kstrain@earthlink.net wrote:
> I have a M35A2c registered in California with " Historical " license plates.
> The DMV inspected the truck and said nothing about back up lights, they tried
> to get me to bring in a weight cirt. but I stated that it was exempt as a
> historical vehicle.
The DMV inspection is just to verify the VIN. In my case I had that
done at my site by a registered VIN inspector, simply because I wasn't
licensed to drive it at the time, so it was more convenient for me
that way, but I think the inspection is the same any way you cut it. I
believe that they didn't mention backup lights because they weren't
looking, and without doing an operational check, they probably would
have assumed that the clear portions of the composite lights were
backup lights, being ignorant of military blackout lighting systems.
Studying the CA Vehicle Code told me that backup lights are required
on my 1972 deuce. There may be a cutoff date before which they are not
required (I forget, but 1968 is stuck in my mind for some reason), but
I'm pretty sure that they are required on my 1972 truck. I could find
no exemption based on its historical plates. Realistically, I doubt
that you're likely to get caught (when's the last time you backed up
near a cop?), but I still think it's a very good idea to add backup
lights (and possibly a backup beeper on something as big as a deuce)
for safety, regardless of the law. Making a reliable
water/grease/mudproof backup switch that can be activated by that
shaft that pokes out of the tranny in reverse might be a bit of a
chore, but it should be possible to splice into the lighting system
without cutting any wires such that the backup lights only work when
the 3-way switch is in "Stop Light" or "Service Drive", by tapping
power from a circuit that's only energized in those modes with an
appropriate "Y" adapter. If your truck is a show truck, then the
lights should be easy to remove for display. I didn't bother making my
backup lights and lighted license plate easy to remove on my HMMWV,
which I don't expect to win any competitions.
Maybe it depends on who you talk to at DMV, but I was told that
although my truck with Historic Vehicle plates will be exempt from
weight fees and the requirement to stop at truck scales, a weight
certificate was still necessary for initial registration. Maybe it
makes a difference that I got my truck straight from DRMO with a Form
97, and thus was obtaining an original title for it, as opposed to
registering a truck that already had an established civilian title.
Anyway, I've found the part(s) of the CA Vehicle Code that stated that
vehicles registered as Historical Vehicles were exempt from fees and
stopping at scales, but I saw nothing that referred to an exemption
for the weight certificate requirement.
Whichever way is correct, I'm sure it's been done each way many times,
just because most clerks probably have processed few, if any,
historical vehicle plate requests!
> In california you are to only drive it to and from prades or events.
That's what the DMV will tell you, but the CHP says that you must
*primarily* drive it to and from parades and events. There's a big
difference between "only" and "primarily". In my case, I think I can
live within the letter and spirit of that law for the time being. I
figure that if I ever find myself wanting to use my truck in a manner
inconsistent with that law, and I still live in CA (or some other
state with similar laws), I'll just need to bite the bullet and change
its classification to commercial, and pay the exorbitant weight fees.
Sigh.
> I pass CHP officers ALL the time and have never been stopped or
> questioned about the truck.
When I talked to a Commercial Enforcement guy at CHP prior to
registering my truck, I was told that folks generally only get nailed
for violating the Historical Vehicle restrictions when they violate
them blatantly *and* get turned in. I'm certainly not advocating
violation of those restrictions, but that's what CHP told me.
Anyway, I registered my truck through the Santa Ana office. I made an
appointment each time I went there; that wore out my redial button
quickly, but the time I spent listening to busy signals paid off with
quick, painless visits to the DMV, generally waiting no more than 5
minutes or so to talk to somebody. The clerk who helped me when I
started the paperwork wasn't familiar with the historical plates, but
she dug out the books, and we figured out how to make it work. It
helped that I smiled a lot and acted dumb, friendly and helpful, even
though many would say that I'm none of those things. :-) It would have
been more convenient and a bit cheaper if I didn't have to get the
weight certificate, but that still beats the heck out of the safety
inspections that I've heard of folks in some other states going
through. Anyway, I turned my weight certificate requirement into a fun
70-mile road trip (I didn't pick the closest certified scales, I
picked scales at the other end of an interesting drive!), and it was
nice to find out that my truck weighs 15,340 pounds empty. I expected
it to weight about 14,900, so those caked-on layers of CARC must be
thicker than I thought, even considering that it had about 35-40
gallons of fuel in the tanks! :-)
-- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK <mblair1@home.net> PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://pgp.ai.mit.edu/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/ DO NOT SEND ANY UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL TO THIS SITE
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