Truck Conversion & Toterhome Community - View Single Post - Arizona Registration

Doug · 03-01-2003, 06:26 PM

Some thoughts about this issue:

It is likely to be easy to register a conversion such as a Showhauler as an RV. Once the licensing folks see one, it is obvious it's an RV. (Another good argument for one over a 5er. Of course, the clerk may have a hard time getting in when the dogs are in there.) :-)

HOWEVER: in reality, a vehicle used as a power unit to pull a 5th wheel is NOT an RV. If you were doing that with a pickup, would the pickup be an RV? Not in a million years.
What you really need to do is the same as with a pickup - which is some kind of NON-COMMERCIAL truck registration. Check around and see what kind of registration is used by someone hauling horses for their own use, or a MD truck for a 5th wheel power unit. Follow that lead. You should be more likely to have success, and less likely to have a bunch of regulatory hassle. I am guessing that the conversion to a tractor with a pickup-like bed being completed before you attempt the registration is more likely to facilitate success, too.
I'm a government lawyer, so I see the distinction between the 2 categories pretty easily. (And in some states, since the tractor used to pull an RV is clearly not an RV, you might get some really nasty enforcement flack from someone if they wanted to push an inquiry about registration fraud. That would be really unpleasant. Consider that someone transporting 5ers for pay, not for their own use, would in fact be driving a commercial vehicle, and if they used a converted tractor to do it, would be in a much different posture than you. The possibility that such a use could occur will lead regulators to be very cautious about how they respond to a registration attempt.)

03-01-2003, 06:26 PM	#5
Doug Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Cheney, WA, US Posts: 61	Some thoughts about this issue: It is likely to be easy to register a conversion such as a Showhauler as an RV. Once the licensing folks see one, it is obvious it's an RV. (Another good argument for one over a 5er. Of course, the clerk may have a hard time getting in when the dogs are in there.) :-) HOWEVER: in reality, a vehicle used as a power unit to pull a 5th wheel is NOT an RV. If you were doing that with a pickup, would the pickup be an RV? Not in a million years. What you really need to do is the same as with a pickup - which is some kind of NON-COMMERCIAL truck registration. Check around and see what kind of registration is used by someone hauling horses for their own use, or a MD truck for a 5th wheel power unit. Follow that lead. You should be more likely to have success, and less likely to have a bunch of regulatory hassle. I am guessing that the conversion to a tractor with a pickup-like bed being completed before you attempt the registration is more likely to facilitate success, too. I'm a government lawyer, so I see the distinction between the 2 categories pretty easily. (And in some states, since the tractor used to pull an RV is clearly not an RV, you might get some really nasty enforcement flack from someone if they wanted to push an inquiry about registration fraud. That would be really unpleasant. Consider that someone transporting 5ers for pay, not for their own use, would in fact be driving a commercial vehicle, and if they used a converted tractor to do it, would be in a much different posture than you. The possibility that such a use could occur will lead regulators to be very cautious about how they respond to a registration attempt.)