Posted by CGarbee on Saturday, November 27, 2004 at 5:39PM :
In Reply to: Tag n' Title in NC posted by Rick Pacholski on Saturday, November 27, 2004 at 1:04PM :
In NC, the tag that you will use on a power wagon or larger truck that is not used for commercial purposes is a weighted tag. In old days, no-one drove a heavy truck except for commercial use, so the tags got stamped commercial. Over the years, folks have used larger and heavy trucks for private use and the "commercial" markings on what was obviously a private use vehicle confused folks outside of NC law enforcement. A couple of years ago, NC changed over to a "weighted" tag to avoid this particular bit of confusion.
A "car" tag is good for a vehicle with a GVCW (car/truck plus towed trailer) of 4000 lbs or less. A weighted or commercial tag (both are available) is needed for a vehicle with a GVCW of over 4000 lbs. As tags are renewed, vehicles such as 3/4 ton pickups, Blazers, and Hummers, are getting automatically replaced with weighted tags. Folks with power wagons (M37's too) that are not automatically recognized by the registration software used by DMV will continue to use the existing tag, but beware that the registration tag plainly states the wieght limit, so you can't plead ignorance when you get pulled for being overweight.
This is all done so that heavier vehicles that do more damage to the highway network will pay a proportionally higher fee for maintenance and repair of the facilities.
The money from the registration fee goes into the NCDOT account, not the General Fund...
You can state a vehicle weight that is different from the tag on the vehicle, just make sure that you are never put on a scale when your truck and trailer exceeds what you have on the tag... The fines are pretty steep.
More questions, email me.
cgarbee@dot.state.nc.us
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