vin change for Ca. motorhome
 

I am trying to have my 2 axle columbia classified as a motorhome in Ca. with little luck. The CHP vin verifier agrees my truck fits the description even down to the 1,200. cost of installing a 22k lb rv 5th wheel in place of my holland air slide 5th wheel and was told in a DMV memo to ignore the law and deny my request. It seems the DMV can enforce their will instead of following the law. Any suggestions would be helpful. The CHP suggested that I become a politician instead of a retiree and ask my local representative to write legislation to change this unwritten rule. WTF, Can you say banana republic ?

Hire a lawyer.

You are probably running into Truck Tractor (CVC §655):

A motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and not
so constructed as to carry a load other than a part of the vehicle weight and load
so drawn.

As used in this section, "load" does not include items carried on the truck tractor
in conjunction with the vehicle operation if the load carrying space for these items
does not exceed 34 square feet.

Note: Truck tractors must always be registered as commercial vehicles, even if
they have living quarters.

The living quarters are secondary or incidental to the primary function of the
vehicle, which is still drawing other vehicles.
Truck tractors with living quarters cannot be registered as housecars.

I think they added that last bit around 2007.

Florida's law is similar. In that having a fifth wheel hitch of any kind means you are supporting the weight of another vehicle. That makes it a truck tractor. No 5th wheel makes it a "heavy truck" which is legal to convert.

Ca dmv
 

When I registered my TC in CA it took 3 personal trips to get them to understand what I was registering, a 2016 ShowHauler conversion. It took 4 trips to get my CDL medical cert in the CA DMV system. To top that off, it took another two trips to get the diesel pusher I traded-in out of my name.

I wonder if "vin change" might be screwing things up a bit? I doubt you would want to actually change the vin. That's like trying to change somebody's birthday. Have you read through the resource guide here?: HDT - Escapees Discussion Forum