Trailer Registration Woes

Benny17441 · Oct 3, 2012

Don't know about California but most states have provisions for registering "Home Made Trailers". Just go to your DMV and inquire about the procedures for registering a homemade trailer. It is usually simple requiring the filling out of a form indicating length and weight and would require for you to purchase a new tag. Don't take an old tag nor a bill of sale just indicate is home made and you want to register it. Just say you built it a couple of years ago and want to register now. They usually do not inspect the trailer nor really care much about the manufacture date. But first check with your DMV.

31seahorse · Oct 3, 2012

Hello Aaron,

Paperwork confusion can take the joy out of the purchase of a new (to you) boat and trailer. Many of us can empathise with you.

Thoughts: (1) Does California recognize "home built" trailer registration? Check with Dept of Trans or whatever agency handles registrations. Maybe you can apply for that especially if you made some modifications to the trailer. (2) Ask for their recommendation on how to get the trailer into compliance. Maybe there is a lost title process. Hint: Have all of the documentation you do have really neatly in order. Say "Yes, Sir" or "Yes, Mam" and "Thank you for your professional help." at every possible opportunity during your conversations with the person on the other side of the divider/desk. (3) Some advertisements offer to "get any trailer registered"for a fee. I never went that route.

RE: serial numbers. Maybe on the tongue or the back part of the frame. Often the trailers have only a sticker where the numbers are recorded and those fade quickly from being dunked in the water at a ramp.

Also, have the price of the trailer clearly stated on your bill of sale and seperate from the boat or any other equipment.
Phil

monkeybars · Oct 3, 2012

you sound like you think you were cheated, you didn't discover this before you wrote the check or what.

anchorclanker · Oct 3, 2012

If ever there were a "free" state, within our union of free states, Cali has to be the least free and the worst possible in terms of screwing with residents and visitors over anything and everything they can. To that end, I would make sure that "homemade" trailer has nothing left on it to show its origins, even if it means using a cutting torch, grinder, and welder.

Merlin Clark · Oct 3, 2012

Check to see if the state of MI or CA require a title for trailers. I tore my files and office apart when I sold my pontoon trailer and then found out I never had a title for it. Florida doesn't require titles on trailers.

anchorclanker · Oct 3, 2012

monkeybars said:
you sound like you think you were cheated, you didn't discover this before you wrote the check or what.

I didnt pick up on that at all, he just is looking for information of how to resolve the issue.

jimg · Oct 3, 2012

Trailer registration

California does register trailers, and with Permanent plates (PTI's they are called). Yes, you can register "home built" trailers, I have done it.

Mu suggestion: Instead of asking here why don't you go to the DMV, or better yet the Auto Club, and get some direction from people who can give you factual answers.

Daydreamer · Oct 3, 2012

I went through a similar problem with my trailer, however, it was in the CA DMV system and I wound up contacting one of the previous owners to finish some paperwork. Long drawn out process.

If CA DMV doesn't have any info in their system then I would go the "homebuilt" route. Ask them how to go about the process of registering a homemade trailer. Also try to work with the same rep. at DMV so you don't have to explain everything each time you go there.

Clean it up, remove any production labeling, tell them you built it from spare parts.

It was all worth it once we got on the water!

toddco · Oct 3, 2012

If you have a set of license plates from Michigan, Michigan would know the VIN number. You could try calling Michigan or your local PD might be able to run the plate. Thats what I did in the Peoples Republic of Illinois.

good luck

Todd

finding41 · Oct 3, 2012

Oh the joy of boat trailer ownership!
My trailer ownership reads like a novel. It is 3 separate pages! One ownership with the trailer manufactures name on it from Thailand or Korea I cant recall. (It actually says it is a trailer kit.) No spot to put anyone like the buyers info on it. Another from Ohio ware I got the boat with the old owners name and the one previous to him...? (No idea why the previous ones name is there when he is out of state..)
And the Ontario one the Ministry of Transport made for me when I went in to register it.
They told me I should keep all 3 with the trailer when I'm using it. Funny thing is there are no # that I can find on the trailer. Even the silver sticker is just blank with no impressions. (They may have just assumed at the Ministry that the # on the first foreign one was the # on it. ) I'll have to get my metal stamp set out while I'm thinking of it.)
So its all in the boat file. With photo copies in the boat just in case I forget the file at home.
The American side of the border wanted separate receipts for the boat and trailer. Canada customs didn't care one way or the other.
I had to borrow the trailer plate from the PO in Ohio and mail it back. (It was for another trailer..)

oldersalt · Oct 3, 2012

Registering trailer in CA

I went through this in CA just a year or so ago. Not that bad. I bought a small trailer knowing that the seller had "lost" the pink slip. When I got home and checked the plate with the DMV, I was not very surprised when it turned out the plate came from a big travel trailer in Southern Cal! Clearly this trailer had never really been registered before.

The trailer had some manufactured parts, but no VIN anywhere, so it was assumed, I think, to be homemade. In any event, the DMV has a form for EVERY situation and actually handled this pretty smoothly.

I took the trailer to my local small town DMV office and it was pretty easy, though there was some confusion among the employees there. One told me I had to fill out some paperwork, then haul the trailer across town to the CHP office to be inspected, then bring it back to the DMV to finish the process. For some reason I now forget, I had a chance to ask the other employee in that same office. She said not necessary, dug out a little permanent new stick-on VIN number, went out the parking lot, stuck it on the trailer, then went in and finished up the paperwork in about 10 minutes, handed me a new plate, collected some money, and sent me on my way. Easy!

There is one thing to remember. They will make you pay "use tax" (same rate as local sales tax) on the purchase price. You might want to think hard about what to tell them you paid for that old, beat up small trailer (hint, hint).

Good luck. Hope your experience will be as easy as mine was.

shemandr · Oct 4, 2012

I was told by NY DMV to go the home built route - though they knew it wasn't the case. The VIN number was on a sticker that cannot be read.
It's still a pita to get it weighed and I think I have to find someone to stamp the number on it. I put the project on hold when my keelboat was launched and will get back to it when Artemis go back on the hard.

rgranger · Oct 4, 2012

toddco said:
If you have a set of license plates from Michigan, Michigan would know the VIN number. You could try calling Michigan or your local PD might be able to run the plate. Thats what I did in the Peoples Republic of Illinois.

good luck

Todd

Yes! Michigan's DMV will be able to tell you how to apply for a new Michigan title, then you transfer it to CA

Benny17441 · Oct 4, 2012

Check this site out. http://td.roughwheelers.com/DMV/index.html

DavyBones · Oct 4, 2012

This is what is required in Mi for registering a trailer, I'm going thru it right now too... well, whenever I can finally get there with/around my work schedule

http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,4670,7-127-1585_1587-285702--,00.html

oldiesrocker2001 · Oct 7, 2012

I would go the home - built route as suggested by most replys. If CA allows it, it's the most painless by far. I know NJ rivals CA in screwing with and over residents and my tale of woe for my second smaller boat also reads like a novel. No matter WHO i talkd to in DMV I got a different set of requriments/instructions to resolve the issue(my boat trailer had never been registered or titled as it spent it's entire lifetime on a private lake) and never the same person that gave me the instructions when I returned. Not once did they suggest the homemade route. My rigger suggested I go to a different agency with a couple of pix, a made-up # (I used the #on the hitch that designated the ball size) and approx weight. 8 minutes and 18 dollars later I had a registration and plates - this after 9 months of trying it "by the book"! :cussing:

Trailer Registration Woes

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