Looking at the regs for the state of Tennessee for antique vehicle plates, there are the usual restrictions for no daily driver use, only weekends, car shows, to and from repair shops, etc. But it also has the requirement that the vehicle must have stock, unmodified, body and engine. However, I see a lot of cars running around with obvious modifications. I suspect this portion of the law is not too strictly enforced. So I'd like to hear from any of you Tennessee guys who have a car with a Tennessee antique plate and a modified car. Any problems? Ever been pulled over and questioned about that?
I have and I just found an appropriate plate on eBay. The regs say I can run the YOM plate on the car but I still must have the antique plate in the vehicle and available if I get stopped.
I run YOM plates on both of mine with an TN antique tag stuck under the seats, one stock one not so much. Never pulled over. Have a OT f100 with a regular tag because it is driven daily.
Just registered a 32 Tennessee YOM plate for my sedan. Asked if I needed the antique auto plate also, and lady said regs had changed: none needed. Carried in the YOM plate and walked out with registration. Easy, peasy .
Went down yesterday and got an antique plate for the car in my avatar. Told a little fib when asked if it was stock and unmodified. Also got one for my OT Comet and found an appropriate YOM plate for it on eBay and it's on the way. Thanks for everybody's input.
Never had a problem in the three years that I have used the YOM tag on my 39 TRK. I have put over 50k on in during this time. Lebanon/Wilson County
HotrodA, do yourself a favor and look up the law for yourself and verify that the DMV worker is correct. Hopefully she's right, but don't get burned. In Illinois it's extremely common for the Secretary of State employees to give wrong info. For example, they almost always tell people with D cl*** truck plates that they don't need a safety inspection when the vehicle code clearly states they do. It doesn't usually get enforced on a privately owned truck unless the driver is a snot (or the officer making the stop is an ISP trooper),but why give a reason to get a ticket. Just recommending you look up that law for yourself before you get jammed up. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
What you have to worry about in these times is someone in State legislature figuring out the Motor Vehicle folks are losing revenue by allowing antique plates on highly modified older vehicles. In our state antique plate cars are inspected every other year (lost sticker revenue) and plates are "forever". Here too I have not heard of any crackdown so far but when I registered my '40 I stayed away for antique or street rod plates (both available) due to restrictions. After all to misquote our state motto, "Drive Free or Die".
Here's the appllicable paragraphs from the Tennessee web site: Display of the antique motor vehicle plate. The antique plate can be mounted on the rear of the vehicle or the owner may display, on the rear of the vehicle, a license plate from an era when the manufacturer of such vehicle occurred, as long as the antique vehicle license plate is maintained in the vehicle and is readily accessible and produced upon request of any law enforcement officer. Vintage License Plates. Instead of registering a vehicle with the standard antique motor vehicle plate, a person may choose to register an antique motor vehicle with an official vintage Tennessee license plate of the era when the vehicle was manufactured, and may display that license plate as their official Tennessee vehicle registration on the rear of the vehicle. Provisions for vintage plates also apply to motorcycles. Please see the chart below to determine the proper plate for the antique vehicle:
Thanks, That's what the lady said. No AA plate needed. Might be a good idea to print this off and keep it in the car with the reg. for the inevitable gendarme inquiry.. Can you post the link to that tidbit?
Read this and had to laugh. When we built the first modified that we used as demo car, Keith registered it as an Antique Vehicle. We changed the source of our rear spring and I took the car out for a test drive. Must have been a bit more spirited than I realized. The local cop pulled me for speeding. I'm trying to plead innocent, when he said " let's not even discuss the antique vehicle plates". I shut up and took the speeding ticket!! Glad to see your still having fun with your modified. Cheers, Stewart.
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