When Do I Not Need To Register A Trailer

Aug 28, 2018

How to Register a Trailer

Most states crave you lot to register a trailer within 30 days from the date of purchase. Laws regarding title and registration vary from state to country, but the penalties for going unregistered are stiff in most of the states that do take this requirement. The longer you lot procrastinate on registration, the costlier the fines are liable to be for your untitled trailer.

Tabular array of Contents

Trailer Title and Registration Requirements
- Research Local Registration Laws
- Assemble Your Identification Cards
- Gather the Necessary Documents for the Trailer Registration Procedure
- Gather the Certificate of Title
- Safety Inspections
- Pay the Registration Fee
Register Your Trailer Every Few Years
Consummate the Registration of Your Trailer
Registration for Different Types of Trailers
- Register an Auto Hauler
- Annals a Bulk Trailer
- Annals a Concession Trailer
- Register a Dump Trailer
- Register a Freight Trailer
- Register a Gooseneck Trailer
- Register a Horse Trailer
- Register a Livestock Trailer
- Register a Logging Trailer
- Annals a Pole Trailer
- Annals a Tilt Trailer
- Register a Motorhome
All Pro Trailer Superstore for Trailers and Related Services

Trailer Title and Registration Requirements

Before registering a trailer, y'all will generally demand to submit a signed title to verify your buying. Alternately, you might be able to use a manufacturer's statement of origin. You lot will besides demand to sign and submit an awarding for the license and title of the trailer, along with receipts of applicable property taxes. Finally, you will need to pay the registration fees.

Research Local Registration Laws

Practice some research into the laws as they apply in your jurisdiction regarding trailer registration requirements. In most states, you practice need to register a trailer for personal or commercial use, though the requirements vary from state to state.

The easiest manner to learn virtually the laws that apply in your area is to visit the Department of Motor Vehicles' website for your state. Instead, you lot could make a preliminary visit to your local DMV and speak with a service agent about the materials y'all will need to gather to register your trailer. If y'all do not have a DMV location in your hometown, check online or call the DMV to become directions to the nearest location.

Gather Your Identification Cards

Earlier you brand a trip to the DMV, make sure to accept two forms of photograph ID on hand to verify your identity when you speak with an amanuensis. For example, your driver'south license might serve as the primary form of ID, and a passport could serve every bit the second. If you do not take a passport, you could use a military identification bill of fare instead. If your only form of photo ID is your driver'southward license, be certain to have other forms of identification on hand, such as your birth certificate and the card with your Social Security number.

Gather the Necessary Documents for the Trailer Registration Process

One of the cardinal documents you volition need to have on hand to annals a trailer is the bill of sale that verifies your ownership. This document should contain all the basic information about the trailer, such as the make, model and yr of product, as well as the weight and ID number of the trailer.

You should as well have info on the seller in addition to your identification when you go to run across with a DMV agent to register your trailer. With all the necessary documents, the process of registration should not accept long to complete.

Gather Your Identification Cards

Gather the Certificate of Title

In improver to the bill of sale, you will also need to have the certificate of title on hand when you go to register the trailer. The certificate of title is the document proving you are the rightful owner of the holding in question, which would exist the trailer in this instance.

If you do non have the certificate of title in your possession, y'all will need to ask the DMV well-nigh the procedures for obtaining this document. In some cases, such every bit when you take only recently purchased the trailer, you might not accept the certificate of title.

Safety Inspections

The DMV will not register a trailer that is unsafe for active personal or commercial utilise. Some trailers must undergo a safety inspection before obtaining registration. Trailers that are onetime or that have changed hands between one or more prior owners are liable to exist subject field to this requirement.

Near DMV branches have onsite inspection stations to inspect trailers for prophylactic. If your trailer does require a rubber inspection, the DMV might upshot you a temporary registration, pending the inspection date and exam results. The allotted elapsing for this temporary registration will depend on DMV policies within your jurisdiction.

Pay the Registration Fee

The final footstep in the process of trailer registration involves fee payment. One time you have filled out the application forms, the DMV will require you to pay to register your trailer. The corporeality and purpose of these fees will depend on the laws of a given jurisdiction. Usually, y'all tin expect to pay the sum of several fees, such as the registration, title, administration and license. If you live in a land with a sales tax, the cost will also include that amount.

Annals Your Trailer Every Few Years

The registration of your trailer will remain valid for a ready length of time before y'all will need to re-register with your local DMV. The length of fourth dimension will depend on the laws of your jurisdiction and the type of trailer in question. For utility trailers, registration is valid for ii years throughout the United States.

The purpose of this registration process is to institute an buying link for each trailer on the nation's roads and freeways. Each time you lot re-annals a trailer, it keeps DMV files up-to-appointment and relevant. If the identity of a trailer owner ever comes into question, DMV registration records provide easy access to this information.

Complete the Registration of Your Trailer

After yous accept officially registered your trailer with the DMV, attach the license plate on the designated spot on the back of the trailer. This license number will assist in the trailer's recovery in the event of loss or theft.

The adjacent pace after registration volition be to insure your trailer with sufficient coverage. Depending on the value of the trailer and its intended use, you might need a standard insurance policy, or something more expansive.

If you lot intend to use the trailer for personal hauling, you lot will probably simply demand a liability or collision policy. If you plan to use information technology for commercial purposes, you volition need to have commercial trailer insurance. In some jurisdictions, an auto insurance or commercial auto insurance policy will embrace a trailer, whereas other jurisdictions require separate policies for vehicles and trailers.

Registration for Different Types of Trailers

Trailers come in numerous makes, models and sizes, just registration laws apply regardless. Whether you purchase a trailer for commercial or personal use, registration and insurance are necessary, though the coverage requirements vary according to the purpose of the trailer.

Register an Automobile Hauler

An motorcar hauler is a large trailer whose purpose is to haul cars from ane location to some other. When freshly assembled cars come off the factory line, motorcar haulers move them to various auto lots for sale to the public.

Auto haulers must go registered then constabulary enforcement can know a licensed driver is legally operating a given hauler on the pike. If a hauler gets stolen and used for illegal activity, the registered license number tin assist authorities rail it and auscultate the criminals.

Register a Bulk Trailer

Majority trailers are largely responsible for the availability of cooking products in grocery stores across N America. Of all the commercial trailers seen on America's highways, bulk trailers play one of the nigh integral roles in the lives of near consumers.

Without bulk trailers, pourable and granulated products would not be available to almost households in the same quantities equally people have come to expect. Every bit such, majority trailers demand to go registered and insured — both for the sake of the companies that operate such trailers, and for the benefit of America'southward consumers.

Register a Concession Trailer

Of all the commercial trailer types, concession trailers have the most interaction with the public at large. Food stands and ice cream trucks are two of the more popular types of concession trailers.

To sell meals, snacks or beverages from a concession trailer, y'all need to cover the legal groundwork on several fronts. In addition to trailer registration and insurance for both the trailer and vehicle, you lot also demand to accept cargo insurance to protect the consumables and appliances. In many states, you will also need a food handler card or food safe inspection.

Register a Dump Trailer

One of the most important fixtures at a worksite is a dump trailer, in which excavated rocks and gravel go loaded for clearance. Alternately, dump trucks transport rocks or gravel across long distances for distribution at worksites throughout the country. Dump trailers deport heavy loads, and must get registered and commercially insured for liability.

Annals a Freight Trailer

One of the largest trailer types is the freight trailer, which hauls furnishings, appliances and other inventory products between factories and department stores. Whether the fleets travel beyond local, regional or cross-country distances, all freight trailers must get registered and safeguarded with commercial trailer insurance. Due to the sheer size of freight trailers, registration is vital for tracking purposes in instance a trailer of this blazon gets stolen or used illegally.

Register a Gooseneck Trailer

Gooseneck trailers are useful for commercial as well equally personal purposes. Amid fleets, goosenecks haul products between manufacturers and sellers. Goosenecks as well support tiny houses and mobile homes. In any case, gooseneck trailers must get registered as well as insured according to the needs of their intended use, be information technology personal or commercial. The contents inside a gooseneck should also get insured against loss or theft.

Register a Horse Trailer

Any trailer that transports horses must become registered and insured for the protection of the trailer, the horses and beau motorists on the nation's roads and freeways. Requirements for the extent of coverage vary past jurisdiction, and if you own horses, you must also follow the laws regarding livestock transportation.

Commercial farmers, as well equally private breeders, utilize equus caballus trailers. If yous transport horses, you will want to have insurance that will embrace the medical expenses of whatsoever horse injured in a roadway accident.

Annals a Livestock Trailer

As with horse trailers, a livestock trailer must exist registered within its state of performance and insured in proportion to its worth. Whether you utilize a livestock trailer for commercial farming, or to transport wild fauna you keep every bit pets, you lot should register the trailer for tracking and identification purposes in the event of a theft. Your insurance for the trailer should also exist expansive plenty to cover the medical expenses for any animal that sustains injuries in an accident.

Annals a Logging Trailer

Commercial trailers for log-hauling purposes must get registered and insured for the safety of the drivers and young man motorists, equally well as for the value of the trailer itself and the contents within. A logging trailer must also undergo periodic safety inspections to ensure the trailer is structurally sound to haul large and heavy logs across vast distances on the nation'south freeways. A trailer that isn't structurally sound may fail to incorporate the logs properly, and they could ultimately roll and cause massive damage in an blow.

Register a Pole Trailer

Pole trailers to transport long, heavy and generally pole-shaped contents across long distances. As with log trailers, pole trailers need to undergo periodic prophylactic inspections, in addition to registration renewals. An unsafe, uninspected pole trailer might fail to secure its contents, which could ultimately fall, ringlet and cause costly and lethal damage along the nation'due south roadways.

Register a Tilt Trailer

Commercial tilt trailers are for heavy-duty on-ramping purposes, such every bit the loading of vehicles and rolling stock onto flatbeds. An improperly secured tilt trailer could endanger whatsoever vehicle in its firsthand surroundings. For obvious reasons, tilt trailer owners must register, insure and periodically inspect them for proper rubber.

Register a Motorhome

If you reside in a motorhome atop a trailer, you will need to register your trailer with your state'southward department of transportation. The process involved is similar to the registration of a car or truck, though the steps and specific requirements will depend on the laws of your jurisdiction.

In Pennsylvania, for example, you would need to complete the paperwork for a standard vehicle registration, in addition to a motorhome certificate of compliance for van/minivan vehicles. You tin can grab this MV-2 form at any DMV location.

All Pro Trailer Superstore

Trailers serve a vast range of purposes for people both young and old. From truckers, farmers and landscapers to business organization owners, animate being breeders and sporting enthusiasts, trailers are available in a multitude of sizes to haul everything from commercial inventory and consumable goods to livestock and vehicles.

At All Pro Trailer Superstore, we offer many types of trailers for commercial and personal use. We also perform trailer repairs, inspections and customizations. Explore our website to learn more than about our trailer sales and services.