Massachusetts truck registration ?

"MANY" not ALL states may require vehicles that are uses as trucks to be licensed with tonnage. Here in Wa st, ALL rigs buy tonnage no matter if personal or commercial use. Its about $20 per ton, we license by the ton. You are legal to what you pay for. As an example, my C2500 has an 8K license, I am good to 8K lbs. If at the door sticker of 8600, I am illegal and overweight! If I would go to the next higher rating, ie 10K, I am legal to 10K, as long as I am not over 500 lbs per inch width of tire. Tires would give me 10K per axle or 20K total. I'd be in pretty bad shape if this heavy.

The question becomes at the end of the day. Go with a car plate, and you may be limited to the wt of the truck and people, or a paid for tonnage plate and legal to the tonnage you have paid for, Along with you are paying for the damage to the road you are doing at the higher weights you are at.

That is more or less how it is done in Wa st. I would swag similar in Mass. too! but could be wrong. I also do not have inspections, other than if pulled into a weigh scale, which requires rigs over 16K to stop, BEING USED commercially, not personal pulling an RV. BUT

marty

I still haven't got any clarification on this subject yet. It's funny, I went looking at GMC heavy duty trucks at a local dealership and they also have no clue. The sales people don't even understand payload, etc. I am torn between a f350 srw and a GMC 3500 srw, both in a crew cab short bed configuration.

The big difference is mass is passenger plates on a truck cost you $50 every two years, commercial is $20 per thousand pounds of payload annually. My 2005 dually that I had a whole back was costing me $260 a year for plates plus a commercial inspection just to do the right thing and safely tow my fifthwheel at the time.

Go to the DMV website and see what Mass does.
IN NY any truck with an unladen weight of over 5600 pounds needs to have commercial tags on it. That in no way makes anything else about the truck and its use fall under commercial regulations. It is just registration by weight instead of vehicle class.

Let me add in this...my father has his dually with a regular passenger plate, his truck is over 10k gvwr, every year he gets an inspection sticker and pays the $29. Nobody has caught him yet, this was not a new registration but a transfer. I see plenty of dually trucks with non commercial plates.
the place you might pay more is if it is diesel and over 10k they might make you pay the $60 for the yearly inspection sticker.

BTW...were neighbors I live in Acushnet.