Need to Haul Cargo with a Truck registered as an RV (CA)

Call ands see if you can get a temporary permit. Nothing to lose, maybe things have changed.

Poof!

When I had a truck with a slide-in camper it was considered by the California DMV to be a commercial vehicle as the camper was not welded permanently to the bed of the truck.

Unless your truck is improperly loaded, as in overloaded for the suspension, the CHP is going to ignore you completely. If there is a lot of sway or you move around in the lane or fail to drive at a steady speed, then you will be noticed.

As long as the GCWR is not exceeded with your load you will be legal and if in doubt pay the $15 to have the loaded vehicle weighed at a local CAT scale.

I have collector registrations on some of my vehicles that come with use restrictions in exchange for a single "forever fee" that does not have to be renewed. Choosing this registration prevents me from using them as a daily use vehicles. Abusing this classification results in large fines. There are no exception passes offered for sale. I suspect this is the same with the registration in CA if you don't use your truck as an RV. Since you have a clause about getting service completed, perhaps you can schedule an appointment close to your destination and get your truck serviced before returning home? You would be following the letter of the law even if it was not the spirit of the law. If you were pulled over for improper registration, you would be able to show your appointment and they could even verify it was legitimate calling the shop or you would have the service receipt on the return home.

D.E.Bishop wrote:
Well "toedtoes", my DP plate is DPNNNLL. Doesn't follow the PDF you posted. Is my plate an error?

I don't know why your plate is different. It may be personalized, it may have been a mistake, it may be connected to a specific plate style or time frame, or maybe it just wasn't a common enough configuration to include, or maybe they missed that configuration when they wrote the PDF.

The point I was making is that the plate configurations are established to make it easy to spot something weird. If a stolen commercial plate is put on lexus sedan, it will stand out to officers and so on.

^ You’re right. And anyone defending decriminalized or defunded enforcement hopefully gets to experience the mess they support. Hopefully in a big way.
Seattle is a shithole now. Worse than ever.
Last night the ER docs we’re having to neglect my wife with acute heart problems for the fri night tweakers and junkies being wheeled in.
F that place and anyone who supports this.

Well "toedtoes", my DP plate is DPNNNLL. Doesn't follow the PDF you posted. Is my plate an error?

Plans changed due to family not being available to help watch the twins while I'm out having fun. You haven't seen a tired mommy till you come home to one who has been watching needy twins all day (can't even imagine triplets or more).

To respond to Kaytag and California bashing, this state isn't what it used to be and hasn't for nearly two decades under one party rule. The geography and weather are the same of course and that is the significant pull for many people. But now we must contend with policies that are soft on crime, highest taxes in the country with no end in sight of even more taxes, rampant homelessness, rampant drug abuse and prevalence (last time the wife and I went to the theater in SF, we literally walked by about 30 derelicts on the city government steps shooting up hard drugs in the open). There is garbage everywhere in the streets and streams where homeless encampments now sprawl.

If you look at a political map of California the Central, Eastern and Northern parts are mostly conservative but it is dominated by the Bay Area, Sacramento and LA. All places with dysfunctional policies that cause more problems but also where politicians are no longer accountable to the people and haven't been for years.

The only thing that keeps this state together is water and that is through the continued screwing of the Northern regions as the Central and Southern regions take it. Sure, Central and Southern California paid for the water infrastructure decades ago but those bonds have long been paid off. How much is that water worth today compared to what Northern California actually gets in return for it? Hard to have an LA economy without water yet it comes cheap and mostly plentiful at the expense of Northern California communities.

In an era of "billions" of budget surpluses, how much of it do you think will go to making Central and Southern California self sufficient in water without the continued taking advantage of the communities where rain actually does fall in meaningful amounts? I'm guessing about zero. Only San Diego with their desalination plant looks to have taken a step in the right direction. Of course, since California is eliminating all of its nuclear power plants, desalination just isn't practical to the extent needed. LA sits next to an ocean and yet they pull water from a giant straw 600 miles long?

Yup, California is great for the weather and geography but beyond that, it is a dystopian nightmare of one party politics and taking advantage of conservative rural communities.

Rhetorical question: Not aimed at anyone specifically.

Why is it we RV'ers that pay huge dollars for RV and Trucks, etc., find it so difficult to include road use, or registration fees in the budget?

We see some folks on here trying to save nickels and dimes on tires, for example, after spending a hundred grand or more on an RV combo. Safety costs money, and your family rides on those tires. And, then some have an issue with the road repairs, but try to downsize registration fees and fuel taxes. We cannot have both - low fees and high quality roads.

Agreed, we all want lower fees, and want to save money, but we can't have low fees and high quality at the same time.

toedtoes wrote:

Grit dog wrote:

The difference is you’re from a different socialist locale that also happens to start with a C, but is not Cali. And your government hasn’t imposed quite as ridiculous of regulations on your vehicles registration as Cali has.

This is pure bollocks. The only reason for this "regulation" is because PEOPLE didn't want to pay the standard truck registration fees. It wasn't so the government could take more money, it wasn't so the government could make things comp!icated.

Why should people have to pay the “standard truck registration fees” when they use their truck like a sedan? Oregon “truck” plates are for trucks that are doing legitimate commercial work (towing non-RV trailers > 7000 lbs). Most pickups have plates that look and cost just like the passenger car plates.

Yeah, CA government just wants more money for “trucks” with an antiquated definition of what a “truck” is.