RE: [ihc] About those parking brakes .....

["Mac McMuffin" <mac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

## >> I do not believe Mac that you have to have a pre-76 vehicle
## >> Smog inspected
## >> if brought in from out of state at this time.  That went away
## >> with the "out
## >> of state smog fees" that was ruled unconstitutional by the
## >> supreme court a
## >> few years back.

we brought the 1110 into CA in...  November of 2001, i think.  might have
been November 2000.  would have to check with Joel for when we bought it
from him.  it was the November immediately following the October in which i
rolled the 800A.  whatever year that was, when we brought the truck in from
Portland, it was currently registered in Oregon.  the Fresno and Clovis DMV
offices require that one of their officials (or a California Highway Patrol
officer) manually verify the VIN, and for any vehicle originally equipped
with emissions equipment that meets CA requirements, they have to visually
verify that the emissions sticker is still there, AND that the emissions
equipment is present.  the equipment doesn't have to actually work (they
don't check), but it has to be there and the sticker has to be there too.
if anything is missing, including the sticker, you're automatically sent to
the SMOG referee.  i don't know about any other place in CA, but that's how
it is in Fresno County.

when we registered it, the 1110 almost got sent to the referee because the
lady couldn't find the body VIN (the door VIN isn't good enough), and the CA
emissions sticker is rubbed almost compleatly blank.  you could barely read
it.  but i asked her to do a second visual inspection when we got back in to
the office, and the second time around she was able to find and read the
body VIN, and she decided that she could read the emissions sticker well
enough to pass it, especially since all the equipment was present and hooked
up (it even works!).  since that time it's rubbed off even more and now you
can't read most of it at all.  i'm glad the lady passed it, those referee
stations make me extremely nervous.

so are you saying that they can't do those visual inspections anymore?  i
remember them saying the out of state fees were wrong and they couldn't do
that anymore, but i hadn't heard anything about the emissions visual
inspections part.

## >> I'm surprised that you can keep your vehicles registered in
## >> California while
## >> living in Texas.  Here, you have twenty days from entering
## >> the state to get
## >> them registered in CA.  There is a non-resident military
## >> exemption, but even
## >> it doesn't include everyone under every circumstance.
## >>
## >> http://www.dmv.org/ca-california/motor-vehicles-vehicle-regist
ration.php

it may not make a difference, but my address of record is still in
California.  Texas doesn't care, but the Army does.

the State of Texas says that any member of an Active Duty or activated
reserve component military unit, or their dependents, stationed in Texas, do
not have to register their vehicles in Texas.  i haven't seen any exceptions
to that rule.  the only requirement on the part of the Army is that any
vehicle from out of state present in Texas for longer than 90 days has to
get a Texas safety inspection sticker and local post DOD stickers (you have
to have a valid Texas safety inspection to get DOD stickers).  it's kind of
funny, because even the vehicles belonging to the foreign military services
here (there are a bunch, most notably the German Luftwaffe) have Texas
safety inspections and DOD stickers.  well, the ones that are allowed
off-post, anyway.  their tactical vehicles have to follow the same rules as
our own tactical vehicles, so that's a different matter.

i haven't done either the Texas safety inspection nor the Fort Bliss DOD
sticker, and i have no intention of doing so.  neither truck will pass the
Texas safety inspection in the first place, and i really don't want Fort
Bliss post tags anyway.  i currently have US Navy Southwestern Region DOD
tags, and they're good till December 2005.  when those expire, i will either
go back to the Navy in CA for new ones, or i will stop having DOD stickers
on those vehicles.  i don't think the B182 will pass the Texas safety
inspection either, come to think of it.

in either case, though, as a dependent of a member of the United States Army
(active duty), i don't have to register my trucks in Texas.  whether or not
they have DOD stickers is irrelevant.  both the Army and Texas say i can
maintain state of origin registration.  the B182 will be registered out of
state, and i have no intention of ever putting Fort Bliss DOD stickers on it
or Texas safety inspection stickers, any more than the other two trucks.  if
that means it never has DOD stickers, so be it.  as a side note, i've
noticed that a number of vehicles from other posts have dual sets of DOD
stickers.  Fort Bliss (and probably all the other Texas military
installations) requires the DOD sticker to be in the top centre of the
windscreen, but most other states' bases require it to be at the bottom
left.  i've seen a number of vehicles with one in the top centre and bottom
left.

in the case of California and military personnel, the rules are a little
different in some specific instances, but for the most part they are the
same as here.  as long as you're the direct dependent of a person on active
duty, regardless of branch of service, you don't have to get CA registration
or pass CA emissions.  you do, however, have to meet the requirements of
your state of registration.  i don't know what circumstances would apply to
military personnel that would make them be forced to get CA registration,
but i take your word for it that this is the case.

of course, there's a big incentive not to register our vehicles here in
Texas...  there's a $150 per vehicle "out of state import fee".  you have to
pay that *plus* the cost of your actual registration fees.  in CA i pay less
than $30 each for the two trucks per year.  i really don't want to have to
pay $150 each up front and then whatever the Texas registration is.  plus
another $150 and fees when the B182 gets here.  then just to turn around and
have to re-register them all in California in three years when we're out of
here.  i'll maintain my CA registrations for as long as i am able, thank you
very much.

--Mac

---------------------------------------------------------------
Take care and be well, all thee and thine;

May the Hamr lend thee Strength and Courage,
May the Twin Ravens lend thee Wisdom and Guidance,
May the Wolves Guard and Protect thee, and
May the Light of Harmony ever shine brightly upon thee and thine,
Through all thy Life's Journeys, from this life unto the next!

Hail the Gods and Goddesses of our Folk!
Wassail!

Krystof "Mac" MacBryghde
TyrGothi

http://master.triad.ath.cx/
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