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Considering a Suburban Tow Rig

So, apparently it's federally illegal to own a dually or a vehicle with a gvwr over 10000 pounds as a passenger vehicle. I had to walk on the truck. Insurance and DOT regulations would make it unreasonable to own. It would cost $750 extra annually for insurance and there is an extra $200 annual registration fee. We now live in a country where normal people can't own a real truck...

I tried for two weeks to figure it out. There are a bunch of contradicting laws. The end of the story is that when the insurance people or the registry people type in the vin, the truck comes up as a commercial vehicle and that can't be changed.
 
Richcz28 said:
So, apparently it's federally illegal to own a dually or a vehicle with a gvwr over 10000 pounds as a passenger vehicle. I had to walk on the truck. Insurance and DOT regulations would make it unreasonable to own. It would cost $750 extra annually for insurance and there is an extra $200 annual registration fee. We now live in a country where normal people can't own a real truck...

I tried for two weeks to figure it out. There are a bunch of contradicting laws. The end of the story is that when the insurance people or the registry people type in the vin, the truck comes up as a commercial vehicle and that can't be changed.
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Funny, I know a number of people who own such vehicles. Even with duals.

Lawrence's CCLB clocks in at 11k, my brother's RV clocks in somewhere near 15k.

IMGP5286.JPG


In Wisconsin I would simply pay more money (we pay by the pound). Yes, I know folks here who have owned overweight vehicles without issue. No way that it's a blanket federal regulation.
 
I even tried to register it in Maine which is a very loose state compared to Mass and was told the law still stands.

Older vehicles may not red flag the system with their vin numbers. My insurance agent explained to me that there is a notification of some sort that immediately comes up in his system to register the vehicle as commercial. He also said that my insurance company insures many states and they abide by the same rule with all of them.
 
the key word in the regs is commercial vehicle.
for private NON- COMMERCIAL use you can drive what you want.
 
Ethan, are you allowed to run passenger plates or must you run some form of truck plates?
 
Big Ray said:
the key word in the regs is commercial vehicle.
for private NON- COMMERCIAL use you can drive what you want.
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No, you can't. You might think that as I did, but it is not the case. Maybe people elsewhere have insurance companies and registrys that aren't catching this law, but I bet someone else will experience it in the near future.
 
Wade has a flat bed FrieghtShaker he uses(used) as a p.o.v. He and his Mrs. did some sight seeing with a camper and his K5 strapped on the back. Drop him a pm, he may have some helpful info for you. (ktmoutfront)

fwiw, some folks here drive deuce and a halfs for dd's....
 
I would have to imagine Wade pays appropriate insurance and registration for what his rig is.

I'd rather compare apples to apples.
 
Richcz28 said:
I would have to imagine Wade pays appropriate insurance and registration for what his rig is.

I'd rather compare apples to apples.
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IIRC it's $95 / year for the frankenliner, and it is not a commercial vehicle. We had a nice registration discussion/comparison at Dunefest, I was thinking you were one of the guys participating in that. :dunno:

@ktmoutfront
 
I think you were chatting about it with Alan. I remember you talking about other types of plates that you folks had. I thought you guys mentioned truck plates or some such thing.

$95 would be a bit more than a typical car reg in mass. It's $30 a year here for passenger plates.

I would imagine that those prices are scaled down a bit out west.
 
Richcz28 said:
Ethan, are you allowed to run passenger plates or must you run some form of truck plates?
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I have several options depending on what my intended usage is. Automobile plates cover everything with at least 50% seating area and without an open bed. So pickups are out, but any other class (Blazer, Suburban, van, etc.) can fit in depending on how the space is configured. Yours would probably be registered as a recreational motor home (given your camping intentions) or a standard truck if you weren't going to use it as such. In the first category a 12k truck would cost $67.50 per year. If registered as a standard truck ("Truck operated private or under authority") or as a "dual purpose truck," cost would be $209 for 12k. A "bus" is in its own category but pays the same rate as a standard truck.

If you never drive it to work you could register it as a farm truck for $22.50 per year. This limits you to recreational and personal hauling, but IIRC that's consistent with your plans for the rig.

Info pulled from Wisconsin DOT.
http://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/formdocs/mv1.pdf

If the rig were 20 years old cheaper options would open up.
 
After rereading some folks posts, I think they misunderstood what I wrote. I can own and drive any huge truck I want. I would just get charged a ridiculous amount to keep it on the road.
 
Richcz28 said:
I think you were chatting about it with Alan. I remember you talking about other types of plates that you folks had. I thought you guys mentioned truck plates or some such thing.

$95 would be a bit more than a typical car reg in mass. It's $30 a year here for passenger plates.

I would imagine that those prices are scaled down a bit out west.
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Depends on the state. We pay $75 for passenger plates, and trucks are by the pound (standard 6k class is $86 per year). When I moved from $35 Iowa, I didn't understand that one bit. But overall it's cheaper for me here because my older vehicles fit into special (cheap or free) categories.

What would commercial registration cost out there? I assume insurance is the deal-killer? I can't imagine $100 a year sinking a $40k deal. :dunno:
 
According to the chart, that dually would be above those plate ranges. It was rated at over 13,000 pounds.

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campfire said:
Depends on the state. We pay $75 for passenger plates, and trucks are by the pound (standard 6k class is $86 per year). When I moved from $35 Iowa, I didn't understand that one bit. But overall it's cheaper for me here because my older vehicles fit into special (cheap or free) categories.

What would commercial registration cost out there? I assume insurance is the deal-killer? I can't imagine $100 a year sinking a $40k deal. :dunno:
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It's almost $1,000 a year difference, which I can easily avoid by going with a truck with a lower weight rating and a single rear axle.
 
The reason I tagged Wade is that, if I understand correctly, his truck is not under commercial regs, insurance, or registration (no CDL required). That resolves all of the issues that you mentioned in your original post.
 
Richcz28 said:
It's almost $1,000 a year difference, which I can easily avoid by going with a truck with a lower weight rating and a single rear axle.
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Yep. If that's the way the math works out I don't blame you one bit. Especially since this thread started out talking about $2000 trucks. :haha:
 
Richcz28 said:
According to the chart, that dually would be above those plate ranges. It was rated at over 13,000 pounds.

View attachment 218187
Click to expand...

Check the actual chart, that paragraph simply states which plates belong to people instead of being assigned to vehicles. For low-weight & passenger plates, we swap them between vehicles without issue. For heavy vehicles the state issues new plates. Not sure why they do it that way. :dunno:

The tax chart goes up to 80k pounds.
 
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