latest on my new trailer saga

[Skyco]

kebo and clemsonfor-

Many trailers in SC are required to be tagged. I have 5 trailers with tags right now.

clemsonfor- no one doesn't have to pay property taxes on a trailer tag like a car or truck. You can register them that way if you don't know what you are doing but the normal way is a permanent trailer tag which is one time fee of around $90 and good forever. No taxes.

Admittedly the cops don't seem to activley enforce the law about tags, same as many other motor vehicle laws here, ie window tinting.

ALL campers, regardless of size or weight, are required to be registered and tagged.

Here are a couple of quotes of SC law-

SECTION 56-3-110. Vehicles required to be registered and licensed.
Every motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole trailer and special mobile equipment vehicle driven, operated or moved upon a highway in this State shall be registered and licensed in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. It shall be a misdemeanor for any person to drive, operate or move upon a highway or for the owner knowingly to permit to be driven, operated or moved upon a highway any such vehicle which is not registered and licensed and the required fee paid as provided for in this chapter.


SECTION 56-3-130. Exemption of certain boat, farm and other utility trailers.
Boat trailers under twenty-five hundred pounds, farm trailers and other utility trailers which are privately owned and not for hire need not be licensed or registered.


Note that the section 56-3-130 has exemptions for SOME trailers but certainly not all.

The reason I have plates on 5 of my trailers is partly because SC law requires it and partly you'll find if operating out of state it gets a little tiresome being stopped for no plate on the trailer and having to explain the SC law to a cop, who may or not understand or agree.

I'm also a little puzzled about exactly what "privately owned" means...I'm not sure if it means ALL trailers owned by a business need to be licensed...I think it may. But- as I said it doesn't seem to be actively enforced, but that could change at any moment..especially with many agencies looking for ways to increase their "income". I've already heard tales of the grace factor on speeding being tightened up...seems like the poor state of SC is missing a huge opportunity to take in a lot of money, not that I want to give them anymore of mine...


one other thing clemsonfor- you said you didn't bother getting/keeping certificates of origin etc. You may want be sure you do- true story- I sold a boat motor and trailer to a guy some years back...well 5 years later he rings me up wanting the COO for the trailer, told him I thought I gave it to him. but even if I didn't I no longer had it. Well HE was now trying to sell it to an out of state buyer who refused to buy it without the COO since he would need it to license the trailer in his state. Something to keep in mind if you ever want to sell it, the potential buyer may be informed enough to know he may need that someday.
I just sold a 6x12 last year to a coworkers father- he wanted the COO as he planned to title and license it..I had a devil of a time finding it...even called the manufacturer, a big outfit- Carryon -and they would NOT issue a duplicate without an original bill of sale, which I couldn't find either, it turned out to be with the misplaced COO when I eventually found it and completed the transaction.

 

[clemsonfor]

kebo and clemsonfor-

Many trailers in SC are required to be tagged. I have 5 trailers with tags right now.

clemsonfor- no one doesn't have to pay property taxes on a trailer tag like a car or truck. You can register them that way if you don't know what you are doing but the normal way is a permanent trailer tag which is one time fee of around $90 and good forever. No taxes.

Admittedly the cops don't seem to activley enforce the law about tags, same as many other motor vehicle laws here, ie window tinting.

ALL campers, regardless of size or weight, are required to be registered and tagged.

Here are a couple of quotes of SC law-

SECTION 56-3-110. Vehicles required to be registered and licensed.
Every motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole trailer and special mobile equipment vehicle driven, operated or moved upon a highway in this State shall be registered and licensed in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. It shall be a misdemeanor for any person to drive, operate or move upon a highway or for the owner knowingly to permit to be driven, operated or moved upon a highway any such vehicle which is not registered and licensed and the required fee paid as provided for in this chapter.


SECTION 56-3-130. Exemption of certain boat, farm and other utility trailers.
Boat trailers under twenty-five hundred pounds, farm trailers and other utility trailers which are privately owned and not for hire need not be licensed or registered.


Note that the section 56-3-130 has exemptions for SOME trailers but certainly not all.

The reason I have plates on 5 of my trailers is partly because SC law requires it and partly you'll find if operating out of state it gets a little tiresome being stopped for no plate on the trailer and having to explain the SC law to a cop, who may or not understand or agree.

I'm also a little puzzled about exactly what "privately owned" means...I'm not sure if it means ALL trailers owned by a business need to be licensed...I think it may. But- as I said it doesn't seem to be actively enforced, but that could change at any moment..especially with many agencies looking for ways to increase their "income". I've already heard tales of the grace factor on speeding being tightened up...seems like the poor state of SC is missing a huge opportunity to take in a lot of money, not that I want to give them anymore of mine...


one other thing clemsonfor- you said you didn't bother getting/keeping certificates of origin etc. You may want be sure you do- true story- I sold a boat motor and trailer to a guy some years back...well 5 years later he rings me up wanting the COO for the trailer, told him I thought I gave it to him. but even if I didn't I no longer had it. Well HE was now trying to sell it to an out of state buyer who refused to buy it without the COO since he would need it to license the trailer in his state. Something to keep in mind if you ever want to sell it, the potential buyer may be informed enough to know he may need that someday.
I just sold a 6x12 last year to a coworkers father- he wanted the COO as he planned to title and license it..I had a devil of a time finding it...even called the manufacturer, a big outfit- Carryon -and they would NOT issue a duplicate without an original bill of sale, which I couldn't find either, it turned out to be with the misplaced COO when I eventually found it and completed the transaction.

Thanks for posting this. At first i was thinking oh no im not legal(man those cops really dont care), then i read the bold paragraph. I pretty well am double covered there. I own a farm and the trailer i use as utility is to trasport the tractor to and from the farm (and other uses, like lowes are secondary). All my boat trailers unloaded are definitly under that weight but i have one that will be close to that with the boat on it not sure how that is supposed to read? And all mine are personally owned.

My friend who is the landscapper i guess can get around this by stating her trailers are owned by her not the business and that she just uses her own trailers in the business.

Bottom line is only probly like less than 5% are liscensed even when talking about double and tri-axle boat trailers.

thanks for posting this i was thinking about looking it up, myself.

-nate

 

[Skyco]

I agree there is a lot of selective enforcement in SC. My thinking is if the law is on the books then enforce it, or remove it.

I finally realized one day why cops don't go after the window tint, license plate cover, maybe trailer plate violations. It is to keep the general public frequently in some type of violation status so if they really want to stop someone they can come up with a valid reason.
Case in point- talking to a state trooper I know he told me of following a car on the interstate for miles wanting to stop it to check for drugs but had no legal reason to...the guy stayed within the speed limit and did everything perfectly...too perfectly as it turned out. They finally spotted a crack in his windshield and were able to legally pull him and what do you know?- carrying a huge amount of drugs!
So- I think they let a lot if little equipment violations slide so people don't get vigilant about being "legal" and they have an "excuse" to stop them for a look see...

 

[Soundguy]

pulling out of work one late one night after close ( night club ), A police officer followed me out of the parking lot and onto the highway where he pulled me over for ONE of my TWO tag lights being out.. which he then gave me a sobriety test and asked to search my truck.

of couse I passed .. and nothing on the search.. which I told him he wouldn't find anything.. at that point he tossed me my license and zoomed away.. no ticket..

just needed a reason to pull me over after seeing me leave a 'bar' late at night.

only aggravating thing was the ultra bright flashlight he kept aimed at my face the entire time.. which.. since it was night.. I pretty much had to keep my eyes closed the entire time.

when he asked me for my license.. I literally couldn't see my wallet due to the flashlight aimed right in my face.. I actually had to ask himn if he would aim it down at my wallet for a moment so I could see. ??? And of course he called in backup before he ever got out of his car.. yada yada.... too bad they weren't catching a criminal instead of pulling me over..

In any case.. I drove tot he 24 hr walmart on the way home.. got another 194 bulb for my tag lamp, PLUS a 3rd tag lamp I mounted over the tag just so that won't happen again..

soundguy

 

[tulenutn2o]

You think you got problems, I'm here in NY, and they got a way of reaching into a man's pocket ain't nobody else ever thoght of. On top of that everybody and his 3rd cousin gets in on the act. We got state DMV offoices, county DMV offices and even a few insurance salesmen who hand out license plates if you buy insurance from them.

When I moved here I went to do the honest thing and move my CDL to NY like the law says I have to. Dang good thing I went to the county office cause they got chairs there you can sit in when the wind gets knocked out of a man hearing the price they want. Nice lady on the counter looks at my license and asks me if I really need all the special stamps, and says I best sit myself. Took her a full 10 minutes to find out just what all I was licensed to do, and that probably half of them stamps don't exist in NY, then she give me the price. Good thing I was sitting. I figure she's seen it before, cause she just told me I didn't need to renew for another 18 months, and long as I was back in Maryland for just 1 day every 6 months I could keep that license till it ran out. She even said nobody was ever going to bother checking if I went back to Maryland, and if I got stopped just to say I was out of NY regularly and not really living in NY.

Well I'm over to the donut shop one day, real good donuts they got there, and get to talking to another fellow lives about a mile from me and he clues me in. He asks me if the trailer I hauuled for years had to be licensed in the state I was in, and I said not for last 25 years. Then he asks me if I heard of nonresident plates from Maine, and I of course hadn't. Seems that state got smart enough that half of the 18 wheelers running the east coast got Maine plates on them, and then they got smarter and decided to issue trailer plates to anybody who got 19 bucks and a postage stamp cause most them trailers not going to wear out their pavement. Shot if I put NY plates on my little 8 x 12 trailer in NY it cost me $18 a year PLUS $21 a year for inspection. Maine only charges 19 bucks and that is a trip to Burger King or the donut shop.

I called up the lady over to the Maine office and she couldn't have been nicer, even told me they send a few hundred trailer plates a year to Hawii if you can believe that.

Got another fellow in town who collects them 1950 motorscooters made by Cushman and Monkey Ward and Sears. He went to DMMV and they told him his motorbikes didn't exist so he couldn't get license plates for them. Well, he put 2 of them motorbikes that didn't exist on a trailer and hauled them over to the DMV, and then they told him NY has a list, and if his motorbikes werent on that list they didn't exist cause of some fool law, so he couldn't get no plates and without plates he can't ride them bikes on the road. I give him the phone number for the Maine lady, and 2 weeks later he's putting along through the village with a Maine plate on back of his bike. He don't have to get no dang inspection sticker for the bike either.

Tell you things are getting pretty dang bad when one state gets itself a major case of stupid like NY, and another state has to come to the rescue of the common man. Then again it's a good thing Maine does come to the rescue.

I think the prerequisite for applying for a state or federal job is: you must be stupid!:laughing: I tried to register a scooter a couple years ago and was told That I couldn't do it because it didn't have enough digits in the title. It was 1 short. Go figure.

 

[tulenutn2o]

Good grief... reading these posts; with the various "bureaucratic idiosyncrasies" in the different states makes me wonder how in the world anyone can take care of the daily business of living!!

It's little wonder that folk's would just throw their hands up and say "to #ell with it"!!

I'll do what I want until somebody catches up with me and says otherwise - easier to plead ignorance and ask for forgiveness than permission..

AKfish

Amen!

 

[tulenutn2o]

The "man"(think government) doesn't give a rats tail what the people want, so I doesn't care what they want. My southern roots shinin thru! taxes,user fees, license fees, road taxes, gas taxes, get the picture? Click it or ticket-my favorite. I'm sure all of you wanted that law on the books. If it's really to protect us from ourselves, come up with a new slogan.Geez!

 

[Skyco]

only aggravating thing was the ultra bright flashlight he kept aimed at my face the entire time.. which.. since it was night.. I pretty much had to keep my eyes closed the entire time.

when he asked me for my license.. I literally couldn't see my wallet due to the flashlight aimed right in my face.. I actually had to ask himn if he would aim it down at my wallet for a moment so I could see. ???

Major thread drift here- but :thumbsup: I almost ran over a cop one night standing in the road "directing" traffic- his blue strobe lights on his car were so freaking bright I couldn't see anything! I wonder why they don't have light sensors to dim them at night...you can see them for 10 miles:confused2:

 

[scootr2d]

And of course he called in backup before he ever got out of his car.. yada yada.... too bad they weren't catching a criminal instead of pulling me over..

soundguy

Thats how they catch criminals... Probable Cause. PC gave the right to pull ya over. Many a criminal has been caught through minor traffic violations.

I saw AMW one night , Caught an alleged murderer in Minnesota wanted in FLA all through a simple rural traffic stop. :thumbsup:

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. and the other 99% of 'hassle' pull overs must be a waste then

I betcha there was 10 people copying video cassets right about that time int he local area... ( a federal crime too! )

soundguy