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Truck License Plates

fatherdoug

Tonto Papadapolous
A picture of the plates, but I don't know what the GVW rating would have been to differentiate cars from trucks. Is that what you are asking?

0005772_1949-virginia-truck-pair-t31-793_300_1_.jpg
 
Yes. Would those have been issued for an F-1? I expect the truck plates were only issued to larger trucks, but I'm not sure. Maybe they did things differently back then.
 

fatherdoug

Tonto Papadapolous
The cutoff has generally been 6000 lb GVW. It's only a gut feeling, but anything rated at 6000 or higher would have been considered a truck, so yes, an F-1 would have had truck plates. My only experience was Colorado, where an F-1 wore truck plates
 

mtflat

Flatheads Forever
2,559
147
Couple of ideas to throw out - may or may not help.

Before 1942, half ton pickups were build on car chassis. Beginning in 42 Ford started the typical "truck" chassis even in pickups. They were only considered half-ton trucks.

In 1948 Ford started the "F" series.
F1 half-ton gvwr was 4700
F2/3 three quarter ton gvwr was 6800

So while I don't know the answer for sure, it is my belief that T plates were issued to half-ton pickups 1942 on. But, this may have varied state-to-state.
 
Decided to keep it simple and go with the normal tags.

Not surprisingly, the DMV had no historical information and could only offer the current guidelines which offer truck plates to pickups over 6500lbs gross weight.

I suspect the guidelines were different back in 1949.
 
Virginia actually allows you to register vintage plates to your vehicle for use as permanent plates.

I just wondered if truck "T" plates like the ones pictured above would be historically accurate for a '49 F-1.
 

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