Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
I've encountered a dilemma which I'm hoping some people here might be able to help me with. I'm part of a group here at school that has a couple vegetable oil powered school buses that have been touring the country for the last two years. They have been completely rebuilt, from the green paint to the living and sleeping space inside. Two weeks ago, the school had a federal DOT compliance review for all of its vehicles (150+), and we ran into some trouble with the buses. For now, we'll focus on the bus in my signature.
We have it registered through the state of NH as a motorhome, with a 24,000lb GVWR and a 15 passenger limit, so as to avoid requiring all the drivers to obtain a CDL with a passenger endorsement. However, this is only on paper, and there is still a tag on the inside that says 71 passenger, and another that says it is classified as a school bus with a 29,000lb GVWR. Upon noticing this, the DOT inspector grounded us on the spot, telling our entire crew we needed to get commercial licenses, or go to the manufacturer and get new tags made up. Unfortunately, Bluebird won't make new tags, they simply said remove the old ones. The DOT didn't like that, but couldn't give us a clear answer as to what we needed to do, other than get new tags, which can't happen. I've tried a number of different things, talking to the DMV, DOT, highway patrol, you name it... and still haven't made any progress. Each department sends me back to someone else in another department. At the moment, I'm waiting for a highway patrol officer to hopefully come and officially reclassify the bus as a motorhome.
I was just wondering if anyone here has converted a school bus to a motorhome and had to deal with this. It's such a simple little thing. If I had only been smart enough to pull the original tags and paint over where they had been, then we could have avoided all this, but now the DOT guy has pictures of the tags and seems happier to shut us down rather than help us out. We're leaving for a 10 week trip in two weeks, so we're getting down to the wire.
Any ideas?
We have it registered through the state of NH as a motorhome, with a 24,000lb GVWR and a 15 passenger limit, so as to avoid requiring all the drivers to obtain a CDL with a passenger endorsement. However, this is only on paper, and there is still a tag on the inside that says 71 passenger, and another that says it is classified as a school bus with a 29,000lb GVWR. Upon noticing this, the DOT inspector grounded us on the spot, telling our entire crew we needed to get commercial licenses, or go to the manufacturer and get new tags made up. Unfortunately, Bluebird won't make new tags, they simply said remove the old ones. The DOT didn't like that, but couldn't give us a clear answer as to what we needed to do, other than get new tags, which can't happen. I've tried a number of different things, talking to the DMV, DOT, highway patrol, you name it... and still haven't made any progress. Each department sends me back to someone else in another department. At the moment, I'm waiting for a highway patrol officer to hopefully come and officially reclassify the bus as a motorhome.
I was just wondering if anyone here has converted a school bus to a motorhome and had to deal with this. It's such a simple little thing. If I had only been smart enough to pull the original tags and paint over where they had been, then we could have avoided all this, but now the DOT guy has pictures of the tags and seems happier to shut us down rather than help us out. We're leaving for a 10 week trip in two weeks, so we're getting down to the wire.
Any ideas?
