Registering trailers

[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.