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Old 03-28-2017, 06:08 PM   #1
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CA conversion, certification of ANSI standards

Regarding converting a bus to a motor home in California.

Went to DMV today, to register Albatross, and was told that since 2010 it is required to have the conversion certified by the American National Standards Institute.

The DMV clerk read off five items, and the requirement is that at least four of those be installed. Then ANSI will issue a certification, which DMV needs.

Loosely from memory, those five included such as...
toilet and related tanks,
110 Volt electric,
cooking facilities including refrigeration,
heating and/or a/c,
...that sort of things.

She told me to go online, to... American National Standards Institute > motor home > certification.

Well, ANSI is easy enough to find, and that's as far I get.

It must be there, since she read from it while I was there.

Anybody?

I'm going back to the DMV in a couple days, with a question I forgot to ask today. But maybe I can at least find this stuff on ANSI's site by then?

Without it, she would not even begin the registration process.

I must also paint the bus, but that won't take long.

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Old 03-28-2017, 06:29 PM   #2
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I went onto the ANSI.ORG site and in the Web Store searched "recreation vehicle" and expensive pdf documents popped up.
Here is the link for the RV spec.
http://webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetai...RV+Series-2014

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Old 03-28-2017, 07:04 PM   #3
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I converted a MCI to a house car in Ca in 2015. I hired a licenced vin verifier to certify my bus was now a motor home (house car) and presented the form to DMV whereupon they issued me a new title with the house car designation.

I'd bet your DMV clerk is considering your conversion as if it was new manufacture or something hence all the ANSI garbage.

Take your title to another out of the area DMV and you'll probably be able to get the change you want. Try not to use the "bus" word--after all it isn't a bus any longer it is a house car.

Let us know what happens.
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Old 03-28-2017, 07:05 PM   #4
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Damn, Cali continues to lead the way in making things an expensive, bureaucratic mess!
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Old 03-28-2017, 08:16 PM   #5
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do the vermont thing everyone else is doing
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Old 03-29-2017, 12:29 AM   #6
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A "licensed VIN verifier"? That's a new one to me.

EDIT to add:
Found them. There is even one here in Lake County. Reckon I will check with them.

Thanks!
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Old 03-29-2017, 11:56 PM   #7
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Woohoo! Yabba-dabba-doo! Huzzah! Three cheers and a tiger!

Had a medical appointment in Sacramento today, so I brought the Albatross-bus paperwork with me.

Stopped in at a different DMV office on the way home.

Half hour and $303 later... all done except to have the VIN verified -- which is normal because it came from another state. I have 30 days to get that done, and I can drive her in the meantime. No worries at all about the VIN.

At this DMV office, I fine-tuned my spiel a little from yesterday, but the documents were the exact same.

Will paint her first. (California Vehicle Code is clear on that -- even though enforcement is clearly lax.) And install some RV stuff, so it is obvious the work is in progress.
Then have the VIN verified.

Of course... it is always possible that some DMV-higher-ups might kick it back, but we should have quite a bit of RV stuff in her by then, if that happens.

Onward.
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Old 07-17-2020, 02:02 PM   #8
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What documents did you bring?

We are about to get on the road and need to change our registration to House Car. What documents did you bring to the DMV when you got approved?
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Old 07-17-2020, 02:03 PM   #9
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We are about to get on the road and need to change our registration to House Car. What documents did you bring to the DMV when you got approved?
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Old 07-26-2020, 06:15 PM   #10
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Ooooops... I see that I failed to follow up on this thread.

So....
The bus failed the first inspection – it wasn't even painted (because I had too much going on in my life) – but they happily gave me an extension of the deadline, and it passed the second time.

I cannot for the life of me find all the documents, so I must wing it from memory.

There was a Statement of Facts, which may have been on a DMV form.
I stated "The vehicle is being converted into a motor home (house car) for personal use."
Then I listed the major RV components installed, and where they came from, such as toilet, fresh and waste tanks, bunks, and others. I had receipts for the new items I had bought, but do not remember if the DMV wanted them.

And there was a Verification of Vehicle form, which must be 100 percent complete and accurate – no corrections, no items left unanswered, no rubber-stamp signature, no nothing other than hands-on perfection by the DMV inspector.
And the form must be filled out by the inspector, not by you.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/uploads/2020/06/reg31.pdf

This is the most difficult form I have encountered in my 68 years on the planet.
(And I once sent a letter to the IRS, informing them of an error in one of their books – and they telephoned me and thanked me for catching it.)

99 percent of the form is about catching stolen vehicles – thus the painstaking accuracy required.

Then there is one tiny little item for "BTM" – Body Type Model. The codes are on the back of the form, and the inspector will enter "MH" for Motorized Home. Those two letters on an otherwise unrelated form are the magic.

The inspector has norms to go by – perhaps that AMSI thing, or DMV's own, or whatnot -- but here we are also dealing with a human. The more complete the conversion, the more likely it will be approved.
And your friendly and cooperative face cannot fail to have some degree of influence – see "human".

Best of luck!
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Old 07-26-2020, 07:23 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BluByrd View Post
We are about to get on the road and need to change our registration to House Car. What documents did you bring to the DMV when you got approved?
You might want to pay a VIN Verifier to do your paperwork. I have not done this, but I did talk to one of those guys. They do the inspection and give you the appropriate paperwork to take to the DMV. The guy told me $225 for the service and he would come to me.

My shorty is still titled SB and last time my registration was $20 and they didn’t ask any questions. The woman did do a double take at the fee, but then just let me pay it. I figure I’ll just play dumb until someone calls me out on it.
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Old 07-26-2020, 11:08 PM   #12
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Thanks for reminding me.

I live in a tiny rural town, and the nearest DMV office is 25 miles away, in a direction I rarely go.

But, by golly, right here in town, there is one of those storefront businesses that processes DMV paperwork for a fee, about a mile from me. And the DMV office 25 miles away... is the office that wanted to inflict on me all that "act of congress" ANSI Stuff that started this thread in the first place.

So... I went and talked with the local business.

And after several rounds with that fellow... I concluded... he is both incompetent and dishonest.

Hopefully, this is not the case with all such businesses.
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Old 07-27-2020, 03:46 AM   #13
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Hehehe. It’s such a mixed bag.

The same can be said for DMV offices. For instance, the Oakland DMV in the Temescal Neighborhood is so confounding I swear I will never go there again. The front desk people are like the king’s jesters with impossible to answer riddles to intentionally deny entry to the kingdom.

I’d gladly drive 25 miles to avoid that one.
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Old 07-27-2020, 10:50 AM   #14
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Confoundingly mixed bag, indeed.
But at least I do know the cause of all this tomfoolery; once again, it is those pesky Humans!
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