To Buy or Not to Buy A Short Bed Pick-Up?

JDgreen227 · Jun 16, 2004

You have five trailers...well, be happy you don't live here in Michigan where you would have to pay AT LEAST $75 PER TRAILER for a permanent registration plate if you renewed them this year. Travel trailers and large tandem axle trailers require $200 permanent registration plates.

Here in Michigan we already pay some of the highest fees in the US to buy our motor vehicle plates and now they have mandated we have to pay five times as much for trailer plates...and if I buy a new permanent plate but sell the trailer after a four year period I end up losing money.

Although I have not checked yet, I am quite certain if I pay the $200 for a new plate for our 30-foot Jayco this summer, if I choose to trade up to a newer model down the road, the $200 plate will be worthless for the next trailer, and I will end up paying $200 for another "permanent" plate.

What a crock. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

AndyM · Jun 16, 2004

<font color="blue"> Travel trailers and large tandem axle trailers require $200 permanent registration plates. </font>

I assume "permanent" registration plates mean you only pay once for the lifetime of the trailer, instead of every year?

If you keep the trailer for a while, that's actually a good deal. We have trailer that only gets used six or eight times a year, and it gets pretty expensive to buy registration every year for such limited use! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Gary_in_Indiana · Jun 16, 2004

<font color="blue"> "The pro-short boxers were first out of the gate" </font>

and the first into the parking spaces, too.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I prefer driving a short bed most of the time but, to be fair, I have a completely different situation than most people. If I need to haul something longer, I grab a long bed here. If I need to haul drywall and four adults, I grab a four door crew cab with a long bed. If I'm going after gravel, I grab one of the dump trucks.

If I had to pick just ONE, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'd probably go with a crew cab with four full doors, four wheel drive, diesel power with a short box set up for a gooseneck. If I have to pick just ONE truck I can still have three or four trailers, can't I? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif