Maine Trailer Registration

[JJZ 109]

Lights and plates on every trailer here in Indiana.

Most cops will let you slide during day light hours with log splitters or cement mixers if everything looks safe, they can see the trucks tail lights, and not being pulled by a pos.

Chris

Surprisingly, the Soviet Socialist Republic of New York doesn't make me tag me tow behind boom lift that weighs in at 3400#. I guess they treat it like an air compressor or a wood splitter. However, it does have taillights, brake lights & turn signals.

 

[aczlan]

Surprisingly, the Soviet Socialist Republic of New York doesn't make me tag me tow behind boom lift that weighs in at 3400#. I guess they treat it like an air compressor or a wood splitter. However, it does have taillights, brake lights & turn signals.

The law here in NY exempts "vehicles designed and primarily used for other purposes and only occasionally drawn by such a motor vehicle." from registration and as such they dont need to be registered as long as the following conditions are met:

These vehicles can not be used to carry anything other than the devices mounted on them. If a vehicle is equipped with boxes or bins, and is used to carry tools and accessories, it is no longer exempt from registration.
Because these vehicles do not operate under their own power, they never require a registration, but the vehicle that tows them must be registered.

A boom lift fits the bill for a machine that is "designed and primarily used for other purposes and only occasionally drawn by such a motor vehicle" so as long as you dont have storage boxes on it, you are fine with not registering it.
We know a family which runs a cow hoof trimming operation out of PA. Under PA law, their trailer (which is a very short 2 axle trailer that looks similar to Albers Dairy Equipment - Hoof Trim Chutes but with hydraulic powered legs to pick the trailer up and allow it to be used when disconnected from the truck) does not need to be registered. Under NY law, they would probbaly be ok as well but they kept getting hassled when they came up to NY, so they ended up getting it plated. They said that it was cheaper than their lost time at traffic stops.

Aaron Z

 

[JJZ 109]

Under NY law, they would probbaly be ok as well but they kept getting hassled when they came up to NY, so they ended up getting it plated. They said that it was cheaper than their lost time at traffic stops.

Aaron Z

Of course they were hassled. It's not about safety. It's a money grab in this state. The police are supposed to act as revenue agents as well as enforce laws.

 

[dave1949]

Oh, Oh ...
Delaware officials: Many toll cheats have Maine tags | Sun Journal

The other states are realizing how much registration fee revenue they are losing.

 

[TimberXX]

It angers me that people skip tolls like that. I drove through that Delaware toll on 95 hundreds of times, the traffic was awful.

Now I live in NY with tolls at $13 for a bridge...

 

[dave1949]

It angers me that people skip tolls like that. I drove through that Delaware toll on 95 hundreds of times, the traffic was awful.

Now I live in NY with tolls at $13 for a bridge...

It could be the toll cheaters screw up a good thing for trailer registration by drawing attention to it. I've haven't driven down that way much. I used to go out on Long Island, in the late 90's, that can be exiting for a rural person. :laughing: The Cross Bronx was the worst stretch. I don't remember the toll on the GW, $7 maybe?, it was plenty as I recall.

 

[TimberXX]

My plates came in yesterday. The plates say semi trailer. Anyone know why?

 

[TimberXX]

My plates came in yesterday. The plates say semi trailer. Anyone know why? I cant get a hold of the agent.

 

[JJZ 109]

My plates came in yesterday. The plates say semi trailer. Anyone know why?

I just went out and looked at one of my Maine plates. It says "Semi Permanent". If yours also says that, I think it means that it has to be renewed after a certain period, that it really isn't permanent. Usually a 5 year registration is the case. So it isn't for a "semi" trailer, per se.
Unless of course your plate says something different. Some states will say "apportioned" for semi trailers. Not sure how Maine does it.

 

[radioman]

semi trailer?! that cant be right. Did you go through a third party or did you register directly with maine DMV ? reason I ask is because I have the forms in front of me from maine dmv and I see box number 12 asking what body type. looking here Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles: Registrations: Registration Fees it should have been TL for code.