EdPruss
There are a couple of things to talk about here. I ve never had a personal truck that had over 26,000 of GVWR. I have had many that had over 26,000 GVCR.
My vin plate was so weathered that though you could easily see what was stamped on it, unless you knew what the numbers stood for, or had a book or something to tell you, most folk would have no idea what they where anyhow. The VIN was obvious, as it was right on the title. When I had put the truck together I had figured that I would have had to have gotten a conversion plate to derate the GCWR, but it never was an issue. And in all practicality, I had physically derated the truck, as I had pulled a bunch of the springs out of the pack. It was the same for a friend of mine. He had a dump truck that he had made kind of a slide in hunting lodge ( I reckon that s what I would call it). Anyhow, he had went to the trouble to get it classified as an RV to get around the commercial aspects of the truck. It ended up not being necessary. Or at least it wasn t the last that I spoke with him. I spoke with Robbie Thornton at our local PD about it one time. His response was that if I was using the truck for personal use only, and it wasn t obvious that I was operating in a commercial fashion, no one would care. Then I went to Calvin Westcott, my state farm agent at the time to inquire about repercussions in the case of an accident. It was the same fiddle and guitar dance. They all cared about the gross weight of the trailer more than the truck. In other words from what Calvin told me, if I had got into a wreck and weighed over 26,000, i d be in heap big trouble. Under 26,000 (which I always was) and I would be golden. I actually accidentally tested this theory one day. I piled into the back of a feller at a stop light. I was accelerating when the light changed and following too close apparently, and he decided at the last minute to stop and take a left turn. Anyhow, it was a relatively low speed collision. I scratched some paint on mine, and his needed a bumper and tailgate. The question came up in court when he sued me about cdl status. The conclusion came to be that the truck was not operating in a commercial manner, couldn t operation in a commercial manner weight wise even if I wanted to, and the chassis was not a commercial chassis. So though it was my fault, (which I had admitted when the officer showed up at the accident) I was not outside the law in driving it.
Now, I m not a lawyer, and have no idear how things work outside of Texas. At the time of the build I spent hours talking to government type folk, and days researching. It very well may be different in other states. I had looked into farm tags, as that would have been easy to do, but oddly enough, down here they do check into what you re doing with farm tag vehicles quite often, and take it very serious. Robbie had told me that at one time all of the local kids where registering farm tags to save a few bucks, so they cracked down.
Please understand that I wasn t attempting to get folk to cheat txdot. In my particular case, the vehicle parameters fell below what the requirements where to require commercial insurance and licensing. The best I can explain would be this... My 1 ton dodge is capable of higher than 26,000 GCVR, but I dont use it in that manner, so I don t register it that way. My antiques I treat in the same manner.
