Registering Manu. trailer as Homemade

[wchevron]

Bought a Rance 2007 aluminum car trailer, used. Have the title from the previous owner. In RI, if you buy a vehicle out of state, you need to bring to the police dept to get the VIN verified. Brought it by the police station, but the tag is in such bad shape you can't make out the whole VIN so the police rejected it.

Then had to bring it to the state inspector. He couldn't read the whole VIN so wouldn't give me the ok. I called the manu. but they were bought out the year after the trailer was made and the new company won't issue a new tag to trailers sold before they bought the company.

Other option is to register it as a homemade trailer. Is there any negatives to doing this? Not sure if I'd have any issue if trying to sell it at a later date.

I did see on Ebay, I can get an engraved generic VIN tag with all the info engraved on it. Was thinking of maybe doing this and then bringing it back to the state inspector and saying the company gave me a new tag. Although I don't know if when that typically happens if the manufacturer would send some sort of letter or authorization with it.

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[Lost1wing]

I had a store bought, bolt together trailer years ago. I loaned it out to a neighbor who overloaded it and bent the c-channel main frame. I repaired it with a square tube and a new coupler. I forgot about the data plate that was on the c-channel and had tossed it. When I moved to a new state, I had to have the trailer inspected, same situation as you. I didn't even think about bringing the title with me. I had to fill out an affidavit on ownership. The inspector declared the classification by the axle. I'm sure it is different state by state.

 

[RCott77]

In Texas there is a ton of hoops you have to jump through but essentially they will assign a VIN to it. Curious if other states have the same process.

 

[wchevron]

Went to the registry today. Explained the situation, women got on the phone with one of her bosses, plead my case and got it approved with the original VIN. Was very appreciative. As much as the DMV process sucks, I've always found most of the people working there helpful.

 

[Lost1wing]

Went to the registry today. Explained the situation, women got on the phone with one of her bosses, plead my case and got it approved with the original VIN. Was very appreciative. As much as the DMV process sucks, I've always found most of the people working there helpful.

Awesome!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

All you have to do here is take the title to the DMV in your county and get the papers transferred to your name. Nothing to it - you have title or bill of sale, that's that.

No one even bothers looking at things like car trailers - in fact, trailers under certain empty weights don't even require a real title, just a registration.

RI must be a bit more sticky, but good that it was resolved ok.

You should have seen them when I took the MN title for the 70 Javelin I had into the Polk County offices to transfer the title to IA and my name. VINs back then were not standard. The poor clerk was frazzled, no way to look up that VIN, it made no sense to her. Another lady further back was paying attention to what was going on and came over to offer assistance. The clerk explained - the other lady walked back into a back room and after a couple of minutes came out carrying a fat book, blowing dust off it as she came back with it. She found the VIN system for AMC and I got my title.

 

[Jefe1018]

Went to the registry today. Explained the situation, women got on the phone with one of her bosses, plead my case and got it approved with the original VIN. Was very appreciative. As much as the DMV process sucks, I've always found most of the people working there helpful.

It almost always comes down to people working at the DMV giving you the information you need to get it taken care of. If someone is having a bad day, you usually will too.

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