenger car plates would have had to go combination but would have had to register the truck at 12500 which would have meant I would have been overweight and could face a fine which I don't think would ever happen, here anyway, if I was at or near the actual GWVR of 14k. I can not use the parkways here in ct but would never go on them anyway with the TC since the overpasses are so low , in fact I think even the max combination weights are restricted from being on the parkways here so I did not used them with my old truck with was 11500 GVWR.

Kayteg1 wrote:
Commercial plates are for taxation purpose and don't have to have relation with actual use the insurance would care about.
Are you using your truck commercially?

Nope just using it for the TC the plates are commercial because of the gvwr being 14K anything over 12500 has to be commercial in CT and the fees are due yearly rather than every two years

It is all about money.
Having privately owned backhoe I had to maintain 30,000lb stickers in California.
That sticker alone (placed at the door) did cost me $640 a year.
Unfortunately CA DMV doesn't care if you pull the trailer twice a year, or twice a day - the fee is the same.
6door74 brought another issue. When with commercial plates you can park in commercial zones, you might get tickets for parking it in some residential neighborhoods.
Fortunately Nevada has none of those issues.
You can even camp at Walmart here.

I would have went the route of regular passenger plates!
i bought a ram 1500 back in 2005 (in NY) and the dealer gave me commercial plates because the weight was 5000+. They told me i had to wait until i got the title to go to the DMV and get passenger plates. In that time, i received multiple tickets where i lived for parking a commercial vehicle on the street overnight. You obviously may not have that issue but you may have others. Will you be able to drive on the merritt parkway (assuming you do) or other parkways in CT? i can't remember if commercial vehicles are allowed on parkways in CT. I had to sneak and drive with my fingers crossed on the parkways in westchester where i lived because of the "no commercial vehicles allowed" law.

That said, my insurance policy was regular policy. There was no need to tell them how it was registered. they just needed to know it's use and it wasn't for commercial use.

Kayteg1 wrote:
Commercial plates are for taxation purpose and don't have to have relation with actual use the insurance would care about.
Are you using your truck commercially?

So when are these states going to update their 40 year old laws to reflect the fact that some people's personal trucks weigh a bit more these days?

IMO, commercial should mean just that and not based upon GVWR. If you want to increase license fees for heavier vehicles or require an enhanced license that's fine too. It should still be separated from the "commercial" guys.

Commercial plates are for taxation purpose and don't have to have relation with actual use the insurance would care about.
Are you using your truck commercially?