I just purchased a bus in Louisiana and drove it home to the Bay Area. The only paperwork I got was the title signed over to me (an Alabama title signed over to the party I bought it from in Louisiana, signed over to me) and the bill of sale.
Since I bought on a Friday evening, and didn’t want to wait around, this is what I did. Mind you it is anecdotal and may vary for others:
- Bought commercial insurance through Progressive - $54/mo for liability insurance.
- filled out registration paperwork for Vermont (to change the vehicle type from Bus to Motorhome) and sent it in with the appropriate fees and required documentation via certified mail - kept copies of everything
- drove home - obeying all traffic laws
Some notes:
- I went through the commercial vehicle lanes at weigh stations and they all gave me a bypass - thy didn’t want to see a school bus
- I didn’t have a license plate on the bus
- several LEOs passed me and never even turned their heads to look - as far as I could tell
- I was stopped at the California agricultural inspection and they waived me through. At first I couldn't understand the officer and asked “what” an she waived me through
My opinion: as long as I had the registration paperwork in progress (and have evidence of it), if I did get stopped and I was polite and not obnoxious, the paperwork would have been sufficient or at the most a fix-it ticket.
Best of luck