Registering trailers

[mkmkmk]

Hello, I have read on a bunch of other forums that registering your work trailer is extremely cheap in Maine, has anyone here done this?

I'm planning on using this company and wanted to see if others had similar experience:

maine trailer registrations

It seems legit but i would like opinions or experiences before i send off a check


Thanks
Mark

[mossaidis]

Search these forums for "maine" and you will find the company that was mentioned before, I think Staab Agency which came highly recommended. Mark, where do you hail from? what do you race?

[dickita15]

I use Staab, very happy

[jimbbski]

I assume that you mean getting a license plate?
Here in Illinois a simple 2 axel trailer cost less then $20 a year although if may go up in the future as Illinois is having money problems.
Where they get you is when you get a new or new used trailer. Then the fee to issue you a new title varies from $95 to $150 depending on the trailers weight rating. After that first year any trailer like those used by racers will cost no more then $50 per year.

[mkmkmk]

Hi All I'm currently in Maryland area, but i kinda split my time between here and California. I'm looking to pickup a VW corrado for a new project. Growing up a cousin had one in the early nineties, ever since then i told my self i would track one down.Best VW in my opinion. Need the trailer before i can get a car. Inspiration was this
corradoracecar.blogspot

Occasionally they pop up on CL in the area.

I was checking out Stabb and came across this
"Shirley St. Pierre, 55, was ordered to report to prison by April 17. She was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in October 2008 of federal income tax evasion and one count of impeding enforcement of IRS laws.

She failed to report $460,000 in personal income earned through her business, the Staab Agency, and underpaid $185,000 in the 2002 tax year.

She was fined $75,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of $5,177. She also will be on supervised release for two years after serving the prison term."

Sounds kinda sketchy with them

Thanks

[mkmkmk]

So i contacted Sam At maine trailer registrations. He was really helpful and assured me that this has been happening for over 30 years and he has no trouble with it. He didnt pressure me to buy with him, but would suggest if your thinking of it, check him out. I dont want to use Staab agency because of their fraud charges

Maine trailer registration
1 800 883 5181

[Z3_GoCar]

Hi All I'm currently in Maryland area, but i kinda split my time between here and California. I'm looking to pickup a VW corrado for a new project. Growing up a cousin had one in the early nineties, ever since then i told my self i would track one down.Best VW in my opinion. Need the trailer before i can get a car. Inspiration was this
corradoracecar.blogspot

Occasionally they pop up on CL in the area.

I was checking out Stabb and came across this
"Shirley St. Pierre, 55, was ordered to report to prison by April 17. She was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in October 2008 of federal income tax evasion and one count of impeding enforcement of IRS laws.

She failed to report $460,000 in personal income earned through her business, the Staab Agency, and underpaid $185,000 in the 2002 tax year.

She was fined $75,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of $5,177. She also will be on supervised release for two years after serving the prison term."

Sounds kinda sketchy with them

Thanks

Why don't you register your trailer in Ca. which costs nothing past the inital registration of $50. It's one of the few benefits of having something registered in this state.

[LateApexer]

Does anyone have experience before and after with a weight-distributing hitch on their tow vehicle/trailer? Wondering whether it's worth the cost.

Jim

[dickita15]

I love mine. Lots of tongue weight makes for a stable trailer. WD hitch allows lots of tongue weight

[Jhenaire]

Hi MKMKMK,
I am with the company Countrywide Trailer Registrations (look us up on the web,) we can register your trailer for you... It's the cheapest around. And yes, it is legal to register an out of state Trailer in the state of Maine. Please feel free to contact me if I can help you or anyone else out further...

[Jhenaire]

Hello MKMKMK,

I saw that you were wondering if you could register trailers in Maine from another state and YES you can... I can do that for you! I work for Countrywide Trailer Registrations (check it out on the web) and it is the cheapest around! Thanks :)

[Jhenaire]

Hey if anyone has any futher questions about registering your trailers through the State of Maine then please contact me and I will help you with that!

~Jen
Countrywide Trailer Registrations . com

[raffaelli]

For those that are registered in Maine, how is an insepction handled? (Fishing to hear that you don't need an inspection for my small open trailer)

[Matt93SE]

No inspections required, that's the fun part.

wow.. 75% of these posts could be considered Maine Trailer Registration spam... Looks to me half these posters signed up just to do that.

[mossaidis]

No issues with my Maine registeration. The exp date is on the plate, I don't need paperwork (other than the title in my desk at home) and no inspections.

[StephF]

Just a word of warning to my New England friends out there: The states in New England are starting to crack down on the ME registrations. (MA is actually getting a bit more aggressive with other things like weight and CDL requirements now too)
If they find you are registering your trailer through a company, and have no legal address in ME, you do run a risk of getting penalized for it.
I am not sure if they can try to hit you for back sales tax and stuff like that too, but I wouldn't put it past some of the locales to try.
I would guess it's only a matter of time before specific laws banning registering like this are put out there. They want every last drop of blood they can squeeze out of you.
Like I said, consider yourself warned.

[Matt93SE]

I don't see how they can enforce that.. That's part of what the registration companies do. At least for LLCs and such, they send all of the paperwork to a clearinghouse/registrar (My Delaware LLC had one anyway), and then they forward that stuff on to you. It's a legal, physical address of record. Anything else and they're barking just to see if you run.

[StephF]

I work at a place that sells trailers, so we see new registrations on a constant basis, from all over the country, but primarily New England states. I have noticed a drop off in new registrations to ME.

Of late, there has been an increase of people complaining that they got hassled either in a stop or by their own local PD over the ME tag. The states are well aware of the registration in ME angle. And they are also well aware of the loss of taxes.

We are also hearing about what appears to be a crackdown on whether or not your rig falls into CDL territory now. We are getting the most complaints about this from New York state. Several folks have said they were forced to park their trailers after getting stopped and slapped with fines. These were folks with trailers strictly for pleasure, larger horse trailers. Many of us have larger car haulers that could also cross the line weight wise.

As far as the ME registration complanits, do the state or local authorities have a leg to stand on now? Probably not. Could they change the laws and close the loophole/and or levy penalties if they find you are registering in ME? I would say they probably could, and knowing MA, probably will. Will it happen soon? Who knows? I guess you would have to watch Beacon Hill on a regular basis.

Like I said, if you do this, just be aware that it could indeed lead to some extra bullshit from the authorities if you get stopped. It's already been happening, so my advise to you is that you don't get stopped for anything. And double that in NY if you are anywhere close to CDL territory.

[Matt93SE]

Good points. The extra detail there helps. :)
I haven't been stopped with my trailer (registered in my home state), but they're now cracking down on inspections and such which have gone unenforced until recently. That's one of my issues for wanting to move registration out of state. my 24' enclosed costs something like $40/yr to inspect and over $100/yr to register in TX--- that's twice what my car costs! At least insurance is cheap on it in relation to my car...

We've also run into those issues at work regarding the CDL. It was in a New england area state where a couple coworkers got stopped in our 1 ton van pulling a small single-axle trailer, and slapped with a whoooole bunch of fines because they were pulling company property through their state (across state lines) without a CDL and logbook and etc on the van.

So instead of renting trucks/trailers and driving ourselves, we're now relegated to paying 3x the price for a hot shot or LTL shipment to carry a 1200lb part a couple hundred miles.

[joeg]

I would heed Stepf's warning and advice.

How difficult is it for a cop to see that the state of your tow rig's plates differ from your trailer's plates?

Not very. Your real state is losing reg. fees and taxes and is going broke.

Freinds of mine have actually used Maine registries in a pinch for a vintage car that we had no title for and wanted to sell it. That worked because the sale was quick and the buyer was from a whole different state. We did not want a vehicle with Maine plates on it for a lengthy period of time that would be regularly driven.

[mossaidis]

I have an open 16" in Upstate NY. No problems, but who knows... maybe I will get "shit" this spring from some statie. FYI, NY trailer registration is just as or more expense than Texas.

For joeg, i think you paid excise tax for the ME car registration, right?

[joeg]

oh fior sure (right)!!