GeorgiaHybrid

Egon,

This must be a labor of love. According to your posts above, you paid 48K for the coach, have a budget of 15K for the interior, 10K for the engine, nothing at all for the exterior and you want to sell it for 75K. That is only a 2K profit assuming you hit your budget numbers without any labor costs.

I need to sell you my 64 Fairlane and buy it back when you are done.  

6 hours ago, rwlslider said:

RVer for a couple of years now, looking to upgrade to a 5th wheel Toy Hauler.

I like the idea of a HDT and am looking for info on the subject. 

First off, welcome to the site! Secondly, you are in the right place to learn about HDT's

We have spent nights at trucks stops if we are off of the road early. They fill up fast and are often full by 6:00 PM. We have never had a problem staying in one but then again, our tow vehicle is a Kenworth T680 so we fit in a little better than some. 

Congrats on the new home! You are going to be in for a big surprise when you get a 30+ foot HDT and hook up. Think about 65 feet going down the road.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

Rocky,

There is a BIG difference between a LLC (Limited Liability Company ) and a corporation (standard "C" corp. or sub chapter "S") A LLC is a hybrid that is basically a partnership or sole proprietorship that has the benefits of a corporation concerning liability.

A Corporation on the other hand is just like a person. It can enter into contracts just like a person and has much stricter regulations concerning reporting to the states and feds (officers, minutes of meeting, etc.) and is liable for things that happen in the corporations name. They also issue stock (private or public) that can be sold or traded as needed.

Your truck is owned by a corporation and as far as the law is concerned, it is just like a person owning the truck. If anything happened while driving your truck, the corporation can be sued in court but the officers of the corporation can't be sued unless the other side can prove negligence or fraud. That makes it a commercial truck whether it is used in a commercial venture or not.

Congrats on the new truck but it didn't happen without pictures.

2 hours ago, BlueLghtning said:

It looks like I'll be going through this soon enough. Georgia Hybrid, I sent you a PM yesterday on some license questions for GA, but if you have any contact info to send me to the people you dealt with in your county that I could give to our tax assesor to hopefully help me along in this process also, that would be greatly appreciated. 

Will be back at the fiver later today. No problem helping you get it sorted out. Will send you some more contact info in a PM tonight.

The bluebells are beautiful right now and blooming everywhere. Waco was looking good last week with the flowers as well.

Went past Wildseed Farms today on the way to a winery but will try to go there this week. Don't have a lot of time here as we need to leave Thursday morning. Dad's 95th birthday is Saturday and I will not miss that for anything.

We were staying at the KOA in San Antonio on the east side of town. Make sure you explain to them how long you are to get a long site.

In Fredericksburg, we are in Quiet Creek RV park. 85' long sites, not much shade as it is a new park but they are about 25% full with plenty of room.

Sitting in San Antonio this week and look who pulls in to the park. I bet most of you will only need one guess who drives the red, flamed out Volvo.

Got to spend a couple of days with Jim and Alie but will be pulling out for Fredericksburg in the morning. wish we could spend more time together as we had a good time even if we did blow our diet eating pizza tonight.

22 hours ago, swatsup81 said:

David-and-Cheryl, thanks for taking the time to provide such great insight into how you would approach this.  We plan on getting a HDT and a Spacecraft RV (delivery dates are about 6-9 months out and we won't put and money down on it until we know we can get a license) so will not be able to get them in the 90 days after the written test and eye exam to do the skills test which is why I was looking at day schools.  I agree on not wanting to do a full blown CDL school, thanks on suggesting to do the vision test first if they will let him and that the Dallas South Megacenter is a good place to take the skills test.  We want to drive Kenworths and Volvos to determine which one we like best before buying one and my assumption is that one of us will need to have the Class A Exempt to do that at a dealership or at the very lease a permit.  We both drove a Volvo 780 at the National HDT rally last October but also like the ride in the Kenworth, we didn't drive the Kenworth.  So it's still a catch 22 for us.  I did find a website that hooks you up with truckers to do some practice and the skills test for a fee but I really don't want to use a random person for that :).   

 

I may try to contact the person in Grand Prairie on the rvdrivingschool.com to see if he will let us use his rig to do the skills test in but the site specifically says you need to have your own rig.  We feel it's a risk to purchase an HDT and a very heavy RV prior to getting the license - we don't want to get ticketed for driving w/o a license in the HDT then possibly not be able to get the license due to the ding on the driving record.  I also do not want to purchase a Volvo or the Spacecraft w/o a license because those would not be easy to sell.  So we are in a little different category but I feel there are others out there in our same situation.

 

Bottom line it's not just about the vision it's also about driving without the proper license in an HDT.  Our current GMC 2500 HD and 5th wheel do not meet the requirements for the HDT skills test or we would use them. 

Sent you a PM. It might have been our truck you took for a ride.

thanks for that info. .. I’m hunting for insurance in florida

In Florida, try Gilbert RV Insurance, Inc.

Phil,

You are just behind the winery and about 6 miles from my office. Hope to meet up while you are here.

David

Your local tax assessor will just need to submit the paperwork as a motorhome. If needed, they do have an inspection form that is used to make sure that a vehicle is road ready (think kit car or custom frame hotrod) that requires a qualified LEO to inspect and run the numbers against the stolen car registry.

Have you talked to the local tax assessor yet? I will say perseverance is key, one other guy in our country tried with a Cascadia and gave up after a week and sold it. Don't give up and keep going back to the motorhome registration.

Yours should be easy with that huge ARI sleeper. You are completely self contained and act more like a FRED than a tractor.

Other than that, the PM that I sent should help with our local contact info.

Brad,

The transmission needs front and rear wheel speeds to determine when to shift (as well as engine rpm). It also needs to see if you have a differential between front and rear wheels to see if wheel spin is happening.

Good job my friend, preparation and perseverance mostly brings success.

Can not wait to see that fancy blue paint and your new portable cave.

Didn't know the new APU's had a shore power option for the cooling, nice.

Is it basically a gen set then and everything runs on electrons?

Dave, been busy this past week and forgot about your question until this afternoon. Shore power is an option on the Carrier APU's as they use an electric motor for the compressor and electric strip heat. They added another plug under the drivers door for the HVAC when a power pedestal is available. Just plug in, pull the windshield curtains and settle in for the night without a noisy APU running in the background.

peety3, on 26 Jul 2016 - 10:02 AM, said:

I recognize that I'm a stickler (Nazi?) for good grammar, but I'd really encourage you to NOT put converted in quotes. Essentially by doing that, you're saying that another, different word belongs here, but you're going to use the word converted out of context and improperly as a fake word in place of what should be there. Instead, you're really and truly talking about a conversion here: it's being converted from a commercial truck (basic conveyance as a power unit to haul a trailer for hire with freight inside or upon it) to a motorhome (fridge, microwave, shore power, shore powered HVAC, cable TV, etc.) with a more recreationally-purposed bed/body (for transporting your car, which has even less debate about intended use) with cabinets for belongings that relate to living wherever it is that you've set the parking brake.

 

Leave no question about the words you've chosen and you'll present yourself as more authoritative on the subject, helping you maintain a little more power in your negotiations.

LOL, Peety, I put it in quotes on purpose. The truck was a purpose built, ordered new from Kenworth, RV hauler. The only conversion was adding the bed. I had to come up with something to get the point across that this was a stand alone motor home. It was bought with the fridge, microwave, 1800 watt invertor with a shore power option for the truck, a Carrier APU with shore power option to run the AC and heat with either the 6,000 watt generator or on shore power and was factory singled. It was never titled as a commercial truck and the only thing we have done is add the bed to convert it to a motorhome.

Having the build sheet from the factory stating it was not a commercial vehicle and was for recreational use only was a big help in convincing them. Not to mention having a picture of the truck in front of Larry's shop in Texas for the "conversion" to a motor home.

As some of you already know, registering a HDT in Georgia is an exercise in frustration. I have been dreading going down with the paperwork on the Kenworth but the time had come about two weeks ago to get it down. Georgia does not recognise what we do with our trucks and they don't have a category to place us in. I gave the tax assessor the paperwork from MHC, plenty of pictures of other trucks that are "motorhomes" in other states, pictures of our truck at Larry's place being "converted" to a RV hauler truck and the cover of our build sheet. The build sheet turned out to be very helpful as it plainly said the truck was "non commercial, recreational use only"

She didn't have a clue what to do as Georgia only has tags for private trucks to 26,000 pounds. Over that limit you have two choices, commercial or farm use inside of Georgia only. None of those would work so I suggested a motorhome registration. She took all of the info and said she would forward it to Atlanta and see what they wanted to do. 3 days later, she called and said every single supervisor in the tag and title office refused to give her an answer.

Hmmm..... They sent the problem over to a group of 4 lawyers who debated over a 2 day period what to do with the truck. They responded later that week with "register it as a Georgia private farm vehicle with a 36,000 pound tag and give him a letter stating that it would be OK to drive on that tag outside of Georgia". Our tax assessor knew that would never work as she knows we will be traveling all over the USA with this truck. She told them to try again as she didn't want to be a part of us getting busted driving a Georgia use only tag across the country as no one would be stupid enough to believe a "letter" stating it would be OK.

They next told her to give us a 26,000 pound tag and let us go. Again, no way was I going to accept that nor was she willing to do it. We got by on the Freightliner as it looks similar to a M2-106 that might have a 26,000 pound GVWR even though that trucks GVWR was over 30,000 pounds but I didn't have any options with it.

She couldn't write a commercial tag (they are all issued in Atlanta) and agreed that was not correct either so she called back and asked again about a motorhome tag. They said no, as soon as you unhook the trailer, it is no longer a motor home. That is when I asked what is considered a motor home as the truck has a fridge, microwave, shore power and shore power heating and air and even cable TV when hooked up in a campground. The fact that it could pull our trailer and carry a Smart car was a bonus.

She called yet again to the state and they told her to do whatever she thought it should be. After that call, she told us that she might get screamed at by someone from Atlanta but that she would send the paperwork in as a motorhome. She also warned us that it would have to be sold as a motorhome in the future and could not be converted to a commercial truck and I assured her that was not a problem.

We got the paperwork back from Atlanta today and we are now the proud owners of a Kenworth T680 "motorhome". A far as I know, this is the first HDT in Georgia to be registered this way and should help others that are wanting to register their HDT as a motorhome in Georgia as well.

Don't forget the extra lines and fittings to get to the jacks. You can pretty well count on 2 quarts or maybe a bit over...

If you do add jacks at the mid coach, make sure your reservoir will hold enough fluid. You might need to add a larger tank when the jacks are down and the slides are out to avoid getting air in the system.

Ours were built by Bassett but were stock sizes with fabrics and seat cushions we picked out. To get them in the coach, the rear window was removed and the furniture set inside. This is the same solution for some refrigerators...

Measure twice, check the furniture size and then measure everything again to make sure. We have 1" of clearance in the rear sofa to the sides coming in and the oversize loveseat we added is a touch fit to the island.

Im also a lurker. Currently have a 2013 Redwood 36FL with disk brakes towing it with a 2012 HD3500 DRW CC 4x4 Chevy. Looking to upgrade to a new M-2 106 or a new 2015 F-450. Both would have the RV hauler bodies installed on them. Currently a Texas resident (Escapee) But may have to go to FL to take over parents place but still would be full timers as I travel for work. I know from what I have read here so far is that probably both trucks will require us to get our non CDL class A license in TX and have not looked into FL yet. Insurance shouldn’t be a problem for either as they both are only single drives. And the GVW of the future per should not exceed 26,000l bs or even 30,000 lbs for the if we ever win megabucks and build a custom 5er coach. So this shouldn’t be a problem for the new F-450 or M-2. One of my problems is we need to be able to drive or use the toter as a second vehicle. Sometimes for everyday use. This is one of the reasons that I’m not really looking at a HDT as it would not be practical for us for everyday use. One of my concerns is I have read on the MDT section that most guys are adding a lot of weight to the tails of the M-2’s to get them to ride have way decent while bobtailing. This leaves me to believe that the MDT’s could be a hand full in the rain or on bad roads bobtailing. Right now we are leaning towards the 2015 F-450 but I like the M-2 except for the cost. I have lots more questions but Im still reading posts and hope to be able to answer some of these when digging into the older pages on the forums here. Any comments from experience would be a big help.

At your weights - and assuming not going much higher - I would choose the 450 over the M2 any day. Especially an M2 that was not a 112.

 

The thing to watch on the 450 is the rear GAWR. It is pitiful.Make sure you have enough capacity for the pin weight and your cargo. Also the clearances on ALL the pickup bedrails are terrible. So my advice is to factor in a hauler body.

 

Welcome to the forum....

The new 2015 F450 pickup is based upon a heavier chassis than the prior version that shared the F3250 platform. It gets the higher horsepower and torque of the pickups with the beefier brakes and frame of the cab and chassis model. I have a newer 6.7 F350 and the new F450 will have the same bed. No problem with clearance so far with our Infinity but I did order a 2" extra riser on the DRV we have on order. Please note that the cab and chassis model has a much lower HP and torque rating than the pickup.

Having said that, I run an M2-112 and it is our daily driver on the road. 99% of the time is not an issue (we even drove it this past weekend at the rod run in Pigeon Forge, TN). Ours is fitted with a full steel bed, has an air ride cab, rear suspension and seats and with a DD13 engine pulling 1650 ft-lbs, I have the same power as most of the big boys. It was a better fit for us with 4 doors as I pulled the rear seat and the dogs have plenty of room to run around without ripping up the seat bottom. I also liked the air brakes and ride height of the M2 and it still fit in the garage. Driving bobtail is not that much of an issue (rides better than the F350) but either will get crazy on some roads with big potholes.

Driving around town, you will find that the M2 fits in the same space as a dually, it's just a LOT taller....