• Gabe Semenza •
• Originally published July 29, 2008 at 12:16 a.m., updated July 29, 2008 at 12:16 a.m.

At 71, Barbara Knowles can do just about anything.

She can overhaul an engine, write fluid prose and live in nothing more than a camp trailer.

But Knowles struggled to register her beloved truck in Texas.

For all this wanderer has seen and done, she’s never faced the problem confronting her since January.

In the eyes of Texas law, her truck doesn’t exist.

Knowles, though, isn’t blinking. She’s fought to have her truck registered – and she’s nearly won.

After all, her 1978 Chevrolet C-30 is not your typical truck.

The nuts and bolts

In 1983, Knowles bought the truck used for $2,500 and registered it in Texas.

Over the years, she moved to California, Oregon and Washington – working odd jobs and re-registering the truck at each stop.

To earn money in 2004 to return to Texas, she worked in a cherry processing plant and in a restaurant, saved her Social Security checks and camped in her truck.

One night, though, her truck caught fire. Flames damaged the cab and portions of the flatbed. Her trip to Texas was delayed.

To repair the damage, Knowles swapped her 1978 truck cab with a cab from a 1973 Chevrolet, among other repairs.

“It took me two years and $10,000 to put my truck back together,” she said. “I did almost all of the dismantling and some of the rebuilding. Then I moved back to Texas and the problems began.”

Switching gears

After returning to Texas, Knowles visited the Victoria County Tax Office.

But when people who move here from outside Texas register a vehicle, they must show a driver’s license, registration, proof of insurance and inspection, as well as the vehicle’s title.

Knowles’ cab and frame are from two different vehicles.

“The vehicle parts didn’t match up and she didn’t have the proper paperwork for it,” said Sylvia Salazar, a chief deputy at the tax office.

The law requires reassembled vehicles to be inspected by the state and given a new vehicle identification number.

Rena Scherer, the county tax assessor-collector, stressed that each situation is different and complicated.

To complicate an already tricky situation, Knowles’ rusty truck frame lacks a vehicle identification number.

The truck can’t be registered.

“We don’t know if it’s stolen or not,” Salazar said.

So, Salazar sent Knowles to Victoria Police Detective Adam Rodriguez, a motor vehicle theft investigator.

“We verify the vehicle identification number belongs to the vehicle and that it’s not stolen,” Rodriguez said. “I couldn’t find the VIN anywhere in the cab or on the frame.”

While Rodriguez said he saw no evidence the truck is stolen, he classified his investigation as “Undetermined.”

Knowles was back to square one, even though she can produce the vehicle’s original paperwork and swears she would never steal a truck cab.

“This truck and I have been together a long time and I don’t intend to lose it now,” she said.

These days, Knowles rents a small lot in the country where she parks her truck and sleeps in a camp trailer.

She’s struggled to find work to save for the $200 filing fee and $800 attorney fee needed to sue the Texas Department of Transportation.

To register a vehicle in this odd situation, a judge must order the transportation department to register it. Then Knowles must drive to Corpus Christi to have a new number stamped on the frame and cab.

It seems her persistence may have paid off.

The transportation department sent Knowles a letter last week from Austin, Salazar said.

The letter notes Salazar can hold a title hearing in the tax office. This would bypass an expensive court hearing and send Knowles to Corpus Christi for the new number stamping.

“It’s going to happen,” Salazar said.

As of Monday, Knowles had not received the letter. But when she does, her beloved truck will be assigned a new identification number. She will no longer travel the countryside with expired Washington license plates.

Either way, the seven-month fight with tricky registration laws only made her grow fonder of her truck.

“I’ve had it 25 years. It’s mine,” Knowles said. “It is the perfect vehicle for my lifestyle. It pulls. It hauls. When one can’t afford a motel, it is also comfortable to sleep in.”

Gabe Semenza is the Public Service Editor for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.

• What’s this story about?

  A 71-year-old local woman fights to register her truck.

  But the modern-day nomad rebuilt portions of her vehicle.

  Lacking VINs, the state says the truck doesn’t exist.

  Will she win her battle or give up?

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