adamis
Feb 25, 2019Nomad II
Registering a Truck in California
After many years as a happy Nevada resident, I was finally forced to change over to California for my vehicle registrations. I had two vehicles to register, my 2001 VW Jetta TDI with 330k miles (and just finished a nearly full rebuild of the engine) which the state of California demanded $160 to register it. This was nearly twice what I paid in Nevada. Then my 1999 F350 Truck to which I was initially told would cost $180 but then they demanded another $160 because it was a "commercial vehicle". It appears that California congress critters have taken it upon themselves to deliver some of the highest registration fees (and fuel taxes) while providing us some of the worst roads in the country. Considering that California has some of the nicest weather in the country, there is no excuse for our roads to be falling apart! I should consider myself fortunate that my truck is 20 years old because looking around the inter-webs, it appears that new truck buyers are paying close to $900 to register their truck each year in California???
End of my rant and back to my topic... So it appears there is an exception to the commercial vehicle status in that if you have a camper permanently mounted on the vehicle, you can qualify for an exemption for the added fee. I fit this bill as my camper stays on my truck year round.
The question I'm wondering to those of you who have gone before me is, when they do the vin verification, what are they looking for that fulfills the permanent mounting requirement for the camper? Is it enough just to have a camper in the truck when they do the inspection or are they expecting me to remove the jacks and such?
End of my rant and back to my topic... So it appears there is an exception to the commercial vehicle status in that if you have a camper permanently mounted on the vehicle, you can qualify for an exemption for the added fee. I fit this bill as my camper stays on my truck year round.
The question I'm wondering to those of you who have gone before me is, when they do the vin verification, what are they looking for that fulfills the permanent mounting requirement for the camper? Is it enough just to have a camper in the truck when they do the inspection or are they expecting me to remove the jacks and such?