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The spirit of the license plate law in California is to prevent Billy Bob
from taping his license plate in the back window of his pick-up. Securely
attached is usually interpreted as not swinging from a coat hanger from the
trailer hitch ball. The visibility issue is for people who drive around
without removing snow or other debris from their cars or the folks who like
to put plastic or other items over the plate.
Your commercially registered MV should have the plate with tabs on the rear.
I don't know why, but in California any truck which cannot legally carry
passengers in the back is registered as a commercial vehicle. Whether it's
used as such or not. More $$$ I suppose. Currently that requirement is under
review and might be changed. The state is looking into why it's so expensive
to register cars here and making some changes to lower rates.
I have a show car that I take to car shows regularly. I have a set of new
plates I use for driving around and a set of period plates I put on once I
get to the show. I takes five minutes to swap both plates.
As far as illumination goes, it is required. The vehicle code has a catch
all section called "Required Lighting Devices". A suggestion here might be
to buy an illuminated license plate frame. That way when the plate is
removed at a show, etc. the frame/light comes off too. The wire just needs
to be stashed.
Hope this helps. There is never an easy answer when dealing with state
vehicle codes. You are forced to improvise, adapt and overcome.
Gary Pavone
gpavone@thegrid.net
MCA# 43889
MVPA# 19394
Tailhook# 32593
ICQ# 5369101
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 21 2000 - 18:15:05 PST