Tagging a "Homemade Travel Trailer" in TX

[asianflava]

I've been told by many people that it is easy is to get tags for a trailer in Texas. Well, what these people failed to mention was that these trailers were tagged as "Utility Trailers". I was talking to a guy at work who fixes and restores trailers as a hobby. He told me that he got in trouble because one of the travel trailers was tagged as a utility trailer. I decided that I will go ahead and tag mine as a travel trailer. The lady at the tag office said that it has to be titled as a travel trailer if you can sleep in it. I don't know anything about tagging a utility trailer THEN putting a body on it afterwards. Maybe this can be a sticky or a sticky in the Texas board.

I got a from from the tag office outlining the procedure:

Titling Homemade Trailers
(Full Trailers over 4000lbs Empty Weight, Semi-Trailers over 4000lbs Gross Weight, and Travel Trailers)

Take the following to the TXDOT Regional Office
- Form 68-A-1 "Application for Assigned or Reassigned Number" -Inspection completed by law enforcement
- Form D12-305-A "Prescribed Form for Statement of Fact for Ownership of Homemade/Shopmade Trailer, Semitrailer, or Travel Trailer"
- Picture of the trailer
- $2.00

TXDOT will assign you a Serial Number and give you form 68-N

You then take the following to the Tax Assessor-collector's Office (Tag office)
- Form 130-U "Application for Texas Certificate of Title"
- Form 68-N "Assigned Number"
- Form D12-305 Prescribed Form for Statement of Fact for Ownership of Homemade/Shopmade Trailer, Semitrailer, or Travel Trailer"
- Empty Weight slip from a Certified Scale
- A Picture of the Trailer
- Form VTR-141 ""Travel Trailer" or "Park Model Trailer" Verification"

[rooster]

Man!! I think I will have a nightmare if I have to do all that here in Alaska!
But, what the government wants, the government gets. In Texas you people sure have to jump through a lot of hoops to get the tabs and license. I put in a thread about Alaska when I go to the DMV.
Lots a luck.

Jim,

[benroy44]

In Colorado its a utility trailer if you cant stand up in it. and all you need is a recpt for the axel you tell them how mutch you think its worth give them some money and they giv you your tags and a sticker with the vin number on it. I wish they would get all of the states the same
Cya Duane

[SteveH]

he got in trouble because one of the travel trailers was tagged as a utility trailer

Rocky,

You said he restored old travel trailers, was this a previously titled and taged travel trailer that he got into trouble over?

I'm just wondering if the same thing applies to homebuilt trailers that "happen" to have a box on it that you can sleep in?

[randy chesnutt]

i just tagged mine as a Utility Trailer. $44.44. a constable buddy of mine told me to tagg it as a utility trailer. they never pay attention to them anyway. a friend of mine today noticed that his work trailer has been out for three years. farm taggs are the once they check.

[Ken]

asianflava, calm down, chill
in Texas I have heard you can tagg them as a farm trailer, $6.40

[IraRat]

i just tagged mine as a Utility Trailer. $44.44. a constable buddy of mine told me to tagg it as a utility trailer. they never pay attention to them anyway. a friend of mine today noticed that his work trailer has been out for three years. farm taggs are the once they check.

I'm doing the same thing.

And if you remove the mattress, you can't really sleep in it--can you? Tell them it's a trailerable kitchen for picnics and stuff.

[Coca Cola Teardrop]

Rocky, I am in the process (or trying) to title and then tag our Coca Cola Tear. I have the same info you posted but I didn't see where the trailer has to be inspected by DPS. I hope to get everything in the mail this week. I wouldn't title if it weren't for hoping to sell it.
See you guys next month at Inks Lake.
Linda

[westexan]

Hi Guys-

What do the FFA kids do when they are ready to tag their trailers they've completed as shop projects at school? I know that all types of trailers can be made (golf carts, utility, livestock, goosenecks). Maybe another source would be to call your local high school ag instructor (if he or she teaches welding classes) for more information.

And about the farm tags for the tds - be careful! If a farmer or a rancher is stopped for using his/her vehicle and trailer (farm tags) while traveling on non-farm use trip(i.e to a roping, rodeo, 4-H playday) he/she can look forward to extra penalties. Kinda like using the dyed fuels (for off road ag use/non-taxed) in your ranch truck and then getting caught going to town to buy groceries with the dyed fuel inside your pickup tank.
Believe me - DPS checks.

Here's one last piece of trivia - I when I lived in Oklahoma (about 5 years ago). Farm use trailers weren't required to have license plates, but those trailers had to display the owner's social security number in large bold numbers on the back of it so an officer could use it on a stop. I don't know if that's still the case today, but I'm not sure the"free" price of those plates were worth the cost. Maybe the state government didn't think the agriculturalists had anything to lose to identity theft!

westexan

[xe1ufo]

Uhhh... Excuse my ignorance, but can’t anybody see the part that says:
======
(Full Trailers over 4000lbs Empty Weight, Semi-Trailers over 4000lbs Gross Weight, and Travel Trailers
======
What Teardrop weighs over 4,000 ponds empty weight?

If a man is from Texas, he will say so. If not, there is really no need to embarass him!

[asianflava]

It's the "and Travel Trailers" part that concerns us.

[oklahomajewel]

All you need to do is show the officer that by removing 4 bolts,it becomes a utility trailor again.After all,we need the utility trailor in the winter to haul our snowmobills A utility trailor can haul just about any kind of items.In the summer, it hauls our teardrop.

By the way, how would you remove it *the TD* by removing four bolts?
This sounds interesting....

Julie

[Cindy]

Hey Guys, according to the Texas Department of Transportation at http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/a ... ravel_trlr a 'Travel Trailer' is
Travel Trailer
A travel trailer or park model is a house trailer:

designed to be used as a dwelling (even though it may be temporary) in which the plumbing, heating and electrical systems are self-contained and may be operated without connection to outside utilities; or
requiring connection to outside utilities but which is less than eight body feet wide and 40 body feet long in the traveling mode and less than 320 square feet when installed or erected on site.

We don't have any plumbing inside so we cannot fit this definition.

Hey, what can I say? I teach research for UOP. I'm just good at finding stuff.

[SteveH]

Cindy,

So, by that definition, our teardrops can be called utility trailers? Even though some may not have plumbing, I have a water tank and a faucet. Is that considered "plumbing"? I don't have "heating", so would that be an exemption?

I'm not to shure that the statement in the definition means that a travel trailer must have plumbing, heating, and electrical systems to be a travel trailer.

[Cindy]

Steve, The original definition that I posted said it "is a house trailer" so I looked up house trailer in the same site.
A house trailer is a vehicle without automotive power designed:
for human habitation,
to carry persons and property upon its own structure, and
to be drawn by a motor vehicle.
now my tear is not designed for habitation. It is just designed for cooking and sleeping. Actually when I worked for the census bureau the term 'plumbing' referred to toilet and sewage.
I think anyway you look at it you don't have a travel trailer.