Re: [ihc] Antique plates--Good or Bad?

[Dave Nuenke <dnuenke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yep, it all varries by state. In South Dakota you can get Historic 
plates afer 30 years, $10 one time fee and they never expire. 
Supposed to be for limited use only. From what I've seen no one is 
*too* strict as long as you have other vehicles and don't a Historic 
tagged rig everyday. I haven't set any up this way becasue you have 
to send off to Pierre for the special plates, but might get around to 
it this year for a couple of the oldest ones that rarely move right 
now anyway. The only benefit here, is that you don't have to pay for 
registration every year, as we have no emissions, inspections, etc.

Wayyyyyy back in the old days when I was in Maryland (yes it does 
seem like it was forever ago) I had Historic tags on my Scout to get 
around some Burocratic BS. They were supposidly limited use, etc, but 
no firm rules. I was never questioned about them at all, they also 
looked just like regular plates except they said "historic" on the 
bottom. There was a registration fee, but it was much less than 
regular in MD. Depending on how strictly your state (county or town 
is probably more like it) enforces the letter of the law, 
Historic/Antique/Collector plates can be a great way to avoid 
emissions, annual inspections, etc.

On a final side note, for those who wonder why I don't agree with the 
MD inspection system. In the case of my 76 Spirit, they were up in 
arms about the size of my steering wheel (OEM Ralley type wheel), 
size of my tires (31's), the typical IH oil leaks, and at the time I 
had some rust over wheel well on my quarters. They never did happen 
to notice that the brake booster was bad, front u joints were shot, 
and that the rag joint was toast. In fact the supposed "mechanic" 
told me he enjoyed looking at my truck, said he had NEVER SEEN a 
CARBURETOR before........ (This was back in 98 too.....). Needless to 
say I found a way around their BS, fixed what was actually wrong as 
soon as I had the cash (in high school and broke). Funny, all these 
years later, I'm still using that steering wheel (different truck), 
still have 2 of those tires, that 345 still leaks oil (runs like a 
top too), and I still have trucks with rusty quarters.............

Enough of my rambling.

Dave

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