How Do I get it Home?

[GlennWest]

With the new laws is that even necessary, the microwave, inverter, etc? Understand the form now just states to list what you have done to make it a motor home. Just asking form what I been reading. I intend to go thru this soon.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

For South Dakota, we filled out an affidavit stating that certain changes had taken place to the vehicle. This forum along with pictures (if requested) are needed to register the truck in South Dakota. Other states may vary.

[Phil D]

Phil, on my Class A Exempt I did a one time mail renewal (can NOT do it online).The next time I had to go in person. So you can actually do12 years....unless they recently changed it.

I can't say for sure if it's possible to renew by mail or not. I didn't realize that was an option, and since I was in the Valley in April I didn't even look into it, I just went to the nearest DPS office (where my Class A Drivers License confused the crap out of the clerk) and renewed it there. Had I known that mail renewal was an option (if it still is) I'd have gone that route instead, since that trip into the office for a renewal cost me my first license restriction (Corrective lenses required) in forty-two years of driving.

 

You're right on the money about the online renewal for Class A and B licenses. That's definitely prohibido, as they say down here in the Valley.

[Phil D]

With the new laws is that even necessary, the microwave, inverter, etc? Understand the form now just states to list what you have done to make it a motor home. Just asking form what I been reading. I intend to go thru this soon.

 

I'm not aware that any of the requirements have changed, Glenn. As far as I know, it still takes four items from "the list" to qualify as a motorhome, and you still have to take pictures of those items, along with your titling and registration documents to the Assessor/Collector's office for processing.

[GlennWest]

My apology for posting that. I didn't go back and reread OP post. Had nothing to do about Texas registration.

[NoDirectionHome]

Well it's all coming into focus. Since I'm headed to Texas, I might as well make that my domicile, stop in Livingston to get the process going for license and to see some of your rigs, then up to Herrin Welding for a Drombox, before heading north. That way I can get registered as an RV and have an application so I have something to show in NY.

This is quite a learning curve! Thanks so much to all of you!

 

To think I almost west down to the corner and bought a Ram Dually! Sheesh!

[Dollytrolley]

As usual a thread on this subject rifts into what states will register. The OP's question is how to get it home.

 

Until a commercial truck is registered as something else, it is still a commercial truck. It doesn't matter what modifications are done, until the registration is done, the truck is still commercial. Remember commercial rules are uniform across the 50 states and DC.

 

And as a commercial truck, you need a CDL to drive it.

 

So the answer is either have a CDL, either yours or a hired driver, or to have the registration process done before you travel home.

 

The process for registration out state can run from simple (South Dakota, have your mail service handle it), to complex (State Police have to inspect it).

 

 

Guilty as charged......

 

Perhaps to get back to the nitty-gritty of the thread....... is to boil it down to the basic task of "transporting the tractor to the final address".......

 

Contract for a "Piggy-Back" multi-truck delivery, only one driver "transports" 4 tractors "Piggy-Back" ......very common and not very costly.

 

The next most costly is to engage a transport brokerage that could "compose" a drop-deck trailer load to deliver the truck and IF your time frame is flexible often a dead-head-return with "your" load is a affordable option.

 

Both of the above options lessen mileage on the tractor and eliminate the need to obtain commercial insurance and DOT paperwork.......

 

Drive on..........(Thread......the-eye-of-the-needle.....)

[ed6713]

A

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Big5er, If you have bought a HDT truck with a commercial hitch in Texas as an individual, privately owned truck and drove it home (say to Georgia) would that be legal with a Georgia, non commercial class A license (called a class E here). I would be running bobtailed at that point but would remove the DOT and VIN numbers before leaving. If the hitch would be a problem would having the hitch removed be enough "proof of intent" so to speak to satisfy a DOT officer along the way if I didn't stop at a weigh station?

[Phil D]

I did basically what you did when I picked up my truck seven years ago, GeorgiaHybrid.

 

My situation was a little different -- I was licensed in Pennsylvania but still in Kansas, where I'd worked a temporary assignment, and the singling and ET Hitch installation had been completed -- but the truck still "looked" commercial. I covered the fleet name on the doors and all of the operating authority numbers with masking tape, put my Pennsylvania plate on the front (I'd had time between the purchase and the completion of the singling to get the title and registration work done), and hit the road back to the RV park, about two hundred fifty or so miles away. Unlike you I was operating out of classification, but I had no way to get "home" to reclassify, and I planned to establish my domicile elsewhere, anyway.

[Big5er]

As long as you are licensed to drive it in your home state, then you are legal to drive it everywhere. The question about the registration is the issue. People keep saying that it is a commercial truck until it is registered as something else, but that isn't exactly true. Without apportioned or combination (commercial) license plates. it is just a truck tractor. It is only "commercial" if it is being used as such. Texas (and I am sure most states) have temporary registration. Texas has 72hr, 144hr and 30 day permits. The 30 day permits specifically says you can not haul a load. The others CAN be used commercially but nothing says it has to be. You may be hard pressed to get that point across to the DOT guy, but there are plenty of areas in the fed code that say a driver can use a CMV as personal conveyance and not be subject to the regs. In regards to MH's being used commercially I have always said "it isn't what it IS, it is what it is DOING". The same holds true for the truck. If it has no hitch, how can you possibly be using it to haul a load? Yeah there are plenty of other uses but realistically if it can't haul a load what other commercial use is there? Without a DOT number, without the means to haul a trailer and without having apportioned registration, how can you be "in commerce" if you own it? (to avoid the argumentative ones here: yes, delivering trucks that can't haul a load to a customer would still be commercial)

 

FYI: I would cap the airlines too. You aren't gonna use those air lines and even if you are, they aren't hard to reconnect once you get home. There have been some people here just couldn't "get it" but the less you LOOK commercial, the better off you will be. I've said it before but I will say it again: Most people think if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck that it must be a duck. You need to be prepared to explain (and prove) that you are really a dragon in a duck suit and have some ammo to back it up. Does Georgia have any written policy (like Texas does) that specifically says you can convert a Class 8 truck to a MH? Bring a copy with you. Have a photo or two of someone else's rig with a smart and a TT on your phone: "See? I'm gonna do this.....". Expect to be stopped. Plan to be stopped. Be READY to be stopped. That way, IF you get stopped you are ready to explain what you are doing, why you are doing it and how you are doing it.

[G&K]

That has to be one of the top ten posts I have seen on this forum.

 

Nice.

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Big5er, Thanks for the reply. I know that Georgia does not require me to have it registered as a motorhome. My current truck is licensed as a private truck with a 26,000 pound tag (even though the GVWR is over 30,000) as Georgia doesn't know what to do with us. I am allowed to run anything on the road as long as I am not doing it commercially. I like your idea of photos showing what I intend to do with it though...

 

My current truck was driven home by me from Texas on a 30 day temp tag and I never stopped at any weigh stations but it already had a hauler body on the truck. Not to mention that in Texas, a 4 door Freightliner is just a little show horse hauler truck..... We are on the hunt right now for a class 8 to convert and I will get Herrin to build the build so I have been looking in Texas for potential new "rides" just to cu down on driving time.

[Dollytrolley]

As long as you are licensed to drive it in your home state, then you are legal to drive it everywhere. The question about the registration is the issue. People keep saying that it is a commercial truck until it is registered as something else, but that isn't exactly true. Without apportioned or combination (commercial) license plates. it is just a truck tractor. It is only "commercial" if it is being used as such. Texas (and I am sure most states) have temporary registration. Texas has 72hr, 144hr and 30 day permits. The 30 day permits specifically says you can not haul a load. The others CAN be used commercially but nothing says it has to be. You may be hard pressed to get that point across to the DOT guy, but there are plenty of areas in the fed code that say a driver can use a CMV as personal conveyance and not be subject to the regs. In regards to MH's being used commercially I have always said "it isn't what it IS, it is what it is DOING". The same holds true for the truck. If it has no hitch, how can you possibly be using it to haul a load? Yeah there are plenty of other uses but realistically if it can't haul a load what other commercial use is there? Without a DOT number, without the means to haul a trailer and without having apportioned registration, how can you be "in commerce" if you own it? (to avoid the argumentative ones here: yes, delivering trucks that can't haul a load to a customer would still be commercial)

 

FYI: I would cap the airlines too. You aren't gonna use those air lines and even if you are, they aren't hard to reconnect once you get home. There have been some people here just couldn't "get it" but the less you LOOK commercial, the better off you will be. I've said it before but I will say it again: Most people think if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck that it must be a duck. You need to be prepared to explain (and prove) that you are really a dragon in a duck suit and have some ammo to back it up. Does Georgia have any written policy (like Texas does) that specifically says you can convert a Class 8 truck to a MH? Bring a copy with you. Have a photo or two of someone else's rig with a smart and a TT on your phone: "See? I'm gonna do this.....". Expect to be stopped. Plan to be stopped. Be READY to be stopped. That way, IF you get stopped you are ready to explain what you are doing, why you are doing it and how you are doing it.

X 2

 

We often have to stop ourselves, since we often tow Dolly-the-paint-horse behind our HDT and often livestock must be inspect at state lines.

 

We do NOT haul other peoples cars, horses, etc. so EVERYTHING in our rig is OURS and we can prove it. I often haul our Honda Quad in the HDT deck and it is registered in OUR name. We even carry a bill of sale made out to us for the hay we carry to feed Dolly......

 

Like Phil says........be able to prove that you are a "private vehicle" and that all of the "cargo" belongs to you as well.......

 

We give the LEO a carrot......the LEO gives the carrot to Dolly......Dolly eats the carrot .....everyone smiles........and the Dollytrolley drives on......

 

Drive on........(Privately.....)

[RoadWarrior420]

As long as you are licensed to drive it in your home state, then you are legal to drive it everywhere. The question about the registration is the issue. People keep saying that it is a commercial truck until it is registered as something else, but that isn't exactly true. Without apportioned or combination (commercial) license plates. it is just a truck tractor. It is only "commercial" if it is being used as such. Texas (and I am sure most states) have temporary registration. Texas has 72hr, 144hr and 30 day permits. The 30 day permits specifically says you can not haul a load. The others CAN be used commercially but nothing says it has to be. You may be hard pressed to get that point across to the DOT guy, but there are plenty of areas in the fed code that say a driver can use a CMV as personal conveyance and not be subject to the regs. In regards to MH's being used commercially I have always said "it isn't what it IS, it is what it is DOING". The same holds true for the truck. If it has no hitch, how can you possibly be using it to haul a load? Yeah there are plenty of other uses but realistically if it can't haul a load what other commercial use is there? Without a DOT number, without the means to haul a trailer and without having apportioned registration, how can you be "in commerce" if you own it? (to avoid the argumentative ones here: yes, delivering trucks that can't haul a load to a customer would still be commercial)

 

FYI: I would cap the airlines too. You aren't gonna use those air lines and even if you are, they aren't hard to reconnect once you get home. There have been some people here just couldn't "get it" but the less you LOOK commercial, the better off you will be. I've said it before but I will say it again: Most people think if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck that it must be a duck. You need to be prepared to explain (and prove) that you are really a dragon in a duck suit and have some ammo to back it up. Does Georgia have any written policy (like Texas does) that specifically says you can convert a Class 8 truck to a MH? Bring a copy with you. Have a photo or two of someone else's rig with a smart and a TT on your phone: "See? I'm gonna do this.....". Expect to be stopped. Plan to be stopped. Be READY to be stopped. That way, IF you get stopped you are ready to explain what you are doing, why you are doing it and how you are doing it.

I just read this and I agree whole-heartedly. I live in NY (Long Island to be exact). I just purchased my VNL 730. I do not have a CDL, I do have a permit for my R endorsement (its a NYS thing). When I picked up the truck at the dealer in Nashville no less, I brought with me a friend with a CDL just in case. I also had the hitch removed, air lines plugged and had Private Coach Not For Hire decals on both sides and the rear of the cab. We drove home with NO ISSUES and blew by 3 open weigh stations just waiting to be pulled over down the road. Not a thing, nothing. I agree its what you are doing with it not what it is. Now back here in NY I can't register as a MH, it has to be registered commercially. I financed it through my company and am getting hammered on the insurance (5k) for the year because they think I am OTR even though I specifically said I am using it personally to tow my RV. Turns out I just need to take a road test with my current F350 and rig (which puts me at GCWR of 34000lbs) which gives me the R endorsement and I am good to go. I bet I just have to find the right insurance guy to find the right insurance for this thing. Sorry for rambling. lol

[Big5er]

Well, welcome to the dark side

You will enjoy your HDT, and if NY won't let you register as a MH you can always move to TX

[GlennWest]

If I remember right was told that an hdt converted was registered in NY as a house truck. Was considering buying it and he shared that with me. People here on forum talked me out of it.

[GlennWest]

Martins192 was the member that had his registered in NY