It’s the Tail End of Summer: Get Your OHV Registered Before the Fall Hunt

Well, we have all noticed it: the mornings aren’t quite as oppressively hot and humid, the evenings might even have a hint of chill in them. And, of course, there is just the slightest change in color of the leaves on the trees. I’m not trying to get all misty eyed and nostalgic here, but autumn is a great time of the year. You can hit the trails for hours without taking a year’s supply of Gold Bond. Even ugly places get a little prettier when the trees turn. South Texas is still hot. It’s a great time of year. 

And it’s even greater when your sweet OHV is street legal. Think about it: you can drive it to the trails. You can drive it downtown to grab some Poke and ice cream. But the ultimate flex? Driving your UTV straight to your favorite hunting grounds, filling your tag, and hauling it out without ever needing to trailer it. 

LFG. 

Why Get Your OHV Street Legal?

I more or less touched on this in the intro, but let's take a little deeper look and why you should get your OHV street legal. 

First off, it’s profoundly practical. There is nothing less practical than loading up your rig(s) to head to trails or hunting land just to unload it, do whatever you meant to do, and then load it up again. This is just crazy impractical, especially when we’re talking about a matter of a few miles. 

Granted, there are no mileage limits for a street legal OHV; if you feel like driving a quad or SXS cross-country, go for it! 

Second, it’s just fun. Who hasn’t daydreamed just a little bit about taking their SXS to Lowe’s instead of their truck. Or just wanted to rip up downtown on a Banshee. Of course, way off in the hinterland, there is another side of this. In the totally rural parts of America, people have been riding OHVs on roads for years. It’s just a way of life. The local authorities all know it, the rural folks all know it. It is an unwritten code. But once you are on paved roads, regular rules tend to apply a little more. 

Instead of riding in gray areas, you can remove all question or doubt about the legality of riding your OHV on all roadways by making it street legal. Our Montana LLC registration process takes the guesswork out of it, and provides you invaluable proof or residence in Montana. Also, you can use the same LLC to title and register as many vehicles as you want in Montana. 

With so many activities coming up in the fall, there isn’t a better time to get your ride street legal. We talked about hunting and other sportsman-related purposes, but can’t overstate how absolutely cool it would be to roll up to a football game in your SXS. Or, hear me out, a Humvee or LMTV. 

What Kind of OHV Can We Make Street Legal?

Alright, so now that you know that we can make OHVs street legal, you are probably asking what kind of OHVs can I make street legal? 

All kinds, that’s what kind. We have been known to push the limits at Dirt Legal, some of them with great success, and others…not quite as successfully. But you just don’t know until you try. 

ATVs

One of our OG products was ATV registration. Back in the early days of Dirt Legal, we made a street legal ATV and then eventually sold it. 

ATVs have long been a popular choice for street legal road use because they offer performance in the ballpark of motorcycles but provide more utility, stability, and capacity, and of course, are still great off-road even with street tires. 

UTVs/SXSs

UTVs (or SXSs) are one of the best OHVs on the market to make street legal (maybe the very best). These machines are made to run and push crazy torque and horsepower. Also, with fully welded steel cages and five point harnesses on a lot of units, they are incredibly strong and very safe. With DOT tires, they will run highway speeds with no problem at all and still be incredible off-road. 

UTVs are great vehicles for sportsmen because they are so well equipped to get to the hardest to reach places in America, but with a Montana tag on it, you can get to the trails without a truck and trailer.

One word of warning on these: there are literally hundreds of cases across America of street-legal UTV owners challenging tickets. Lots of them won, but not all. Check out our Nationwide UTV Guide for more info. 

Surplus Military Vehicles

My personal favorite category are surplus military trucks. These trucks are readily available all over, from Marketplace for ones that have already been on the civilian market, to those being sold directly from the government through third party brokers, namely GovPlanet.

The thing is, if you buy one that has never been titled and registered, it can be a pain. You won’t get a title from the government, but instead you get an SF-97. Not every state will process these, or they make it a lot harder than they need to. 

But, with our military vehicle titling service, you will get a clean title and registration without ever dealing with the DMV; we do all of that.  

Humvees, LMTVs, FMTVs, M35s, you name it and we can get you a title and registration for it. 

Are They Street Legal Everywhere?

We believe so. Because of reciprocity agreements, you should be above to operate your OHVs in every state because it is titled and registered in Montana to an LLC, no to you. So you can drive it but the LLC owns it (even though you own the LLC).

But a couple of words of warning: 

1. Colorado and California explicitly ban military vehicles from being titled in their states. We have talked about this a ton in our military vehicles blog posts. We aren’t exactly sure how they would react to an out of state plated army truck, but be on your toes and be ready to politely defend yourself from potential tickets. 

2. UTVs: we haven’t seen anything contested by courts and law enforcement as much as these. Many cases of individual officers who seem to have vendettas about these vehicles. Be warned, they may impound your rig and you’ll have to bail it out and pay the ticket. LOTS of these cases are thrown out, but not all. 

Final Thoughts

It’s Fall, y’all. But we don’t care about pumpkin spice anything. We are all about titles and registration at Dirt Legal, and it is exactly what we deliver to you. Titling and registering OHVs was a huge part of how we got our start all those years ago, and we love this program. Why shouldn’t you be able to legally drive your UTV or ATV on roads? How is fundamentally any different than a motorcycle? They aren’t. 

And surplus army trucks? So cool, but not always super easy. So we make it easy.