Street legal

My bus is now street legal. Not having a clue how to register a secondhand vehicle, on Monday I went to the DMV and enquired, registration form in hand. Apparently I had to visit the tax office (conveniently half a mile away). Not having time, I left it for another day. Tuesday being Election day, there was no point in attempting as government offices were most likely closed - not to mention it was my early day at work. Wednesday was pretty much of a washout so it ended up being today.

So, bright and bushy tailed I headed off to the tax office where I discovered that there was a transfer tax of $24 and some change. Armed with a tax paid slip, I headed to the DMV (for readers unfamiliar with the abbreviation, DMV means Department of Motor Vehicles). There I discovered to my dismay that I had to pay tax on a private purchase at 5%. That and the license plate ended up at $240 or thereabouts.

The good news is that the 27,500 GVRW is the gross weight including passengers. Apparently 26,000lbs empty is the limit before I'd need a class C license. As 50 children would probably weigh at 100lbs each around 5,000lbs we reckoned we were under so a figure of 24,000lbs was plucked from the air and entered. Once the shelf is off and the contaminated woodwork removed, I'll take the bus to get it weighed for peace of mind. Of course I have no objection at all to getting a class C license.

The insurance company came through with a price of $214 given 1,000 miles a year of driving. Thus, taxing and insuring my $4,200 bus came to around $465. Now comes all the fun of working on it. Of course, everybody wants to see it which will add quite a few miles if I showed it to people.

The first thing to be done after putting the license plate on will be to remove the rear shelf which must have been made to carry an ATV. It just makes turning the bus into a nightmare. The back already juts out far enough to be a hazard without 6 feet of extra length bolted on!