RTK plates

I just got my new "recreational truck" plates. Looking around I seldom see other non-commercial trucks with these....am I missing something?

 

If you own land, you get a non RTK with a "farm or ranch" qualification. Cheaper

 

Looking into it further, when you register as a recreational truck, then you're only taxed on 75% of the value of the truck. When registering as a passenger vehicle, you're taxed on 85%. So it's overall cheaper to register as a truck in the first decade of ownership (before the tax is a flat $3-$10).

I suspect the CO DMV doesn't advertise that fact.

 

Most people probably don't get them because they're supposed to be rec use, as in not daily driver. Heck, mine aren't even truck plates, just regular passenger plates (no letters on the side). There's two parts to the license fee - ownership which is that 75/85 number and weight. Weight is usually higher for trucks, and I'm pretty sure that portion isn't affected by age, just the ownership part. But yeah it sounds like it would be a little cheaper as a truck; whatever the tax on the 10% difference in value is. But then it's

State doesn't handle fees btw, the individual counties do. I know in that other recent thread we had on tags, I was looking at one county's estimator and even though I specified light truck, it still used 85%. I also thought it was kind of interesting that Larimer reports the average weight fee for passenger/truck as $45/90 while Weld reports the averages as $93/113.

 

I actually did a blog post on this a while back:

https://lucky225.wordpress.com/2014...cheaper-registration-on-new-suvs-in-colorado/

The reason, by the way, that I went with RTK instead of light truck is that technically light truck is for hauling property only, as I was registering an SUV *as a truck* I opted for RECREATIONAL truck to distinguish that the vehicle is used both as a TRUCK (hauling property) AND carrying of passengers but still get the 75% SOT tax rate.

Rec Truck is defined as:

(61) “Noncommercial or recreational vehicle” means a truck, or unladen truck tractor, operated singly or in combination with a trailer or utility trailer or a motor home, which truck, or unladen truck tractor, or motor home is used exclusively for personal pleasure, enjoyment, other recreational purposes, or personal or family transportation of the owner, lessee, or occupant and is not used to transport cargo or passengers for profit, hire, or otherwise to further the purposes of a business or commercial enterprise.

Most trucks are registered as simply light trucks, and TRK(Truck) plates are no longer issued, but the registration fee is the same and you'll notice LTK on your registration receipt -- if it says GEN-PAS that's when there's a problem.

EDIT: Unless you have a half-ton pickup, if it's not more than half-ton there's really no reason to register as RTK as you aren't saving any more money ; As above mentioned I did it on the SUV for a specific reason (I've heard cops will ticket if you don't have the seats down in the SUV to show you're using it as a truck, etc.)

 

Lucky, it was your blog post that I was reading while waiting at the DMV that prompted me to ask about registering with the RTK plates.

So, perhaps I'm no further ahead since they might have registered me as a light truck anyway.

 

Correct, unless it's a half-ton or more there's no savings difference between LTK and RTK -- only between Truck and Passenger. The RTK looks cool though, I'm still waiting on my personalized plates.. (I had NORAD plates prior which don't say RTK) got the payment notification on Nov 2nd (was actually already paid), still no notification that the county has them. Waiting to see if cops will give a second look now that I actually am going to have RTK plates on an SUV :X

 

I always did think the whole 'rec use only not daily driver' interpretation was kind of confusing/bs. My reg has me as LTK. I'm too lazy to do the math and figure out if they've actually been charging me 75% or 85%, and at this point, 9 years in, it's probably way too late to do anything about it anyway.