Hot Rods Calif weight cert requirements

California builders: has anyone figured away around the mandatory weight cert required for registration / title of trucks? Got one out of Montana and the title does not list a weight...........
Just a pain as I do not have a trailer and the truck is not driveable. Just want it in my name.....

any help or hook ups appreciated

 

Is your truck 1936 or older ?
In California, trucks 1936 & older are not required to have commercial license plates.
Therefor no weight certificate is required.
Most DMV workers will argue this, but it's in their books, make them find it.

 

it's a '49

 

Have to do it it for commercial plates, DMV assumes you haul things in it. If you treat it like a car, tell them you don’t want commercial plates, but be aware, if anything can be seen driving down the road, freeway in your bed…it’s ticket time.

That’s what I know from 40 years ago, may or may not be the same now.

 

Sounds like roll back time

 

Take it to a commercial scale & get a certified weight receipt then go back to the DMV. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR : HIRE ONE OF THE TITLE COMPANIES!!! It's way cheaper than all the running around the DMV will put you through!!!

 

I once bought a pickup that had pass. car plates. I put a tool box in the bed but welded it in. First C.H.P. that pulled me over was all set to write the ticket but when I told him the box was welded in, he said O.K. it's part of the truck. No tickie.

 

S.W.A.G. To somthing you like. Let them prove otherwise.
I'd pick the min. but the tire size and suspension should guide you.
That said, I don't Know California, but have done such with PA.
It is your dollar.

 

I didn't know Coronet was a name for Dodge trucks.
Well, then again, there's a lot I don't know.

 

I've never found a way around. I bought a 69 K10 out of Reno, drove it to a commercial scale, and to the DMV for a VIN verification and title, no problem. I had to weigh both my 59 El Camino's, just had to take to scales. This was a pain as one didn't drive, but the rest of the process was the same

 

I have some free time. I had a ‘68/9 (don’t recall) J3000. I had car plates on it. Did that circa 1980 or so. Decided to move back to California, drove down, hopped in the Jeep, headed back to Phx to get my stuff. (Ah to have that energy again). On 99 around Fresno, I get lit up by a CHP. He could see I was hauling things in the bed. He joked, I had this cover for the bed, like a rack thing that slid back to cover loads, but the canvas had gone to hell.
Anyways, he’d said “if it was covered with that, no problem. Be like a station wagon”. But since he could see stuff from his car, ticket time.
He told me don’t haul anything or cover the load and you’re fine.
But like I mentioned, Im not sure if that option to register a PU non-commercial is available any more.

 

You could find old specs, but years ago, they required a slip from a scale.
As said, you can call a title company and ask them to confirm.

 

No commercial plates here. Of course there was no room to haul anything anyway.

 

OH OK I was in PA when

 

Hey PeteE, WELCOME BACK! I believe I read here that you’d walked away from this forum. If that is incorrect thanks for sharing your knowledge...

 

I had issues with my 59 f100 back in the early 2000'S the VIN TAG was missing from the glovebox lid I went to the CHP in Baldwin Park the officer put a new tag with the VIN HERE IS GOES HE TOLD ME THAT I WILL HAVE TO GET A WEITGH CERTIFICATE . OR TO AVOID COMERCIAL FEES AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS TO REGISTER AS A HISTORICAL VEHICLE I WAS DRIVING IN THE 10 FWY I GOT STOPPED BY THE CHP CAUSE I HAD A WASHER AND DRYER AND THE BACK HE EXPLAINED TO ME THAT WHEN YOU DRIVING ANY VEHICLE WITH HISTORICAL plates you can only drive it with restrictions if is a comercial vehicle you are not allow to haul big loads I don't know if the law still active now days

 

Just had to do my 2 55 F100s yesterday.
No way around it.
The scales let me weigh on the trailer then bring empty trailer back to get my TARE weight.
Niether truck ran.
Its a pain in the butt.
DMV told me I could register it as non commercial but never get caught hauling anything in the bed. Big ticket she said.

 

That has to be one of the stupidest things I ever heard of. I could see requiring commercial registration if you were using it for a profit hauling things, but an individual hauling his own items occasionally is different than using one to haul daily. WTF good is a pickup if you can’t throw some lumber or a lawnmower or even just a toolbox in the bed? Might as well drive a freaking Prius sedan…
Just a money grab.

 

When I got my '34 PU it had passenger plates on it. DMV said I needed commercial plates. I hired a local person to do the registration, and she told them exactly what Pete said. She was right and I kept the passenger plates.
But, since your truck is newer, you're going to have to weigh it. I'd say rent a trailer, weigh the trailer, then load up the truck and weigh everything to get the weight of the truck.

 

@BamaMav To me, it's one of those things where it sort of made sense way back, then it grew and morphed into something different.
Of course any agency that has a money siphon isn't going to turn it off.
But it started with trucks being able to haul stuff and being heavier, the fees paid covered typical use back then. Also, you can park in Yellow zones, which was useful in urban areas.
Then everyone in the past few decades wants a truck for the occasional utility.
It would make sense that anything over say 25-30 years is more an occasional use, not a commercial use. But how are you going to make legislators revamp a law that affects only a few people AND slow the money flow? So yes, it's a grab but also it's very low priority to change to reflect current use.

With the modern emissions requirements, it's also more common to have older trucks in business fleets. So that would be an argument for keeping the old law. You could change it to 3/4 ton and up, taking away the weight hassle from older trucks and modern light use, but then you'd have a smaller group saying, no we want anything from XX years old to be exempt. So it's really inertia and not pleasing all the (small group of) people, in addition to the money flow.

 

For a long time, trucks here had to have a different plate according to its gvwr, but they were never deemed commercial. For example, a 1/2 ton pickup had a P1 suffix, a 3/4 ton was a P2, etc. They did away with that in the late 70’s, now they all use the same tag. Commercial plates are available for business use only, mostly used on 1 ton and larger trucks.
Nobody cares if you have a old pair of boots or a bed full of bricks or nothing at all in the box.

 

Years back, Ca caught on to owner operators. My dad had bottom dumps and a transfer. Was around 2500 at the time to license the truck and trailers, but they were figured separately. Around 800 each on the bottom dumps, 1250 or so on the transfer, don’t recall exactly.
Then Ca realized many Owner Operators would use their truck, pull someone else’s trailers.
Well, they were losing money that could be had-even though total $$ was still the same, and the trailers dropped to a fraction of the cost, like 100 bucks a year, but, money grab time, the cost of the tractor went up to 2200/2300 or so.
Gotta love this state sometimes!

 

You can drive your stuff all you want with no monies paid on your own land.
Once it hits shared public roads, someone has to build and maintain the roads, enforce traffic laws, respond to collisions, track stolen property and mediate in disputes. Lots of overhead involved for the freedom to use this resource. In trying to collect enough money to cover all of that, there are gas taxes, property (car) taxes, registration, license fees, and probably other various fees at different places. Each is designed and adjusted to try to fairly spread out the costs. Bigger and heavier, more expensive, more miles per year, more often stolen or crashed (insurance here), all try to assign a portion of the burden in different ways.

 

Cali is pretty much like Washington you have "truck" plates and you pay for the gross tonnage that either it is capable of hauling that you say you are going to haul within the allowed gross weight the manufacture said it could haul. Years ago the gal at the license office looked out the window at my truck and said "you don't haul anything in that anyhow" and set the tonnage for it to haul 1/4 ton for a gross weight of about 3800 rather than the 4600 on the door post tag and that saves a few bucks a year. On my 1 ton flatbed 77 with a hoist and 10 ft bed I had to up the tonnage to the max the manufacture said it would haul just to be able to haul much of anything. Throwing a torn down V8 small block on the back to haul for scrap would have put it over what it was licensed for.
The certified weight slip is just a bit of a hassle most of the time but a bigger hassle if your rig doesn't run. I helped a buddy haul his truck to the scales, helped unload it and push it on the scales and then push it off the scales where we loaded it back on the trailer a few years ago. That was at a truck stop and luckily the scale wasn't getting much business and it only took a few minutes. The truck stops scales cost a few bucks more than some but you get a weight slip that won't be argued with.

 

Got a ticket for no commercial plate on my ‘49 Dodge 1 ton, in California because I had a gas can in the back. I was told if I drove it in California it had to have a commercial plate although I was a Nevada resident with Nevada plates who also owned property in California which I drove it to. Got the Cal plates.

 

Most US states have this law.

 

Trailer or or have it towed to a commercial scale.

They don't give a crap of it runs, or if it is complete. Pay the fee. Roll it on, roll it off. Done.

They are connected to the DMV so the weight is automatic transmitted and stored with the serial number.

I trailer the legendary Rich Fox's Austin Bantam pickup to the scales for him. It took 10-minutes. It had no engine or transmission in it.

 

So you're saying that you are a resident of Nevada, have a Nevada drivers license and had to get a California plate to drive in California with a gas can in the bed of your truck which was legally licensed in Nevada. Did they tell you that your truck had to meet California emissions also ?

 

No.

States have reciprocal agreements to honor each other's motor vehicle laws.

Emissions testing in California is in vehicles sold in 1976, and newer for gasoline, and 1998 and newer for diesel.

 

That is exactly where they have gone with big rigs. It has to meet emissions regs for a certain year which can be much later than the vehicle age, and have went as far as to ban the use of older engines. That’s one reason a lot of companies, big and small, will no longer go in CA. I only expect it to get worse with their zero emissions laws coming into effect. Several other states that mirror CA law have already seen the damage this causes and are pulling back from it. I look for them to do something similar with gas engines in the future.