Easy, Painless and Cheap way to Register your Trailer

[jss06]

In Texas it is very easy to register a homebuilt trailer as long as it's GVWR is below 4500 lbs.

If you want a title its an entirely different animal.

1) Go to the local DMV. Explain what you are trying to do and get the appropriate paperwork to fill out. Statement of origin as a homebuilt trailer, Title Application, temporary tag to allow you to drag the trailer around.

2) Schedule with the local Law enforcement to inspect the trailer. Im my case the local Police department does not do inspections anymore. Had to contact the Dallas County Sherrif Vehicle Anit-theft Task force.

3) Find some place to get an official weight certificate. The trailer was too light for the CAT scales at teh local truck stop. So I ended up at a metal recyling yard that was able to do this for me.

4) Take the trailer down to the inspection place. Make sure you bring your weight slip, all receipts you can find (especially the axle), build pics and anything else you can use to determine the trailer is actually home built.
(With all the documentation, the inspection took about 5 minutes. It took another 20 minutes for all the inspectors to finish looking through the trailer and to answer their questions.) At teh end of this they provide you with a piece of paper saying is was inspected and everythign is okay.

5) Go to the regional DMV office. You will need all the paper work y ou have collected so far, $2 and at least 2 good pictures of the trailer from different angles. They will issue you a VIN number.

6) Stamp the VIN in to the trailer frame as directed. Finish filling out the application for Title.

7) Go back to your local DMV office with all the accumulated paperwork. they will issue you the TAG for the trailer. About 4 weeks later you will get the title in the mail.

Why did I jump through all these hoops? One it is actually registered as it is suppposed to be for a travel trailer in Texas. And, two it will make it easier to sell later with a valid title and registration.

[absolutsnwbrdr]

I sent mine out almost 2 weeks ago (Thursday Jan 12) and the check hasn't cleared yet. Haven't had anything returned yet either, so thats a good thing. I'm pretty impatient too.

Thought about calling them to verify that they received it, but just haven't.

Still praying.



EDIT: So I was curious and went onto the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles website and did a vanity plate search for what I had requested. And it now says its UNAVAILABLE!!! And my 2nd choice is still available.
Does that mean that my registration has been processed and went through?!?!

[parnold]

I didn't see anything about being able to order vanity plates.

[parnold]

Woohoo:



Just checked and my check cleared today!

[packerz4]

i agree that Penn State's registration laws are ridiculous! I tried to register my 14ft aluminum fishing boat trailer that i brought out from Wisconsin when i lived there... INSANE, photos, inspection, build info, first born, right's to any future born... i did get the boat registered so i was legal on the water, but never messed with the trailer. it's a money making gimick... just pulled the trailer with my father-in-law's truck (he lived with us that summer) and he had Wisconsin plates on the truck. Happy to be back in Wisconsin!

I don't have to pay a "privelage to work tax" here either.

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Just checked and my check cleared today!

Mine did today!

[parnold]

I'm like a kid at Christmas time now.

[parnold]

Got my plate today!

I put a check in the mail last Tuesday, so from my mailing, it was 9 days 'til I got my plate. I did not request a vanity plate.

The forms were fairly easy. Since my trailer was old (1973) I needed a signed Bill of Sale, which was actually supplied by the web site. In legal jargon, the BOS basically says the trailer isn't stolen, and it was sold to you for xx.xx$.

I took a number that I found stamped into the frame, used that as the VIN #. It's under 2000lbs so easy peasy.

Hooray

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Got my plate today!

Me too!! Kinda....

It took exactly two weeks from the time I mailed the check (the second time), until I got my temp tag.



Guess the real one will be on its way after the convicts stamp it out for me.

[Blotto Bros]

Congrats guys!!! Glad this worked so well for you.

Your convict made plate comment reminded me of a sign that used to hang in a Denver DMV I went to.

"Writing a bad check for your license plates will lead to a career of making them"

[len19070]

Paul & Zach.

Glad this worked out for you.

Happy Trails

Len

[Oldragbaggers]

Got my plate today!

I put a check in the mail last Tuesday, so from my mailing, it was 9 days 'til I got my plate. I did not request a vanity plate.

The forms were fairly easy. Since my trailer was old (1973) I needed a signed Bill of Sale, which was actually supplied by the web site. In legal jargon, the BOS basically says the trailer isn't stolen, and it was sold to you for xx.xx$.

I took a number that I found stamped into the frame, used that as the VIN #. It's under 2000lbs so easy peasy.

Hooray

I was planning to do the Maine registration also if I couldn't get it to fly in Maryland as a homebuilt.

I bought my old pop-up frame from a guy on Craigslist for $100. He didn't give me a bill of sale. I don't even know his last name. Don't have the foggiest how to contact him at this point. I do have the vin plate that I took off the trailer though.

Since I had significant welding done and have a receipt for it, plus purchased new axle, wheels, tires and a lot of other parts for the trailer, I wonder if it would just be easier to chuck that vin plate and register it as homebuilt in Maine.

I'll hold onto those receipts too just incase the devil rears his ugly head in Maryland when I go to transfer the registration on my HOMEBUILT trailer.

[TJinPgh]

Got my plate today!

Me too!! Kinda....

It took exactly two weeks from the time I mailed the check (the second time), until I got my temp tag.


Guess the real one will be on its way after the convicts stamp it out for me.

Zach,
Congrats on getting it tagged.

I'm curious, given that you can only 'legally" have a plate from another state on something for a brief period of time here in PA (20 days?), why did you bother to get the vanity plate?

Wouldn't you need to do it all over again when you transfer the title to PA?

Either way, please let us know how it goes when you do the title transfer. And, if it's not too personal, what fees/taxes needed to be paid in Maine and in PA to complete everything.

-TJ

[parnold]

Zach,
Congrats on getting it tagged.

I'm curious, given that you can only 'legally" have a plate from another state on something for a brief period of time here in PA (20 days?), why did you bother to get the vanity plate?

Wouldn't you need to do it all over again when you transfer the title to PA?

Either way, please let us know how it goes when you do the title transfer. And, if it's not too personal, what fees/taxes needed to be paid in Maine and in PA to complete everything.

-TJ

Hopefully Zach will find out that law only applies to motor vehicles. Considering how many trailers Maine registers, I think Zach will be safe. A large percentage of 18 wheeler trailers have Maine tags.

[TJinPgh]

Good point.

I just never assume that PA won't find a way to screw somebody with regulations.

It's been my experience that just when you think there's no other way for them to throw a wrench into something, they do.

PennDot. Where their motto is "just when you think you have all the answers, we change the questions."