Registering trailer out of state?

M

Mark13

I'm so much cooler online
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Jun 13, 2009
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I'm looking to purchase a trailer and I see where a lot of guys register them out of state to save on cost but still be legal. Does anyone else do something similar?

And before someone says just pay for IL plates, their $722/yr plus 2 inspections at $21-25 each. I'm looking for a cheaper alternative without plating my trailer for less weight (25,000lb gvwr) and I won't be using it nearly enough to justify $800/yr before I even get into wear items and maintenance on it.
 
You might look to license it as a semi trailer, I think it's $29 lifetime. You'd have to raise your truck plates to be legal, though. Class H plates (16,000 - 26000#) run $561 per ILDMV's site.
 
59Dsul said:
You might look to license it as a semi trailer, I think it's $29 lifetime. You'd have to raise your truck plates to be legal, though. Class H plates (16,000 - 26000#) run $561 per ILDMV's site.
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I'm running D plates (8-12,000lb) on my pickup ($158/yr + $50 for 2 inspections)

I'm going to call the Maine trailer office tomorrow to make sure I have everything right and then hopefully go get the trailer later this week or early next week. I was having second thoughts about the trailer when plates and insurance were going to run me 900-1k a year. I'd have to take out a loan for the lifetime of the trailer just to pay to keep it legal at that rate.
 
Tagging your trailer in Maine is a piece of cake. I have both of mine registered in Maine, I went through the same place that is linked. All I had to do was fill out one piece of paper so they could do the tags and send them a check with the titles. About two weeks later I had tags and Maine titles in hand. I will note though, that if the empty weight of the trailer is under 2500 iirc they do not change the title, just tag it in Maine. Also the trailer has to have a GVRW of at least 3500 iirc for them to even be able to tag in Maine and can not be a Camper.
 
06 DIESEL said:
Tagging your trailer in Maine is a piece of cake. I have both of mine registered in Maine, I went through the same place that is linked. All I had to do was fill out one piece of paper so they could do the tags and send them a check with the titles. About two weeks later I had tags and Maine titles in hand. I will note though, that if the empty weight of the trailer is under 2500 iirc they do not change the title, just tag it in Maine. Also the trailer has to have a GVRW of at least 3500 iirc for them to even be able to tag in Maine and can not be a Camper.
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The trailer is probably 5-6,000lbs empty. (23+5 tandem dual gooseneck)

What address do they use when they make up a Maine title for the trailer?
 
They use their address as primary and yours as secondary. Everything goes through them first and then they mail it to you.
 
06 DIESEL said:
They use their address as primary and yours as secondary. Everything goes through them first and then they mail it to you.
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Good deal. I just called them a minute ago to ask and check about sales tax.

It's primary use will be Ag (hay, equipment, etc) but their still looking for tax on it, atleast it wont be to much.
 
Any legality issues with this? seems like there would be.

(EDIT)

I see it says "We need a signed Power of Attorney in order to act as your representative and title your trailer(s) here in Maine. You or your company will always be listed as the trailer's owner.."

That must be how they get around the legality issues.

I wonder if once they have the power of attorney on file, if they could also license all of your vehicles in maine as well? :poke:
 
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seems like a too good to be true kinda deal. let us know how it works. illinois usually doesnt like to get snaked out of its money
 
Schwinn68 said:
seems like a too good to be true kinda deal. let us know how it works. illinois usually doesnt like to get snaked out of its money
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I'll see if it works or not. There's a semi trailer sitting at work right now that is registered through Maine and it only sees use in IL, MO, and MI. The owners of it are not around to ask how it's been working for them unfortunately.

I'm not purposely snaking IL out of registration money, but when it would cost me an arm, a leg, and the pet dog each year to keep the thing on the road legally I think it's a little ridiculous.

Iowa is $30/yr, Colorado looks to be about $70/yr, Maine is $20/yr, and Illinois is $775/yr. Something seems wrong that IL want's that much just to plate a gooseneck deckover correctly compared to all the other states.
 
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I see a lot of semi trailers out of oklahoma to along with the maine tags..
 
rpage said:
I see a lot of semi trailers out of oklahoma to along with the maine tags..
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All of ours have Maine tags, buy them & bolt them on and never mess with them again. Think of it this way, UPS has 84,000 trailers and if they were tagged in say Ohio you would have to find each trailer and put a stupid sticker on the plate each time it was renewed. To show even more stupidity they would send you the sticker in january with instructions saying "do not affix in cold weather".

I'd bet more than 95% of all the trailers registered in Maine have never even been close to the state.:lolly:
 
It is perfectly legal, the reason that you see most semi trailers tagged in Maine or Oklahoma is because they are cheaper and longer tags. I believe that Oklahoma is a permanent tag where Maine can be bought for between 1 to 10 years depending on how much you want to spend.

I have been trying to convince my father of this also, he has a 14k bumper pull trailer, tagged and used in IL that costs him $160 per year to tag iirc. I pay $90 for a five year tag on my 14k GN and $90 for a five year tag on my 12k bumper pull. For what it costs him a year I can almost tag two trailers for five years. For some reason he does not want to go with Maine, I guess he is worried about trying to convince a trooper that it is legal.
 
One of my uncles owns a fleet, he started trucking back in the late '70s. He's always had maine tags on the trailers. Recently it came about in a conversation and he says it's the only way to go!
 
Mark13 said:
I'll see if it works or not. There's a semi trailer sitting at work right now that is registered through Maine and it only sees use in IL, MO, and MI. The owners of it are not around to ask how it's been working for them unfortunately.

I'm not purposely snaking IL out of registration money, but when it would cost me an arm, a leg, and the pet dog each year to keep the thing on the road legally I think it's a little ridiculous.

Iowa is $30/yr, Colorado looks to be about $70/yr, Maine is $20/yr, and Illinois is $775/yr. Something seems wrong that IL want's that much just to plate a gooseneck deckover correctly compared to all the other states.
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don't take my post the wrong way. :lolly:

I have this bookmarked so as soon as I buy a bigger trailer it will have Maine plates on it as well. I'm also going to tell everyone I know that has a big trailer about this huge savings. There is no reason the plates should be that expensive in IL and is one of the reasons I haven't bought a trailer yet.
 
Schwinn68 said:
don't take my post the wrong way. :lolly:

I have this bookmarked so as soon as I buy a bigger trailer it will have Maine plates on it as well. I'm also going to tell everyone I know that has a big trailer about this huge savings. There is no reason the plates should be that expensive in IL and is one of the reasons I haven't bought a trailer yet.
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I didn't take as you telling me not to do it. I'm just as curious as you are probably to see if it works well here and how much attention the tags get. No worry about inspections on the trailer will be nice too and save me $50/yr. Doesn't mean maintenance on the trailer should be allowed to slack off but no worry of going to use it and finding out your inspection is expired or about to.
 
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