Oldgringo wrote:carlson1 wrote:Oldgringo wrote:Tax, what tax? Sales tax is paid at time of purchase and license fees are paid with each license - new or renewal. Right?
Correct. Tax is paid when you first buy the RV then each year the registration.
Good, that's all we've been paying and that is plenty! Having to have you TT inspected is a FARCE!
It really goes much further. Our motor home is considered to be a diesel powered vehicle and only eligible for a "safety check". First, in spite of the fact that most state inspection licenses cover a broad range of vehicles, most of them will not consider inspecting motor homes. So just finding a station that will do it is a major effort. I believe that a part of it is that there is not "drag along" incentive. A station that inspects passenger vehicles can expect some additional items like an oil change or even a light bulb replacement if the car fails the inspection. They are not equipped to do that work on a motor home.
A few years ago, the inspection fee was $15. I went to the DPS website and found a list of what items were required to be inspected. They included what you would expect - tires, brakes, horn, windshield wipers, lights. The inspector would be required to drive the vehicle in order do some of those checks. There is no way that an inspection business could stay in business taking the time to check all of those things for $15 on a motor home. Then they cut the fee to $7.00 and now it really doesn't make sense to expect all of those things to be done on a 22,000lb vehicle.
I promise that our motor home registration is much higher than a travel trailer. I view that registration and the inspection as just another tax and have stopped getting my blood pressure up over it. As luck would have it, my motor home registration is due in January. I have to make sure to pick a day when the inspection station can handle me without a long wait (there is no good place for me to park there) and the weather isn't inclement. I don't want to find out how well my anti-lock brakes do on ice or snow.
There is so much more that can cause safety problems on a motor home than is covered by the inspection. Just maintaining the air brakes, keeping the system free of moisture and verifying that the automatic controls including the slack adjusters are working properly takes more time than the state mandated safety requirements. Because I've always been concerned that out of State law enforcement would use a burned out light bulb as an excuse to pull me over, I've replaced all of the lights with LED so the safety inspection of those really doesn't make a lot of sense.