classic insurance on a commercial vehicle?

mannurse

looking for some advice, or someones past experience on having classic insurance on a commercial vehicle- ie land rover range rover.
its a 1985 classic on uk plates, i have it insured under my classic insurance policy, i havent driven it on the road yet but am planning on doing so. the prob is paying the big road tax on the engine when i change it to irish plates. i thought about removing the rear seats and turning it into van type jeep. the prob is that somebody told me that the tax office will not accept an insurance cert for a commercial vehicle when taxing it unless it is a commercial policy?
any thoughts on this?

now its not a fact of trying to get away with out paying tax, its the fact that i hate being screwed for wanting to drive a vehicle with a big chevy engine!!

Dades

mannurse wrote: »

now its not a fact of trying to get away with out paying tax, its the fact that i hate being screwed for wanting to drive a vehicle with a big chevy engine!!

Isn't that the same thing?

macplaxton

mannurse wrote: »

now its not a fact of trying to get away with out paying tax, its the fact that i hate being screwed for wanting to drive a vehicle with a big chevy engine!!

It is the same thing, because they don't screw you for wanting to drive a vehicle with a big chevy engine if it's over 30 years old.

My thought is the rules haven't changed for a while, so it's no surprise to anyone 1985 RR is heavily taxed.

All I can suggest is flog it and find a 30 year old + RR that suits your needs. It'd be easier than trying to make a sow's ear out of a silk purse.

mannurse

yes your both right, i am trying to get away without paying the high tax.
i think selling it is the only viable option, its just that this one is solid.
i could hold on to it for another 7 years or so ......lol

101sean

When I moved here I gave a fair bit of thought of what to have as an everyday vehicle. I wanted a Defender but also needed the passenger space so van body was out but a 130 crew cab is too big. After ignoring all sorts of advice about fiddling commercial tax and dodgy re-registrations I got what I really wanted and to hell with the cost. I have a 110 station wagon and accept that I have to pay the huge road tax on it but don't have the worry of it being confiscated or me being fined.

I get my V8 fix with my 101 which is vintage (insured with IVS).

There are a good few modern looking 'vintage' Land Rovers out there

JohnBoy

if you're willing to live without the seats here's what you could do.

Its what I did last year.

Import your vehicle and pay the VRT as a car. its a 1985 and the vrt will be minimal anyway.

insure it however you like, IVS will give you a classic policy on it as is.

take out the rear seats and seatbelts. put a blob of weld into the seatbelt mount holes (rendering them useless) and fabricate a steel flat floor to cover the footwell, this too must be welded in place.

Take it to a doe approved weighbridge and get a weight docket. get it doe tested.

go to the garda station and make a declaration of commercial use (or something like that, basically the garda comes out and looks in the back, then you both sign a form and the garda stamps it)

book an appointment with your motor tax office to get the vehicle inspected and converted to commercial tax status, bring your insurance cert, log book, weight docket, doe cert and garda form with you.

the tax office will inspect it, my inspection took 30 seconds, just glanced in the back, saw welds, and moved on.

then you fill out the tax renewal form, give em two hundred and something euro and they'll post you out a new logbook in the next few days.

this is what i did, there is no requirement in the tax office for blacked out windows, the vrt guys require it and on an old vehicle its not worth the VRT hassle to save €250 by importing it as a commercial.

I then insured it as a private commercial with FBD, with no problems.

you still have windows so you can pull out at junctions, but no back seats, which is a dose.

galwaytt

Johnboy - good post.

fwiw it's worth, see VRT manual sect 6.6, page 204

mannurse

johnboy, thanks for the information, that is exactly what i wanted to know, i'm glad i'm not the only one thinking this way.
welding shouldnt be a problem.
did you need to nct it first after registering as a private?
thanks again

JohnBoy

no, there was no need to nct it, or to tax it as private.

assuming you dont have it on the road (too much) you'll be grand prior to conversion.

@galwaytt: for a vehicle with a lower OMSP its much easier to just pay the couple of hundred vrt and then go to the local tax office. the €50 route seems fraught with hassles and multiple trips to the VRO at various stages of the job unless you get an approved company to do the conversion for you.

plus you get to keep your windows

this was mine