California Driver License Requirements

[demoman]

Regardless of the response you got from caltrans, it is not correct or complete. Caltrans is in charge of building the roads and engineering infrastructure. They have nothing to do with making or enforcing licensing or vehicle registration. Same with dmv. The chp is the one which interprets and enforces the laws. I can't source the section off hand but I know there are a lot of three axle motorhomes, over 26,000, driven by people with a regular class c license in California. Maybe someone else can help with the code section which allows it.
As far as being over length and concerned with not being in a truck route which allows it, there are always exemptions which allow direct access to any road not on a truck route. Think of any time someone wants to move. All the residential streets here have signs that say no trucks over 5 tons or something in that range. When someone want's to move they don't have to get a pickup truck to shuttle all their belongings to the edge of town to load into a 80,000 pound moving van. The van is allowed to take the most expedient route directly to and from it's destination. The same with garbage trucks. They don't need a special permit for each trip they make off the truck route. The same rules apply to a motor home regardless of the size. You are not allowed to use the smaller roads just to travel through but if your destination is along that road then you are allowed to get there. This logic does not apply to hard limits like bridge weight limits or height limits. There are also some area which have parking regulations related to height or length.

[avarusbrightfyre]

Originally Posted by demoman

Regardless of the response you got from caltrans, it is not correct or complete. Caltrans is in charge of building the roads and engineering infrastructure. They have nothing to do with making or enforcing licensing or vehicle registration. Same with dmv. The chp is the one which interprets and enforces the laws. I can't source the section off hand but I know there are a lot of three axle motorhomes, over 26,000, driven by people with a regular class c license in California. Maybe someone else can help with the code section which allows it.
As far as being over length and concerned with not being in a truck route which allows it, there are always exemptions which allow direct access to any road not on a truck route. Think of any time someone wants to move. All the residential streets here have signs that say no trucks over 5 tons or something in that range. When someone want's to move they don't have to get a pickup truck to shuttle all their belongings to the edge of town to load into a 80,000 pound moving van. The van is allowed to take the most expedient route directly to and from it's destination. The same with garbage trucks. They don't need a special permit for each trip they make off the truck route. The same rules apply to a motor home regardless of the size. You are not allowed to use the smaller roads just to travel through but if your destination is along that road then you are allowed to get there. This logic does not apply to hard limits like bridge weight limits or height limits. There are also some area which have parking regulations related to height or length.

After my last post it did occur to me that I could probably contact CHP and I plan to do so when I have the time. They do the vehicles inspections, too, so they can help with information on that as well. All of your reasoning about roadways is how I originally thought it is, especially about end destinations because trucks and buses go to specific locations all the time, but sometimes the wording of things can make it really confusing. That's why I've been trying to find people who are actually doing similar things in California because experience trumps theory every time.

[avarusbrightfyre]

So to kind of help everyone visualize what I'm going for as far as needing a custom layout, I figured I'd post my ideas here. I've been messing around with Sketchup and it seems to work pretty well. Not sure of the weights for everything, just a vague idea right now.

Pics 1&2 - Most open front area with bunk beds in back
Pics 3&4 - Still open in the living area, but bunks moved away from bedroom (important to us)
Pics 5&6 - Maximizing kids far away from bedroom
Pics 7&8 - Short bus option for towing existing trailer.

[avarusbrightfyre]

And then these are the drawings for the craziest idea of the transit bus towing my existing trailer for absolute maximum living space. Probably way too heavy overall to be realistic, but it would be super sweet!

[avarusbrightfyre]

Getting completely ridiculous now, lol. And obsessive...

[sepudo]

Seems like it's just a person creating problems to solve.

There's sooo many benefits of staying within the 40' parameters. But looks like you've made up your mind.

Happy modding

[avarusbrightfyre]

Originally Posted by sepudo

Seems like it's just a person creating problems to solve.

There's sooo many benefits of staying within the 40' parameters. But looks like you've made up your mind.

Happy modding

Are you talking about the single vehicle 40' parameter? If so, I've mostly written off the 45' bus due to some updates layouts I've come up with for the 40 footers. I still haven't written off the short buses for towing my current trailer. Nothing set in stone yet.