When does truck become a RV

[stxSteve]

What USUALLY determines how a truck with a camper is registered? Is it the amount of TIME the camper spends on the truck that makes it into a RV? Or is it how the camper is attached? Some other factor?

Is this usually the owner's choice, or a case where DMV looks at the "rig" and TELLS you how it must be registered? Advantages/Disadvantages of "truck" vs "RV" registration.

Thanks for helping a newbie.

Steve

 

[Pest]

I think the camper has to be permanently attached to be an RV. As in, bolted on, not ratchet strapped or turn buckled (even if you can unbolt it fairly quickly).

Advantages: perhaps only one insurance policy?

Disadvantages: more registration tax (since it would have a higher value for the one piece, might not have to register a separate camper).

 

[FishPOET]

For registration purposes in CA my truck is registered as a truck and the DMV could care less about any cargo I carry in the bed of the truck.

 

[jefe4x4]

Doug is taking the pickup truck license position in CA. Me too. I checked into it and in CA and you can register your pickup/camper unit as an RV, regardless of how it's attached, and it is a lot cheaper registration, and I know folks who do just that....but don't let them catch you without the box in the bed. The fine is huge. I use my truck too much as a truck to flirt with a disaster like that.
I think the laws vary in different states on this subject. The TC in CA is simply cargo. No registration required. Owners of pickups in CA pay an inordinately high registration fee vi-sa-vi a passenger car. They think we all need commercial plates and make money with the truck. Who are they kidding? I guess the only consolation is you can park in the yellow zone along the curb. I never have.
regards, as always, jefe

 

[McZippie]

In Wisconsin when our Rig was new, linked below, the DMV asked how I wanted to register it; as an Motor Home, Bus or Truck.
Ours has a bus builder certificate. I chose Motor Home.

 

[haven]

Each state has its own rules and procedures for reclassifying a truck as an RV. the reasons this atters are threefold. First, registration costs for a commercial vehicle are higher than for an RV. Second, ditto the cost of insurance. Third, the IRS allows interest deductions for a loan to buy a "second home," and an RV qualifies if you are not also deducting for a vacation house.

Generally speaking, to qualify as an RV a vehicle has to have permanent sleeping quarters and food preparation facilities. Some states add toilet facilities to the requirements. The key is permanent -- throwing a Coleman stove and a sleeping bag in the back of a box truck does not make it an RV.

California has this notion of a "house car." A "house car" is a motor vehicle originally designed, or permanently altered, and equipped for human habitation, or to which a camper has been permanently attached. Slide in campers have to be bolted in to qualify as permanently attached. The DMV employee is the arbiter of the rule, and sometimes it's difficult to convince him or her that your vehicle really is an RV.

 

[stxSteve]

Thanks everyone.

 

[wirenut]

I'm sure it varies by state a lot. In VA a truck camper isn't a vehicle so the DMV couldn't care less what you do with it.
Most owners of personal pick-up trucks just have normal passenger car license plates. Technically those plates are only good up to 7,500 GVWR but I don't think anybody knows or cares about that for personal use.

 

[ExpoMike]

I looked into doing this here in CA. It would save a bunch off the registration and a little cheaper on insurance but the biggest downside was I could never drive the truck without the camper installed. As it is, the camper basically lives full time on the truck BUT there is the occasion I might need to do maintenance on one or the other and could have them apart. This could result in a huge fine if I got caught. It wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[77blazerchalet]

Chalets are more often than not designated as RVs, but to avoid any hassle of registering mine at the DMV, I brought along an original brochure so the clerk was assured I wasn't trying to pull some kind of scam clerk.

 

[mog]

As other have said, it varies by state.
Oregon's definition is: "A vehicle that has been designed, reconstructed, or permanently altered to provide facilities for human habitation, i.e., permanent sleeping and cooking facilities. This includes permanently mounted campers on pickup trucks or other truck frames." http://www.oregon.gov/odot/dmv/pages/vehicle/motorhome.aspx

 

[Ozarker]

The definition of your RV can be important. Here, the open container law does not apply to RVs, motorhomes and limos. While it's up to the officer, it really doesn't matter where, either in or on, the vehicle the booze might be. People have been nailed here for an open container in the trunkof a car being transported. Lucky for me I would only have cans! :coffeedrink:

 

[MicroBird]

What USUALLY determines how a truck with a camper is registered? Is it the amount of TIME the camper spends on the truck that makes it into a RV? Or is it how the camper is attached? Some other factor?

Is this usually the owner's choice, or a case where DMV looks at the "rig" and TELLS you how it must be registered? Advantages/Disadvantages of "truck" vs "RV" registration.

Thanks for helping a newbie.

Steve

This is for California.

The DMV determines how your vehicle is registered. You can ask or nudge but its their call.

For you to register your truck as a RV or camper to avoid paying weight fees, the camper needs to be permanently attached and that means 100% of the time. I don't know the definition of permanent. Don't think that you can skate by with a pickup without commercial plates. The CHP look for that and it'll be a ticket. Some of the CHP guys can recite the vehicle code while sleeping on their head under water in the freezing cold...with their hands tied behind their back.

 

[FishPOET]

The whole point of owning a truck and camper is versatility. If you plan on permanently attaching the camper to the truck full time and turning it into an RV why not just buy a RV to begin with?

 

[cwsqbm]

The whole point of owning a truck and camper is versatility. If you plan on permanently attaching the camper to the truck full time and turning it into an RV why not just buy a RV to begin with?

Because a 4x4 truck with a camper in back will go places no standard RV would, and most of us can't afford an Earthroamer or a new Tiger.