We ran into the same confusion at each scale house or Motor Carrier officer in site, within CA with our W900 and a 40' Toybox.
They will only acknowledge a motorhome conversion if the sleeper is a large box as a ICT sleeper, or a manufactured toter box on a large semi with all the ammenties you described to make it a livable home.
No longer the porta-pottie and LPG camp stove in the corner type thing. Has to be actually built into the structure of the enclosure and acceptable by the Highway Patrol and no longer the novice clerk at the DMV to get the thumbs up to change the title. If not already registered as such in CA, good luck getting the CHP to grant a registration change without a full blown conversion, they just dont want Class 8's pulling RV trailers with no CDL license.
The motor Carrier officers at Rainbow scales advised that they are trying to lobby to design a special endorsement for the larger Diesel Pushers in California, due to the GVWR ratings, lenghts of the newer coaches being driven by retiries..
The other thing they look for is the style and rating of the fifth wheel, a commercial hitch will not pass any longer, out of fear it can be possibly used as a comercial hauler at any time.
We gave up on the HDT and fifthwheel plan and had to purchase a full size Kenworth with a 39' motorhome conversion, and registered as a MH. Now, no problems with license and registrations/ insurance, etc.
For now anyway, it's California, so who knows when that will change for the worse again.
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