I wanna get a camper shell to lower my registration fees, since right now my truck is considered a "commerical vehicle." I live in CA, I'm not sure if other states are the same. But I was wondering if anyone has a camper shell and whether it's ok to occassionally it off. How much does registration cost with a shell here in CA?

 

I believe you have to have a "permanently attached" camper i.e. self-contained chassis mount to qualify for a non-commercial license in Ca. Rates are high now but much higher before "Ahnold" came along.

 

Well the law states that the shell must remain on the vehicle at all times if it is registered as a passenger vehicle. If you do change your registration and are driving around with passenger vehicle plates without your shell on and a police officer wants to cite you it is not going to be pretty. Highway Patrol is the worst. I do not believe the cost difference is worth the problems you could face. The license plates for "Commercial" trucks only have one letter in them versus the passenger vehicle plate has 3 letters.

If you are going to put a shell on I would still leave it as a commercial plate.

 

I gotta ask? how much would it cost to go rent one of these campers? Probably more than it costs to just go to the dmv without it?

 

He's just talking about one of those fiberglass shells . Sounds like he plans on leaving it on most of the time but taking it off once in a while to get something higher than the shell in the bed .

 

Yeah exactly. I just wanna get a cheapo fiberglass shell, drive my rig down to the DMV, and cut my registration fee in half. My license plate number does only have 1 letter in it. I didn't know that only applied to commercial vehicles. Cool new info to know...

But I don't think you need to have a permanent camper affixed to your truck for it to qualify for a recreational vehicle. I'll have to check up on that.

 

i wonder if the "convertable" type would work.they look like a fibreglass faring and you pull them out and are enclosed in canvas.

 

Ok you can, with a camper shell register you truck, as long as you own it free and clear, as a "house car" basically an RV. Now you will get new license plates with a different number letter configuration. This will be fine as long as you dont take the camper shell off. Having been a Police Officer, I can tell you that driving around in a pick up without a camper shell, with passenger car plates will put up a big red flag to any cop. Reason being this is a very common mistake with car theifs, which is to swap plates with a car that is not stollen, but sometimes they put on plates from a vehicle with the wrong configuration. So just keep that in the back of your mind. Anyway, the price difference in registration is huge, but so are the fines if you get caught. So you just need to weigh it out for yourself. Good Luck!!

 

If you get caught with even just a 2x4 in the bed, you will get a ticket with non comercial tags.

 

If I am not mistaken.. you can register your Pick up as non comercial but you may NEVER put anything in the back of your pickup without the shell on it.. Even a bad of groceries in the back is a violation.. ALso as noted above it will draw attention to you because the plates don't match the vehicle.. CHP and local police love to find stolen vehicles.. so if you don't mind having to sit on the curb while they figure everything out on occasion...

 

Dang this sux. Have you guys learned the hard way? So I guess I can't even haul my dirtbike huh? How big is the price difference in registration?

 

Hey I got an idea. How about a personalized license plate?

 

wow what kind of communist country do you guys live in that a pickup truck is considered a commercial vehicle

 

The People's Republic Of Kalifornia.
Edit, if you take the stock bed off, and put on a different style of bed (flat bed, fifth wheel puller, utility bed), you are supposed to pull through the scales, perform quarterly BIT inspections, blah, blah blah, just like true commercial vehicles.

 

Thats sucks!!! I think my neice said they have something similar in New York, and I would be ok if I came up with the shell on the truck, this was 5 or 6 years ago. Just a way to get more $$$ from you. JMHO