Struggles with Truck Registration

Truck with old small wheels

Truck with new bigger off-road wheels (37" diameter)... They still seem pretty small, but thats because the truck is quite big... I cant put bigger wheels on because of the clearance to the steering and cab on the front wheels.

 When I bought the truck, it was registered and insured as a "commercial vehicle" which pretty much all vehicles with a GVW over 5000Kg are here in British Columbia... But I was not going to use it as a commercial vehicle and the insurance rates and safety inspection requirements for that category are rather prohibitive. 

So, when I bought it I got the seller to do the annual inspection, and I immediately had it changed to a "private vehicle" but to do so i had to de-rate it to a max weight of 5000Kg... done, no problem.

Since then, Ive done a number of changes to it and when Ive needed to drive it somewhere for whatever reason, I have to go get a day driving insurance permit for it at about $30 per day. But it is now at a usable level of completion, so I wanted to use it more often and the day permits get expensive quickly... So next step was to change its registration one more time to the "motorhome" category... which would mean far cheaper insurance and minimal restrictions on other technical factors as its not used for passengers or commercial purposes in general.

BUT... To do that, according to the rules in BC, it needs another safety inspection, and a weight certificate from a weighbridge.

So, I looked around for a local auto shop with the appropriate inspection license to do that for me... But, all the local places for cars dont do large vehicles, and all the places that do larger vehicles only do commercial vehicle inspections which are much more stringent and more expensive too.

Oh well, I signed up for the couple of hundred dollars extra and took the truck in... But its a bit of a scam on costs, since to use your truck you NEED this inspection certificate annually... and the truck mechanics know it, so they always find sudrie minor defects that they can charge exorbitantly to fix on the spot for you so you can get the damn inspection certificate... and in my case they claimed that in order to inspect the brakes properly they would have to take the wheels off to see (valid requirement), BUT, they claim the wheel removal and replacement would take upto 6 hours to complete! at about $150 per hour charge-out rate!!!   BULLSHIT!!!

I canceled the inspection but that left me no closer to being insured.

Sooo, I figured I would try to get around this issue by replacing the tires (which dont need to be replaced yet but will be within a year or so, so now is not a bad time)... Theory being that the tire shop would change the wheels quickly and cheaply, and if I went to a larger tire shop they would have the safety inspection license as well and could do their inspection while the wheels were off. (and they could make their profit on the tires rather than having to gouge me for minor little "invented" issues.

This seemed to be working out and the phone calls were made and appointments set up and all in all it would cost me a bit more than just the inspection but Id get nice new big wheels :)

So, I took the truck in on the appointed day and the tire team were good to go and the new tire were there ... and then I met the inspector... The GERMAN inspector!

Oh dear... he was a piece of work and as soon as he saw that I had drilled the chassis rails to mount the box on the truck he said... No, you need a authorized mechanical engineer to inspect that and approve it before Ill sign off on it!... So, Im screwed again! but this time Ive paid out a couple of thousand extra dollars for new tires that I cant really use without the valid inspection.

What to do??

Well, actually, the German inspector helped me out... He said he didnt think I needed the safety inspection to do the registration as a motorhome because he knew a guy who converted vans like this quite often and he never needed the safety inspection...

Anyway, after about a half a day of waiting and phone calls to other insurance agents, I connected with a particular insurance agent who said he could do what I needed and that it would cost no more than normal.

So, I went in to him and we filled in the forms, and it all went through OK with the BC insurance corporation, and I paid for 3 months insurance and the truck is no a "MotorHome"... No drama at all... though I have this form that clearly states I should have needed a signed safety inspection?  though Im sure the truck is safe anyway, Im not going to ask questions at this point :)

So, the truck now has its new wheels... and the spare tire rack is on and the interior lights are wired up and working, and the TPMS monitor and reversing camera all now work too... ongoing tinkering.

Welded up rear rack

Rear rack, storage box, and spare wheel mounted.

Next big project is to modify and fit the cab-habitat passthrough... means i need to cut very large holes in both the cab and the habitat box and get it all waterproofed and sealed up before the rains start up here in Vancouver... probably in a couple of weeks time.

Truck is now usable... sorta

 Im continuing to tinker away on the truck project whenever I have time and the weather is good... Its actually been a very rainy end of March this year so its slowed me down quite a bit.

Here is the progress so far.

Ive put in counter-tops and added a sink and plumbed water in a temporary form... a pressurized 19 liter  beer keg does the trick for now, and likewise, the sink drains into a 20 liter jerry can for now.

Slide-out table, counter-top, and floor covering

Then I added a two burner induction stove at the other end of the kitchen counter, and a small fridge freezer unit (purchased on Amazon, like most of the stuff Im fitting) next to that.

I then wired the stove and several 120V electrical outlets up and took the wires forward to the electrical cabinet...

Sink (with cover) and stove and countertop.

Water and drainage system that will work fine for weekend trips.

And as luck would have it, I received the shipment of all the solar equipment, so I spent a couple of days fitting all that stuff into the habitat.

The crated solar panels, batteries, and inverter.

Its a 3000W inverter with a built in solar charger. It takes the power from the 4x 375W solar panels on the roof and feeds the 2x 100AHrx 50V LiFePO battery packs... and they are pretty heavy at about 40Kg each.

Anyway, I got that all mounted in the box and then I got up on the roof and mounted the 4x big solar panels up there and hey presto, Ive got a functional 120V power system.

Drilled the first hole in the expensive white box... just a tiny little hole to let the wires in from the solar panels.

Fridge (red) above inverter/charger (yellow) and Batteries (black) with tape marking location of pass-through to cab on front wall of habitation box.

Batteries and solar disconnect switch.

First weekend camping trip... a shakedown to see how everything works.... Lots of things need to be added and adjusted.

Came home from the weekend trip and promptly cut a huge hole in the side of the box and added a new window... Much more light now... Ive got another one the same size for the opposite side of the seating area... Hopefully Ill get that installed over the next week, but I need to think a bit more about the next windows exact location because i cant very well move it somewhere else if I put it in the wrong place... and its a very expensive box to be cutting holes in :)

New window from outside view.

New window from inside view.

And the additions keep coming... will post more soon.

Finally got the box

 After 6 months of waiting, I finally got the habitation box onto the truck...

This is just a quick update to add a couple of pictures... The truck looks pretty odd at the moment though, as its still on its original wheels which are for a small urban delivery truck... Ill be changing those out soon for some significantly larger ones.  

Its also got minimal windows in at present... There are two other larger windows to be added ahead of the two small ones that are currently located in the sleeping area. I can fit them myself, so rather than paying for someone else's time to install them (which is pretty damn expensive by the way!), ill do it when Im ready.

At the moment, the interior is a completely blank space ready for me to do whatever I want... Its gonna take a while and Im going to do a trial fitting with everything roughed into place using framing lumber and ply-wood to figure out all the details. Ill give it a few trial runs to see if I like it and then when Im happy Ill convert the rough build into a higher quality finished version... Should take a year or so.

First pass framing things up... Ive got a bed platform, a couple of bench seats, and cabinetry outlines...

But for now, Im just happy to have all the major components of the truck, the sub-frame, and the box completed and paid for (well, mostly paid for).

More posts will follow as I do the rough fit-out :)