Questions about Hauling into Ca with an old Pete

I heard that one on a show about truckers. Guy had one of those huge sleepers and was thinking of removing the fifth wheel so he could register it as an RV when he retired. But I never thought I’d say this, but yeah I miss the super trucker stories in the drivers lounges and the counters.

 

The wealthy drivers with all the fake gold bling telling about how they only drive to keep from being bored because they're rich. Then you notice the green stains on the skin from the fake gold.

 

I have the two trucks in my avatar registered antique. Historic in some states. One is a ‘51 and the other is a ‘67. I drive the ‘67 Pete to work darn near everyday with a 1950 Fruehauf 24ft flatbed behind it. Just because. They are each Insured for $25,000 replacement value. Move my own stuff loaded on it to shows and swap meets. If you own what you are hauling it is not commercial use. I have it’s weight registered for 26,000 so it is under the cdl requirement. It is not considered commercial and still has its original fifth wheel. Didn’t have to do it rv or change the title. I can go down to the tax accessor ( dmv in other parts) and up it back to 80,000 tomorrow if need be.
ATHS is an orginazation that has helped make this all possible. There are a few members up in AK. Ever been to an antique truck show or Iowa 80? 95% of those trucks are registered the same way. I keep the txdps regs in the truck if I get stopped by a bear that doesn’t know.

As a cool bonus in Texas you can register a 25 year old or older vehicle with vintage plates from the year of vehicle. The ‘51 has it’s original Farm truck plate back on it after it hung on a wall for 60 years.
The ‘67 is plated with a ‘67 Truck Tractor plate that was new never issued.
An older friend has collected state plates since he was a kid and Texas would dumpster the extra non issued plates at the end of each year. He warehoused them and has made a living selling them to car enthusiasts and bbq joints for wall art around the state. He was also instrumental in getting this privilege in our state passed and pushed country wide.

Any native Texas car buffs on this site will know the “mystique” about the 1968 Texas Hemisphere black plates. They even made them for trucks that year. He made a fortune on those left over ones. Lol!

 

Also forgot to add that in this state as far as they are concerned the vehicle only has to pass the safety and engine emission standards that were in place at the time of its manufacture. Both these trucks did not have seat belts when new. I have installed lap belts for my own piece of mind but it is still not legally required. The ‘51 is a single axle rear and did not come with steer brakes and It’s still legal.

 

Fmvss 121. Parking and spring /emergency brakes required on
power units on/after March 1,1975
Trailers on/after January 1,1975.
Before those dates nothing required spring brakes by law.

Steer axle brakes all power units on/after July 25,1980
Before that date all power units with 3 or more axles did not require steer brakes by law.

Circa 1956-58 was when they required steer brakes on 2 axles. And I think sometime around then they discouraged the use of all copper lines and required stratoflex. Written Regs on braking systems dont go back that far anymore.

 

You mean I bought that 5 pack of white sheets at Costco for nothing??

 

They always had to be quarter bouncing tight too. Seemed to me like all the drivers that said this were always WW2 or Korean vets. Maybe it was a thing way back then with them but went away with those generations of drivers. Military bunk tradition maybe. There weren’t very many sleepers until the late 60’s when the Vietnam guys were coming in at the beginning of the heyday.

 

Howdy All,

There is so much conflicting information being posted in this thread its hard to know where to start, but the NUMBER ONE thing to do is CHECK WITH YOUR HOME STATE"S DMV to see what you have to do in order to change the satus of your truck to a different status regardless of what that status is, IF they will allow it to be done.

MJuneAK, you have just added information to this thread that if it was in your first post "I" missed it. "I" mentioned converting your truck to an RV and in doing so "I" assumed your truck had a sleeper. To the best of my knowledge no State will allow a class 7-8 truck to be legally "converted" into an RV unless it came from the factory with or "YOU" build and attach to the truck some sort of State approved PERMANENT sleeping facility's converting it to an RV can't be done.

Again to the best of my knowledge and I am quite knowledgeable on the subject of converting a commercial truck into a legal RV, I know of no one who has been successful in any State in legally converting a "Day Cab" into an RV, as permanent sleeping quarters is one of the requirements.

I will use myself, my State DMV requirements and my truck as an example of what it takes in the State of Washington, to legally "CONVERT" a class 7-8 commercial truck into a legally registered and titled RV. "Washington" has 6 requirements for the conversion, however ONLY 4 of those 6 have to be completed in order to fulfill what is needed to have the registration and title changed from commercial vehicle to in the case of "Washington", "Motor Home" in some States it my be referred to as a "House Car".

In my case these are the 4 requirements that my truck either came with from the factory or that I did in order to meet 4 of the 6 requirements. ( 1 ) Permanent sleeping facility. My truck came from the factory with a sleeper. ( 2 ) Ability to prepare food. I installed a micro wave, my truck came from the factory with a refrigerator, but this was not part of the requirement. ( 3 ) Ability to plug into and use shore power. I installed a pure sine wave Inverter-Charger. ( 4 ) Ability to preform and use toilet facility's. This was the easiest one to fulfill and the cheapest. I went to Walmart, and bought a nice little easy to stow under the bunk Partapotty. The State requirement does NOT state it has to be a permanently mounted toilet hooked up to a black tank, it simply says, "Ability to perform and use toilet facilitys". PERIOD. The Partapotty is in its original, unopened factory box sitting under the bunk and that is where it will stay, it is in the Motor Home, and can be used at any time if desired. The total cash investment to legally "CONVERT" my class 8 truck, into a Motor Home, was around 50 bucks for the Partapotty, around 200 dollars for the micro wave and around 900 smackaroos for the Hi-Tech Inverter-Charger. So for less then a grand and few hours in labor my truck became a Motor Home.

I removed the commercial 5th wheel hitch and replaced it with fully articulated air cushioned RV hitch, such a hitch costs anywhere from 3,500-5000 dollars but will protect your "RV" trailer from being damaged as the suspension in a class 8 truck is way to stiff and the commercial hitch does NOT articulate from side to side. Some folks do still use the commercial hitch but doing so especially if you often times drive over rough roads as "I" do to reach great boondocking campsites is asking for the front part of your "RV" trailer frame to eventual CRACK and fail, I have personally seen this happen.

Go to this web site, to find answers to just about ANY question you may have if your interested in CONVERTING a commercial truck to "RV" use.

Home | Heavy Haulers RV Resource Guide

Go to this web site for information on truck conversions, general discussion on anything HDT related, and HDT rallies, Regional and National. Its a great site just to learn about what others have and or are thinking about doing.

HDT

YES, I am a long winded BA$TARD, just trying to help folks who are interested understand the subject of converting a HDT into an "RV"

Dave

 

I like it!

Ramps get the car onto the catwalk?

Where do you buy ramps like that?