Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 12:07:10 -0800
Reply-To: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: titling and registering camper in Washington
In-Reply-To: <20150117141856.QX03Q.190948.imail@eastrmwml107>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
As you have found, no one knows what a VW camper is anymore! I've never seen one with a WA motor home license, but I'm sure there are some.
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Dave Mcneely
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2015 11:19 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: titling and registering camper in Washington
The licensing department in Washington defines a motor home as a hard sided vehicle which was manufactured or has been modified for habitation, with amenities "such as" sewage disposal, cooking, or sleeping facilities. Evidently, some agents interpret that as having any one of the above, others as having all of the above. It just depends on the interpretation the agent makes as to whether our vehicles are licensed as cars or motor homes. Interestingly, the definition explicitly excludes vehicles which are carrying a separately manufactured camper unit such as a pickup camper from being a motor home. So, a VW Campmobile, weighing around 4K lbs and having no toilet or shower might get dinged as a motor home, while a Ford F350 carrying a bed mounted small house with everything and weighing more than double what the VW weighs will not.
mcneely
---- Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Not all RV's are motor homes. Generally a motorhome must have sleeping, cooking and toilet facilities factory or otherwise permanently installed or otherwise certified to be code compliant at time of manufacture or conversion.
> Taxes and interest used for motor homes or boats can often be deducted as a 2nd home unless rented out.
> Motorhome insurance often includes other coverages including personal effects and liability for the site it is used on.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Stuart MacMillan
> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 6:30 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: titling and registering camper in Washington
>
> Yes, like Loren said, just go to another license agent, or try the county office.
>
> My son just registered an Oregon Westy (where they do consider them RVs) in WA as a passenger van. If you can't live in it completely self-contained (heat, shower and flush toilet), it's not an RV as far as I'm concerned. Try that one anyway.
>
> And, there is no emissions test for 1990 or older (25 years old). When it's 30 years old, you can get a collector vehicle plate for a one-time $50 charge.
>
> I'm getting one for my '85 this year.
>
> Welcome to the Inland Empire in the Evergreen State!
>
> Stuart
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Dave Mcneely
> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 1:09 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: titling and registering camper in Washington
>
> I have run into something unexpected in moving my camper to Washington. The clerk at the registration office asked me if my camper is a motor home. I said "No," because it is not. She agreed, saying that her computer registration program identified it, by its vin, as a passenger car. But another lady, at a different booth, spoke up, saying that it is a motor home. The two disagreed, so they called someone else, saying that they can always rely on him for correct information. He said it was a passenger car.
>
> OK, everything was cool. But the other woman intervened again, asking me if the van had a bed. It does. She then asked if it had a sewage holding tank. It does not. She asked then if it has cooking facilities or a refrigerator. It has both. She declared it to be a motor home. The first woman was non-plussed. I told her that I would title and license the vehicle "later," and she said she thought that was a good idea, and that she would check further for me, and let me know what she found out.
>
> It seems to me that if the registration program recognizes it as a passenger vehicle, and the departmental expert, consulted because he is the expert, agrees, then the second woman is just butting in, but what do I know.
>
> So, fellow VW Campmobile owning Washingtonians, how are yor camper's titled and registered, as passenger vehicles or motor homes?
>
> Thanks,David McNeely
--
David McNeely
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