The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Panels 'N Burbs Commercial license plates

Wondering how I would go about running commercial plates on my 52 suburban. I have seen pics online of people running them.

I am in California, DMV says I can only run car plates. I resisted my suburban as an auto, not sure if it would have been considered a truck....


[img]https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/download/Number/31720/filename/plates.jpg[/img]

The way it is done in the fleet for little vans, is there has to be no seats in the back. Only cargo area.

I would like to ask, why would you want to? Commercial costs more!

Just to be different is all.....

[img]https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/download/Number/31721/filename/comm.jpg[/img]

I am happy as can be that I didn't have to register my two ton as commercial. I think it was oversite on the part of the secretary of state office. I applied for a new title and it came through with the word 'Pickup' typed on it. When I registered it and bought plates it is no different then any of the pickups I've registered other than the cheap cost due to the low value of the truck.

My '98 C3500 is registered commercial. I asked why since it was for my private use. I got no answer.

If it's registered commercial, can you park legally in loading zones? Might be useful.

Back when I owned a '72 K10, Alaska licensed all trucks no matter how small with truck plates (two letters and 4 numbers), and charged an extra $5 over car plates (3 letters and 3 numbers). Sometime down the road, they quit doing that and everything that's privately owned gets the 3 letter and 3 number plate.

I'm pretty sure that in California, you would have to pay tonnage for a commercial vehicle license.
I would not register it as a commercial vehicle, and use the money that would be paid as tonnage for a specialized plate.

Because it has 8 lugs. I pay commercial fees on both of my C20's. One is 1965, the other is 1981. Neither is used to haul anything business related. Only personal use.

To the OP, Avoid commercial plates. It's okay to be different, but this state already takes enough of our money, no reason to willingly give it to them.

You may get to use it if you register the plate as YOM (Year Of Manufacture). From my experience they only look at the numbers & letters. The (COM) on your plate likely wouldn't be part of that. The regulations are kind of fuzzy around the edges and also depend on which clerk you speak to. As long as the year of the vehicle matches the year of the plate they should accept it. I have the yellow YOM plates on both my truck and car and they both reflect what would have been issued back then. However, I have seen truck sequenced numbers on cars and vice versa. Look at the newly issued black plates, you see the same number sequences issued to Priuses and F250's. They still charge the weight fees on trucks regardless.
Fred

I have the YOM commercial plate for my 36 gmc pickup, they cost about $150 here in good old california, where pay the most and get the least for our fees.

I have COM 1951 CA plates registered on my '53 flatbed, just sold the truck but have these plates (COMD85XXX) had to pay an agent who does DMV legwork for auto dealerships to get it

done, she knows the DMV staff goes in the back door. That said, 99.9 % of the staff has no idea what YOM plates are and standard answer is "you can't do that". Most large auto dealerships have a paid person that does this DMV paperwork/plates etc, that's who you need.

I'd try several DMV offices, best of luck.