Titled, registered and plated as automobile in California..

[Iceni John]

A few years ago I re-registered my Crown bus in California from Auto (BU) to the coveted MH, and I used S&S Auto Registration Services in Paramount CA. The company inspected my bus to ensure that it was genuinely converted sufficiently to meet the usual criteria of a true RV conversion, and that it could not be un-converted back to being a seated bus for the commercial transportation of passengers, i.e. it was a permanent and irreversible conversion job. In a week or three I had my new CA registration with the magic MH on it, and best of all I never needed to go anywhere near a DMV. Yeah!

I have National General for my bus and car insurance, but the bus is insured only for liability (a lot of dollars' worth) so it's relatively cheap. No problems so far.

John

 

[BusBiz]

That’s been my experience as well, and one thing I’d add is that a lot of the cancellations seem to come down to structural uncertainty, not paperwork.


From the carrier’s perspective, a converted bus often checks multiple red flags at once: altered roof structure, modified sidewalls, removed windows, custom subfloors, and non-OEM seating or restraint systems. Even when the work is done correctly, underwriting often doesn’t have a clean category for “professionally modified but not factory RV,” so it gets kicked back once a human actually reviews photos or build notes.


That’s why two nearly identical builds can get totally different outcomes one underwriter is comfortable with structural modifications, another isn’t, even within the same company.


Finding someone willing to insure it knowing those modifications exist seems to matter more than the title alone. RV registration can help, but it doesn’t override structural risk concerns on its own.


Still frustrating, but once you look at it through the lens of structural risk and liability exposure, the pattern starts to make more sense.

Yes that does make sense funny though how I conferred with the CHP ahead of building my commercial buses for wedding transportation and they couldn't care less what the seats were made out of or any of that as long as it was mechanically sound and safe to be driven on the roadways, that being said I always construct everything I do in a structurally sound manner but I can easily see some people doing substandard unsafe work..