How to be street legal in Pennsylvania?

[musigenesis]

My bus is (hopefully) going to be registered soon as a Motor Home in Vermont, and with insurance I'll finally be able to drive it. I live in Pennsylvania, and I can't seem to find what alterations I need to make to it in order to be legal here (like repainting it, removing the stop signs etc.).

So far it is still school bus yellow and has all the active school bus stuff going on. The only alteration done to it so far is the name of the school system on the side has been spray-painted black. What all do I have to do to it to make it road-legal here in PA?

I kind of want to leave the stop sign mechanisms in place, but replace them with big smiley faces. I feel like this might just be needlessly tempting the folks with the flashing lights, though.

[PNW_Steve]

Take a look at:https://www.google.com/search?q=Penn...obile&ie=UTF-8

There are links to several threads on skoolie and a couple of videos.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

Take a look at:https://www.google.com/search?q=Penn...obile&ie=UTF-8

There are links to several threads on skoolie and a couple of videos.

Yeah, I don't see anything relevant to my question in those search results. I am not trying to register my vehicle in PA, it will already be registered in Vermont as a Motor Home. What I am trying to figure out is what all I have to do to my bus (e.g. paint it white, remove or cover the stop signs) so that I do not get pulled over and ticketed (in Pennsylvania) for driving a vehicle that looks like a school bus.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Yeah, I don't see anything relevant to my question in those search results. I am not trying to register my vehicle in PA, it will already be registered in Vermont as a Motor Home. What I am trying to figure out is what all I have to do to my bus (e.g. paint it white, remove or cover the stop signs) so that I do not get pulled over and ticketed (in Pennsylvania) for driving a vehicle that looks like a school bus.

All flashing school lights need to be disabled, seats removed for less than 16 passengers, paint it any color but yellow, crossing bars and stop sign removed. Strobe should be disabled. For you to get insured as a Motor Home you will need 4 of the 6 requirements met.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Yeah, I don't see anything relevant to my question in those search results. I am not trying to register my vehicle in PA, it will already be registered in Vermont as a Motor Home. What I am trying to figure out is what all I have to do to my bus (e.g. paint it white, remove or cover the stop signs) so that I do not get pulled over and ticketed (in Pennsylvania) for driving a vehicle that looks like a school bus.

Sorry, I misunderstood your question.


I searched their site and all that I could find regarding color was to stat that school buses, still in service, can be yellow but it is not required.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

Sorry, I misunderstood your question.


I searched their site and all that I could find regarding color was to stat that school buses, still in service, can be yellow but it is not required.

Yeah, all I could find out from PennDOT was how to be a school bus, not how not to be a school bus.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by o1marc

All flashing school lights need to be disabled, seats removed for less than 16 passengers, paint it any color but yellow, crossing bars and stop sign removed. Strobe should be disabled. For you to get insured as a Motor Home you will need 4 of the 6 requirements met.

Do those lights need to be actually physically disabled, or can I just never turn them on (like, is a cop going to pull me over in PA and make me prove those lights don't work)?

And how much of the yellow do I need to cover over? More than half? I'm trying to do the bare minimum to be street legal but I'm not really ready to paint the whole thing for real yet.

[PNW_Steve]

Have you talked to PennDot?

[o1marc]

You'll need to contact your local agency. Most states say it can no longer be National Chrome Yellow, some say it can't be any shade of yellow. Disabled means just that.

[PNW_Steve]

Here in WA we are allowed to keep our buses yellow.

I understand "reciprocity".

I wonder if anyone here has been traveling in a different state and gotten hassled for the color?

Edit: It just dawned on me that other states enforce length and towing limits on out of state visitors. Hmmmm.

[Mark_In_MA]

From what I remember in previous discussions on this topic, it depends on the state, and it depends on weather or not someone is actually going to inspect the bus after its converted.

It also depends on who manages to pull you over. . . could be nothing, could get expensive quick.