Trailer Rant

[NolaZach]

I don't know about were you live, but registering a trailer here is hard.(Louisiana).

I have my boat ready to go with new state stickers, when I bought my boat I didn't get a title for the trailer. Now I am being told I can't register my trailer. I have to get a new one. I bought my boat and trailer on Ebay, I'm lucky to have a boat title and motor title, I had no idea I needed a trailer title.

Who thinks of this stuff? I have an appointment with the state police to try and register the trailer as a homebuilt. I know that won't work. I guess what I have to do is buy the cheapest trailer I can or make one and take the plate off it.

I just can't belive its so hard to get a new title or prove it isn't stolen, i mean you would think you could prove ownership with the boat title.

Anyway I am just mad that I have this holding me back. Just got boat going, but police around here are strict and I hate tickets, but looks like I am going to get alot.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Trailer Rant

See if you can contact the seller about the trailer. It may have come from a state where a title is not needed, but a bill of sale is. If so, ask the seller to get you a notarized bill of sale (they just write a receipt for the sale with their name, address, and amount paid and vin numer/id number, etc and notarized). Then the state of Louisiana may accept that and issue you a new title for the trailer.

 

[river 101]

Re: Trailer Rant

you can get a bill of sale from the owner and file for a lost title, i had a freind in la. had to do the same thing

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Trailer Rant

This is another example of whenever you buy ANTHING that will be used on the highways in this country, make sure the seller has the title whether it be a car, truck, trailer, scooter or whatever. You may not need it but if you do, not having it is a pain in the rear. As I've said before, no documentation -- no sale.

 

[blackcat650]

Re: Trailer Rant

I am in the same boat as you (no pun intended). I live in North La. and bought a pontoon boat and trailer from Texas. Boat had a title , which is not needed in La. to register. Trailer had no title, which IS needed to register in La. Texas is a no title state on their trailers so I simply needed the registration from the previous owner for the trailer to register it. NO DICE the consignment shop I bought it from was not able to get the registation from previous owner.

 

[NolaZach]

Re: Trailer Rant

This is another example of whenever you buy ANTHING that will be used on the highways in this country, make sure the seller has the title whether it be a car, truck, trailer, scooter or whatever. You may not need it but if you do, not having it is a pain in the rear. As I've said before, no documentation -- no sale.

Yeah, but I got the boat and trailer for $400, then the motor separately for $500. Its a 19' Flat Alumaweld, the motor is a 1975 70 Evinrude, the motor is in great shape, the boat sat for years and is not. Here we don't need motor titles, but the motor came from OK and it had one and a registration sticker. The boat has a registration certificate (as good as a title here) and it came from central Louisiana. I am just going to see what the state police inspector says, I can't even find a number on the trailer but its not homebuilt.

 

[dodgeramsst2003]

Re: Trailer Rant

some of you would be in a world of hurt if you bought something from michigan. We don't title trailers here. they have a registration, but thats it. If you don't have the registration then you pull it to the nearest certified scale get a weight slip and register it as homemade. With all the problems going on in this state, at least they made something easy.

 

[Pony]

Re: Trailer Rant

some of you would be in a world of hurt if you bought something from michigan. We don't title trailers here. they have a registration, but thats it. If you don't have the registration then you pull it to the nearest certified scale get a weight slip and register it as homemade. With all the problems going on in this state, at least they made something easy.

We don't even register ours.......just grab any trailer throw a boat on it and ur good to go. Our boats aren't titled either, just registered. Motors have neither as well.

 

[Capt Ron]

Re: Trailer Rant

In SC:
Boat registered and titled if propelled by mechanical means,
Motor registered and titled if over 5hp,
Trailer nada/nothing.

I bought a utility trailer from a pawn shop and 2 years later took it to NC. The local cops asked me several times about a tag for it but I was in the same fix, no documentation or numbers except the pawn shop receipt.
Then I see that Northern Tool has the 42"x48" trailer on sale for $175. I bought one and it came with an MCO which I used to get a SC tag.
A piece of stainless steel and a 3/8" stamp kit ....well, you get the idea.

Now, I'm not advocating doing something illegal but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Now all my stuff is back in SC and I sold the NT trailer with a welder on it, gave the guy the tilte for it, and turned in the tag.

I found the paperwork that SCDMV gave me to get a title for my utility trailer a few weeks ago. It was in the console of my truck...what a crock, I threw it away!

Actually, all my other trailers have permanent tags even though not required.

CaptRon

 

[alamosaddles]

Re: Trailer Rant

In SC:
Boat registered and titled if propelled by mechanical means,
Motor registered and titled if over 5hp,
Trailer nada/nothing.

Then I see that Northern Tool has the 42"x48" trailer on sale for $175. I bought one and it came with an MCO which I used to get a SC tag.
A piece of stainless steel and a 3/8" stamp kit ....well, you get the idea.

Now, I'm not advocating doing something illegal but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

CaptRon

Yeah, your not advocating doing something illegal , but according to you, sometimes you gotta do something illegal to do what you gotta do huh? I didn't think this board advocated any type of illegal activity, such as falsifying legal documents.....

 

[NolaZach]

Re: Trailer Rant

In SC:
Boat registered and titled if propelled by mechanical means,
Motor registered and titled if over 5hp,
Trailer nada/nothing.

I bought a utility trailer from a pawn shop and 2 years later took it to NC. The local cops asked me several times about a tag for it but I was in the same fix, no documentation or numbers except the pawn shop receipt.
Then I see that Northern Tool has the 42"x48" trailer on sale for $175. I bought one and it came with an MCO which I used to get a SC tag.
A piece of stainless steel and a 3/8" stamp kit ....well, you get the idea.

Now, I'm not advocating doing something illegal but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Now all my stuff is back in SC and I sold the NT trailer with a welder on it, gave the guy the tilte for it, and turned in the tag.

I found the paperwork that SCDMV gave me to get a title for my utility trailer a few weeks ago. It was in the console of my truck...what a crock, I threw it away!

Actually, all my other trailers have permanent tags even though not required.

CaptRon

Thought about it, but we have separate tags for "trailer" and "boat trailer".

 

[greggholmes]

Re: Trailer Rant

if you dont have a title to a vehicle how do you prove you own it? In washington the title is proof of ownership. Lets say you only have a registration to a boat and you do alot of work to it and dump alot of money into it? if I hold title to it I can walk up and say, " thanks for doing all that work to MY boat. I'll be taking it home now". The finance company holds the title to my boat and trailer but its registered in my name. if i dont make payments they walk up and say thanks for the boat. A title is akin to a deed for a house he who holds the deed owns the house.

 

[Pony]

Re: Trailer Rant

The Registration is tied to the hull id# wich are both tied to your name/address etc. The registration #'s always stay the same so its pretty easy to prover ownership. The registration card is signed by the seller upon sale.

I should say that here 16fters and larger are titled. But there are TONS of boats that fit under that.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Trailer Rant

In michigan...

Motors -- not titled (to the best of my knowledge) unless as part of boat title

Boats -- titled only if a loan on it

Trailers -- No title required

I bought a boat with a title on it. When I put it in my name, I asked the secretary of state to de-title it so that I need not worry about needing the title to sell it.

The owner had never registered the trailer (2nd owner; 1st owner had not registered it either) so I got it weighed. The secretary of state wanted the trailer weight, but the minimum weight is 2500 lbs and my whole rig is only 1100, so they took that as the weight.

TerryMSU

 

[NolaZach]

Re: Trailer Rant

Well I can prove I own the boat the trailer came on, if someone wals up with the trailer title then he can have it back. But I doubt that. The trailer and boat sat for seven or so years. Until they were put on ebay and bought by me. I'm going to put up a thread in the projects section to show what i have done thus far.

Anyway, I was told by the state police if I change out the rollores, and tires and rims and paint the trailer it can then qualify as a "home-built" because they couldn't find a vin, but they said it "looked" factory made. So I am going to put $150 or so into the trailer and then get it titled and registered.

 

[nuttyboater]

Re: Trailer Rant

Nice to hear i'm not the only one dealing with this crap!

I bought a boat/motor/trailer from my stepmom. It had been sitting for a while, about 5 years, but was garaged and in good shape other than the trailer needing some new tires which is pretty common.

She was able to come up with some paperwork for the boat, and luckily she registered the boat in her name, despite forgetting to do so, when her sister gave her the boat years before that. So the boat registration took $36 and a few minutes time, no problem there.

The trailer.. Well that was fun. MN titles trailers and boats over 16ft in length, so the boat is a 16ft and not titled, so there was no info on the trailer along with the boat documentation of course. And nobody had a copy of the title card for the trailer. I fought the MN DMV on the phone for a couple weeks and finally they told me to get a signed bill of sale and to take a copy of their application for title and fill that out and have her sign that also.

I took all this paperwork down to my local DMV office and got in a shouting match, but i had emails printed out from the head DMV office in Minneapolis, and i also had a phone number and extension to call up the kind lady i spoke with just a couple days prior. So after threatening them to call the DMV office right there on the spot, i reached for my cell phone and started dialing, she finally did the paperwork and gave me a lifetime registration sticker for the trailer. $90.52 later and the trailer is finally done for life...

And i still have to wait for a title. You know come to think of it, i'm still waiting for a title for the camper i bought back in March, better call the DMV once again....