Registering an M1078 in Washington State

Don't know where you are located, but I have access to a 5th wheel plate you could borrow and flop on it and call it a tractor. I for one am getting tired of all these can't do people. I am looking for people that can make things work.

Amer-team said:

I did get registration started as an Off Road Vehicle. I asked the lady, how many 21,000 pound off road vehicles they register. It isn't her fault, she is following the rules on what they are telling her. It is interesting about what they started in September as I applied before that.

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What county are you trying in

Amer-team said:

If it already has a license, you should be in good shape, but if you don't, it may be a hassle. I have talked with a couple of my state representatives and floated the idea of adding an Historical Military Vehicle section. They weren't opposed. Was talking with another one of the guys and he said if we had language his Rep. would sponsor it.

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I believe its licensed in Oregon so hopefully I won't have any problems transferring it to WA. I wonder if the new rule applies to farm tags as well. I could go that route if I have to.

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I believe it is federal law that if a vehicle is legally owned in one state (even if it is not a title state).. other states have to title the vehicle as well. So if it is titled in OR you should be good to go. Notice I did not say "register". Believe how it works out is the vehicles new state must title it but they do NOT have to register it for road use. This is how I believe CA gets away with having its own rules on what they allow on their roads.

Yeah, figured that might be an issue. I'll try to stop by the local DMV tomorrow to see if they can tell me anything.

We must be getting some traction somewhere on this topic, as I got a call from a staffer in the Governor's office on the way home today. Is anyone working on legislation for WA around this topic of Historic Military Vehicles? Their concern was that something along this topic may come up in the next Legislative session, so we should be ready with answers for our legislators. My suggestion to him was language under the Collector Vehicle rules for Historic Military Vehicles. His concern was people using them for commercial purposes. So the solution may be one path under Historic and another path and or meeting the regulations of commercial if it is being used that way. I am also shooting for 25 years instead of the 30 years they use on collector vehicles. Send a note or call me if you are working on this so we can collaborate on language. Thank you, Peter 360-870-0706

Amer-team said:

We must be getting some traction somewhere on this topic, as I got a call from a staffer in the Governor's office on the way home today. Is anyone working on legislation for WA around this topic of Historic Military Vehicles? Their concern was that something along this topic may come up in the next Legislative session, so we should be ready with answers for our legislators. My suggestion to him was language under the Collector Vehicle rules for Historic Military Vehicles. His concern was people using them for commercial purposes. So the solution may be one path under Historic and another path and or meeting the regulations of commercial if it is being used that way. I am also shooting for 25 years instead of the 30 years they use on collector vehicles. Send a note or call me if you are working on this so we can collaborate on language. Thank you, Peter 360-870-0706

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Last place I would goto is Inslee's office. He is such a tool. Nothing going on too happen much being an election year. Need to talk to your reps in oylimpia

spankybear said:

Last place I would goto is Inslee's office. He is such a tool. Nothing going on too happen much being an election year. Need to talk to your reps in oylimpia

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but Inslee's office already called Amer-Team!!!! so while you may be right.... someone... though maybe only for election PR... got the ball rolling and called him so he might as well take advantage of that, and keep the ball rolling.

We can sit back and hope they quit this nonsense about not licensing former military vehicles or we can do something about it. Victory usually doesn't go to the one that sits back. I want to see what they are basing their denials of licensing on. Right now it looks to me like the basis is someone in government is going to save the world by denying a license on a perfectly good truck.

That could be the case but I'd wager that someone didn't think about it when they designed their new system. Our state does not have a good track record for implementing new software systems. Employment Security installed a new system a few years ago and had all kinds of bugs and they still haven't cleaned all of them up.

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As a quick update.. Still working my paths here. (in trying to get my LMTV titled and lic'd for on road use in WA).

I'm taking careful notes along the way, and will share what I can when I either succeed or am fully stuck.

Fwiw, I initially trusted the answers I got from people I chatted with... Though its clear now that most of the people I've chatted with have meant well, but didn't know much precisely about this stuff... I had one person actually tell me that anything with a model name that started with M followed by numbers couldn't be registered... (bmw m3?) Next person in escalation laughed at that.. and then apologized for the misinformation.. So, again, good people for the most part so far.. just hitting too many people that don't know the path. Yall already know this.. and i'm just learning it.. We're clearly an edge case that most people have never dealt with.

Texas lost our dunebuggies on the roads due to the TxDMV slipping in a rule change. They revoked titles (good luck selling one, they are treated as "equipment" according to the TxDMV), they refuse to issue any new titles (purchased or constructed dunebuggies), and the more we challenged it the more the little pencil-neck who invoked the change dug his heels in. When we asked "what's a dunebuggy" the response was anything the TxDMV deems as one." We got legislation involved now, but it may take time to see the outcome (good or bad).

But Amer-team is correct, if someone isn't watching they love to screw things up. And if you don't fight it then it simply becomes another state that others can point to and say "See, they don't allow them either."

My offroad cars are owned by my LLC in another state now....

Well looks like I'm going to have to figure this registration stuff out. Worked out a deal for this little truck. Going to check it out on Sunday. Seller says it's an 817 but I'm pretty sure it's a M51a2.

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I have been going round with licencing on an m54a2 I have placed calls to all three of my areas representatives but this is a 1968 so then shouldn't it be exempt

Nomadic said:

Try outside King county. I wouldn't want to drive one in Redmond or Bellevue unless I'm headed out of town and never come back. The cops will absolutely pull you over.

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Not sure where you are coming from with this to be honest. I had my LMTV all over Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, etc when I was living in Redmond, and no cop ever cared. In fact no cop has ever cared about it anywhere, parked, moving, or broken down. Except one time I ever had a cop interaction was in sedro wooley of all places... and she just stopped when I was standing outside it waiting for a friend to tell me it was really cool. I've driven it through capital hill, montlake, fremont, downtown, you name it.

On the FMVSS issue if that is jamming up WA registrations now, besides that court ruling that seemed to find the exemption transferred to private ownership, the FMTV was built to FMVSS, as specified in the contract. This actually caused S&S some hassle as the original vehicles arguably didn't comply and the gov't went back on them to get them to pay to fix, ended up in court. This has come up before, and I've run into it in non-army truck situations too, and the consensus seems to be to just slap a FMVSS sticker on the door jam if the equipment actually is legal. We even had at least one thread about it:

https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?149479-DMV-asked-for-FMVSS-proof
For whatever it's worth, not much to you WA folks, Arizona didn't even blink, couldn't have cared less. I just said it was a cargo truck and their magical system that she said had every VIN of every thing ever made took the serial # as the vin without hesitation and spit out a title. Insurance on the other hand...

Maybe people are trying to not pay the weight fees?

Just talked with my local DMV. They said no problem. I just need a certified scale slip. Will go back tomorrow to get the title and registration done.

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Just received this email from DMV. Don't think it will effect me as I have an Oregon w/o the ORV use only stamp:

Good afternoon Corey,

Thank you for contacting us. I understand your concern regarding the vehicle. I’m not sure what ownership document you may have for your vehicle.

Seq said:

Just received this email from DMV. Don't think it will effect me as I have an Oregon w/o the ORV use only stamp:

Good afternoon Corey,

Thank you for contacting us. I understand your concern regarding the vehicle. I’m not sure what ownership document you may have for your vehicle.

Decommissioned military vehicles (such as “Humvees”) sold at auction by the federal government were never manufactured to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Because of this, any decommissioned military vehicle can never be eligible for on-road use. When sold to civilians, the federal government ownership document (Form 97) is marked as “Not suitable for highway use”. This designation requires the customer to title and license the vehicle as an off-road vehicle. Since they receive the designation, “Not Suitable For Highway Use” Department of Licensing does not have the legal authority to approve these military vehicles for use on public roadways in Washington. The law does not provide a process for inspecting these types of vehicles to declare them street-legal. Even if a decommissioned military vehicle owner added the features needed to meet FMVSS, Department of Licensing would still not be able to change the use type from off-road vehicle to on-road use type. I hope this helps to answer your question. Thank you, Donna Customer Relations Email Team WA Department of Licensing Sign up today at https://secure.dol.wa.gov/home/ DOL is in the process of modernizing our legacy systems. Please be patient with us as we transition to our new technology. Our new system (DRIVES) will be implemented on Tuesday, September 4th. You may experience slower turnaround times from now through the end of September, but we are assuring our systems and processes will serve you better. For more information visit us at DOL.WA.GOV

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That's exactly what my dmv told me than I pointed out mine did not state it was off road only a call to anchorage confirmed that my vehicle was not included in the off road only classification and that they could proceed with commercial vehicle registration of it. It seems some employees are assuming all military vehicles are the same as see's and Humvees. it might be worth a fight as your truck did meet fmvss standards for commercial vehicles of that time.

I'm not worried about mine. I have a normal Oregon title (getting switched to WA today).