new member here from florida got some ???

[Dodge man]

AFIK the only time that you have to send anything to Tallahassee is when you want "Authernticated License Plates". Those are old original license plates that MUST have the year stamped on them and the must be the same as the year that your vehicle was made. The plate must be in good condition and with absolutely no tears, cuts, touch up paint, varish or any other changes to it. They say that they want them sent to Tallahassee so that they can be "authenticated" but I expect that it's mainly so that they can inspect them. The plate must be a Florida plate but it can be from any county and from any class vehicle even if it doesn't match your location or type of vehicle. I suppose some may want a plate that says "52" on it so that it matches their 1952 vehicle but that's just a waste of time and money to me.

I haven't checked on insurance yet but I think there may be different costs depending on what class tag that you get but from what I've heard Antique, Horsless Carriage and Authenticated class are all much cheaper than the usual owner/commuter class and certainly much cheaper than commercial vehicle class.

 

[RAYZER]

yes dodge man, i agree on the plates,when you go to buy insurance i think you will find that the type of tag and the type of insurance you get will have nothing to do with each other,they dont ask, if you buy commercial pip and lib,then your covered if you want to put the deuce to work hauling a load of fire wood or debris to the dump, if one buys buys antique / collector ins. there are a bunch of restrictions imposed ie. no hauling, no off roading, no trailer, must be fully restored, must be kept in a enclosed garage and so on, i dont know about farm ins coverage though, i think you might need to have a farm to be lagit with that. personally, i get ins coverage that covers what it is im doing with the vehicle,if i hit something while hauling a load of cow manure and pictures are taken and a report is filed and i only have antique collector ins coverage, im in trouble.

 

[Ruppster]

[SIZE=-1]So the way I read it, if you register your MV as an antique, and get the cheap plates, then you cannot use it for everyday stuff. I hope I am wrong, but this section below describes the private use of a heavy truck. If this is the case, what weight category would you register your M35 in? It weighs under 15k, but can have a GVWR of 23k. [/SIZE]

The cheap plates are "permanent" antique tags as there is never a renewal fee and they do have limitations. You can still get antique tags that will allow you to use the truck as you want but they are renewed each year. The problem is due to the weight of the truck you will have to pay a much higher rate based on the total weight you want to be able to haul (this rate is the same as a non antique truck so the antique plate in this case means little). This includes trailer weight if you plan on pulling a trailer. This is called a weighted tag. If you get stopped at a scale you can not exceed the registered weight on your registration. If you do they will hit you with overweight fees. It does not have to be the same as the vehicle's GVWR. But I think that the minimum weight you can register it at is something like 1.5 times its empty weight. So the lowest I think you can go would be the 15,000 to 19,999 pound rate. Also keep in mind that due to the tandem axles if you were to drive the truck out of state as soon as you cross the state line in to another state you fall in to IRP and IFTA regulations, even though you are not commercial.

If you go with a registered weight make sure you tell them you want to register it at a rate less then the GVWR (if you want to). They will not ask you this. They will ask you for the GVWR and assume that's what you want the tags to be registered at. If you want to go with a different rate tell them that when they ask for the GVWR or you will be billed a higher rate then you want.

I have a 1974 10 wheel semi truck tractor that I am currently going though the system about. It's not military so I can't get permanent antique plates for it. Since I want to be able to tow bar a deuce or 5 ton (in case an SS member needs help) I would have to get tags for at least 40,000 pounds. Not cheap. So now I am trying to put on a larger sleeper in order to register the truck as an RV. If you don't plan on hauling a lot of stuff with the deuce and a half maybe you could pick up a com shack for the back of the truck and set it up with sleeping quarters and go the RV route too. Would make the registration fees a lot cheaper.

Ruppster

 

[Dodge man]

Registering it as an antique MV can put a lot of restrictions on what you do with it (as can insuring it as an antique vehicle)..

I just registered mine here in Florida this past week. I TRIED to register it as an Antique*. The DMV said that there are no restrictions on it's usage. I could have registered it as a Horseless Carriage but that does have the restriction that it can only be used to go to and from shows. DMV even said that you weren't allowed to take it to get gas in it!

*Florida has an interesting situation going on in that while you're allowed to register it has Antique or HC, some (ALL?) local DMV offices don't have the right computer SW so they can't do it and they make you mail everything to Tallahassee to do it. BUT Tallahassee requires that you have it currently registered before they'll do it SO I had to get a standard registration on mine and will then have to mail everything to Tallahassee to get it changed to Antique! I plan on complainin to my state representatives about this rediculous situation and see if I can't get my money back for the standard registration. I strongly recommend that anyone else caught in this Catch-22 situation do the same!

 

[Dodge man]

The cheap plates are "permanent" antique tags as there is never a renewal fee and they do have limitations. You can still get antique tags that will allow you to use the truck as you want but they are renewed each year.

Ruppster

I wasn't aware of yearly vs permanent Antique tags. Apparently my DMV office isn't either! Not surprising since they can't even issue them. I doubt LEO is any better informed about the different antique/Horseless Carriage tags than the DMV so I'm not going to worry about it.

FWIW I got my insurance through NationWide. The USAA and the collector car insurance companies wouldn't even insure me since I don't keep it permanently locked away in a sealed building! NW was also cheaper than the collector companies! $101/yr for PIP/Lib and $10,000 stated value and no restrictions. They did ask how much I planned to drive it and I said 1000 miles/year but he said it wasn't important.

PS I did have to remind the woman in my DMV office that mine was a military vehicle and as such there is no weight limit. She had forgotten that and wasn't going to process my registration the way that I wanted. But once I reminded her there was no problem.

 

[Ruppster]

I wasn't aware of yearly vs permanent Antique tags. Apparently my DMV office isn't either! Not surprising since they can't even issue them. I doubt LEO is any better informed about the different antique/Horseless Carriage tags than the DMV so I'm not going to worry about it.

I didn't know about the permanent versus annual antique tags either till I got looking in to tags for my non-military semi truck. Because it is over 5,000 pounds I found out the hard way that I was not allowed to get the cheaper permanent plates and was stuck with paying the same rate as a commercial truck based on overall weight. As far as your local DMV they should be able to do the annual antique tag. It's the permanent one that should need to be mailed.

FWIW I got my insurance through NationWide. The USAA and the collector car insurance companies wouldn't even insure me since I don't keep it permanently locked away in a sealed building! NW was also cheaper than the collector companies! $101/yr for PIP/Lib and $10,000 stated value and no restrictions. They did ask how much I planned to drive it and I said 1000 miles/year but he said it wasn't important.

I forgot all about Nationwide. Used to have them years ago. Had first switched over to them back in 1999 during my wife's first tour at Elmendorf AFB, AK. After that tour she was transferred to Virginia for 4 years and when she was given a second tour back to Elmendorf in 2006 we had to find a new company as Nationwide had pulled out of Alaska by then and would not transfer our policy. Went with USAA for our regular vehicles at the time as they told me I could get coverage for my semi trucks on a non-commercial policy too (Gulfway does not cover Alaska). Later on when I went to add the semi truck I found out that what USAA had told me wasn't quite correct. Due to the trucks weight I would have to go with a non-commercial commercial truck policy underwritten by Progressive. I called Progressive directly and got a quote that was about 60% of what USAA wanted. The problem now is now that we are in Florida I went to transfer over my Progressive policy to a Florida account only to find out that Progressive does not cover semi trucks in Florida. To add insult to injury while in Alaska I asked USAA about RV coverage (I am converting my semi to an RV) and was given a pretty good quote. So when I found out Progressive was dropping me I called USAA about getting the RV policy only to find out they have pulled out of the RV market. Guess it's time to check with Nationwide and Gulfway.

PS I did have to remind the woman in my DMV office that mine was a military vehicle and as such there is no weight limit. She had forgotten that and wasn't going to process my registration the way that I wanted. But once I reminded her there was no problem.

You are correct, there is no weight limit with the antique tag but that's only for the permanent plate. And the only way to get that for a truck over 5,000 pounds is if it's ex-military or ex-fire department and is painted up in it's proper trim as a tribute to those two departments. You can get annual antique tags for a military truck to allow it to be used how ever you want but you will have to pay the same weight class fees as a commercial truck. My problem is I have an antique truck but because it isn't ex-military I can not get a permanent antique plate at all because it is over 5,000 pounds. I'm stuck paying the same weight fees as a commercial semi even though I am not for hire. That's why I am going for the RV conversion.

Ruppster