The whole scenario of privately owned heavy vehicles is very fuzzy. The taxes are tricky and vary by state, in general, you don't pay them if its registered as an RV. If the truck is custom made getting it registered as an RV can be tricky. The DMV where questioning whether my mog was an RV because the bed was folded up - you are at the whim of the idiot doing the inspection. The laws are crazy and contradict each other all over the place.
My mog with a pickup bed is registered as a commercial vehicle, I pay a weight fee with the registration every year - there are about 10 categories for weight which pay whichever you fall in. In CA there is also a gross vehicle weight sticker and this is seperate to registeration and you pay for it seperately. You can register for any gross vehicle weight you like that is under the limit stated GVWR, this makes registration cheaper but don't get caught over the registered weight. A lot of U500 mogs as well as the big older older mogs are registered this way, they may have a GVWR of 30,000 to 40,000 pounds but people will register them as 26,000 to avoid commercial head aches and its cheaper. In general nothing applies to RVs and they can weigh up to 80,000 pounds but you cannot drive them on a standard license, at least in california. California has a couple of special commercial licenses for big RVs and if you drive a vehcile over 26000 pounds you'll need a "none commercial" commercial license (yeah its a stupid name).
My mog camper although significantly heavier than the mog pickup does not have to pay the weight fee, its registered as an automobile (its just a very big one), I have a commercial license but the wife drives it on a normal license and I only pay about $80 a year. As for insurance you need liability and thats it, you don't need the same insurance as a commercial big rigs, having high limits may be benifical due to the amount of damage you can do - you can take out a bridge in a big rig. I was suprised how cheap RV insurance is especailly if you don't drive it fulltime, my mog insurance is $125 a year and that includes $1,000,000 liability. Its calculated differently to car insurance, thats based on an estimated 30 days on the road a year, off road does not count and its not fully covered when offroad. I have a waiver for unlimited mileage due to it being an offroad vehicle. Typically they assume you can only drive so many miles in so many days on the road, as mine can go offroad they don't enforce any milage limits. As with most things the insurance company may enforce stricter rules than the law itself.
In some states if you don't have a commercial license you'll need an air brake endorsement (only if you have air brakes) but this is also fuzzy. In some states its for commerical use vehicles, in some states its only for full air brakes while in other states air over hydraulic need the endorsement. In CA there is no airbrake endorsement outside of a commercial license. My advise would be to get a commercial license if you are going to drive a big truck, like I said in CA over 26,000 you need one. Even if you don't need one, if you are going to travel it makes things a lot easier, while you may not be breaking the law, try telling that to an officer in another state nevermind another country. While in another state, the ultimate fallback is the reciprocation laws. As a private vehicle, if you are legal in your registered state other states obey it as long as you are not resident in that state.
Rob
