Street Legal UTV Insurance: Why, How, and Where

Learn everything you need to know about street legal UTV insurance right here, right now.

Street legal UTVs are almost always required by law to be insured. Some towns, counties, and states do allow limited road use without any form of insurance (read your state’s section to learn more), but if you’re registered out of state through Montana or South Dakota, or if you have access to major surface roads or highways through any other means, you need street legal UTV insurance for your rig.

Trouble is, street legal UTV insurance isn’t something most of the big-name companies can offer you. You might have already talked to phone agents who have no idea what you’re trying to do – or maybe you’re stuck at square one and aren’t sure where to begin.

Our goal is to save you hours of calls and confusion by explaining street legal UTV insurance from top to bottom. We will teach you:

• How street legal UTV insurance works and how much it costs

• What makes it different from car insurance

• What to say to get the right coverage

• What happens if you get pulled over

• Where to find a specialty insurance company

• How insurance works with an out-of-state LLC

We’ll also share with you some of the best companies we’ve encountered during decades in the powersports industry. Sound good? Let’s get started!

Dirt Legal does not provide insurance and we cannot help you with filing a claim. We are enthusiasts, not attorneys. This is not legal advice.

All insurance is not good insurance!

You spent good money to get street legal in the first place, not to mention the cost of your rig. You should protect it to the best of your abilities, especially if you ever have friends and family riding along. That often means paying more than the bottom dollar for coverage.

When it comes to street legal UTV insurance, we always suggest going above the minimum coverages required by your state. In fact, some companies can only offer bottom-dollar prices by cutting out things you should never go without. Consider protecting your rig, your passengers, and other drivers by carrying insurance that exceeds what is legally required in your situation.

How does street legal UTV insurance work?

Insuring a UTV is similar to insuring a car. You have a rate, a deductible, and coverages for various things like property damage and bodily injuries.

The key difference is that a street legal UTV needs to be specifically endorsed and covered for on-road use. You must ensure that your insurance policy covers your UTV for on-road use. If a street legal endorsement is not present, you are only covered for off-road use or incidental road use at best. Some companies might not phrase it that way, but if you ask for a street legal endorsement you’ll take the conversation in the right direction either way.

This is far and away the most important aspect of street legal UTV insurance and the one that’s most often overlooked. Make sure to review your documents and confirm that your vehicle is covered for full road use with a street legal endorsement.

• Most on-road policies also cover off-road use, but you should confirm that if you plan to use trails, OHV areas, and similar spaces.

• The company might still consider your side-by-side to be an off-road vehicle, and that’s fine – that has more to do with their internal systems than it does with your coverage.

Your insurance card might say that your policy is for a motorcycle, and that’s okay, too. That's usually because of how the vehicle is classified in the insurance company’s system but it can also come from how the vehicle is registered, as states like Montana and South Dakota register street legal UTVs as autocycles and four-wheel motorcycles, respectively.

In any case, the most important thing is that the policy covers unlimited on-road use and not a restricted form of road use like incidental coverage would.

What is incidental road use coverage?

Some companies offer incidental road use coverage for quick things like crossing roads when you’re using trails. You don’t want that unless that’s all you need, but if you call an insurance company and say “I want to insure my UTV for road use,” they might assume that’s what you mean, so be sure to clarify if that happens.

Do I need insurance at all?

If you only have localized street legality, like the kind you get with a town or county permit, your local laws might let you get by with just incidental coverage – or even no coverage at all. This is typically the case in situations where you can only use a handful of roads, can only drive during certain hours, or can only use public roads for limited distances. Anything beyond that almost always requires on-road insurance, and it’s a good thing to have even if it isn’t required.

If your UTV has a license plate, you need full road use coverage with a street legal endorsement – not incidental road use coverage.

How much does street legal UTV insurance cost?

The cost of insuring a street legal UTV is usually closer to a motorcycle than a car.

The exact rate will depend on personal factors like credit history, driving record, and even your zip code, but if you’ve insured a roadgoing motorcycle recently you should have a solid idea of what to expect. And if you’re a motorcyclist, we’re talking Honda rates, not Ducati.

Each state has minimum requirements for roadgoing insurance, which brings us to the most common question we have ever received over the course of making thousands of UTVs street legal through our Street Legal UTV Services.

Does my insurance need to match the state where I live or the state where my vehicle is registered?

Street legal UTV insurance coverage needs to match the state where you live, not the state where the vehicle is registered. This is because each state has unique minimum requirements that all roadgoing vehicles must meet. Some states also have special caveats like requiring you to insure a vehicle when it’s in storage or in an undrivable condition.

What will my coverage actually look like?

When you look at the nuts and bolts of street legal UTV insurance, it’s usually the same sort of coverage you would get for a car, truck, or motorcycle. Bodily injury, uninsured motorist, flexible deductibles… it’s all pretty familiar, really.

The big variable is how your UTV is registered. If it’s in Montana or South Dakota it will likely be considered a motorcycle for insurance purposes even though you don't need a motorcycle license to operate it. If you're street legal through another state or on a localized basis, your policy might function a little differently.

One common thread will be the same: your UTV needs to be insured for full road use with a street legal endorsement. If it isn’t, you can’t go on the road.

What do I say during the application process?

1. Start by explaining what your UTV is and how and where it is registered. For example, say “I have a Mahindra Roxor UTV registered in Montana as a street legal quadricycle.”

2. Request full road use coverage with a street legal endorsement. Be sure to clarify that you don’t just want incidental road use coverage unless that’s all you need.

3. Insurance companies like to know your UTV won’t be used as a daily driver, so be sure to tell them if you have a primary vehicle.

4. Be sure to confirm that your on-road coverage also covers off-road uses like driving in OHV areas, trails, and public lands.

5. You might be asked for pictures showing certain safety equipment installed on your UTV and copies of your title and registration paperwork.

How does insurance work with an out-of-state LLC?

As we covered in an earlier section, registering your UTV under an LLC in another state essentially makes that business the owner of the vehicle instead of you. If you went this route or are considering it, there are some unique insurance aspects that apply to you.

For insurance purposes, anyone making a claim on a vehicle must have an insurable interest in it – in other words, they must own it or otherwise have a financial stake in it – and that includes an LLC. To this end, the LLC is usually added as an additional interest on the policy to establish the tie between you, the LLC, and the UTV you are insuring.

Although insurance companies aren't willing to put this sort of thing in writing (we asked), we have on good authority that your claim will not be denied just because your vehicle is registered to an out-of-state LLC. As always, read your policy and confirm the details of your coverage with your agent. We cannot guarantee coverage or claim success because we are not attorneys, insurance agents, or psychics.

Similarly, if the state you file a claim in is different from the state on your UTV’s license plate and registration, that's no different than having the same thing happen in a car. As long as you explained your situation when you established coverage – including the LLC, where the vehicle is registered, and your primary garaging location – an out-of-state registration should not cause any issues related to insurance claims. You should also ask if the LLC can be a working business or if it needs to exist strictly to hold assets.

What happens if I get pulled over?

Let’s be real: your UTV looks like it could climb a mountain and it’s sitting in traffic next to a Toyota Camry. Most people have no idea you can legally do that, and that includes a lot of police officers.

We covered this in greater detail in Part 6: Knowing Your Legality, but basically if you get pulled over driving a street legal UTV, the officer probably just wants to make sure you aren’t doing anything illegal. They will most likely check your license, registration, and insurance to make sure everything is right, and that’s usually all that happens.

Just explain that your UTV is street legal, list the parts you put on to make it that way, and explain how your insurance coverage works. That should alleviate their biggest concerns.

When it comes to street legal UTVs, we always suggest carrying a physical copy of your insurance card instead of relying on a digital source. Call us old school, but a lot of police officers are, too. It’s best to remove all doubt that a digital copy could create, not to mention your phone could lock up at the exact second you reach for it and magically be okay again right after you’ve gotten a ticket. Ask us how we know.

Where Do I Get Street Legal UTV Insurance?

This is the million-dollar question. That’s not hyperbole – it could literally cost you a million dollars if your insurance falls short when it matters most.

We’ve been helping people get on the road through our Street Legal UTV Services for years, and we’ve seen plenty of good insurance companies and plenty of bad ones. Big-name companies usually don’t deal with street legal UTVs on a regular basis, so they often had no idea how to help us. In fact, we’ve learned that most insurance companies struggle with anything outside the norm.

We’ve spent the better part of a decade finding the best insurance companies that know their stuff about street legal UTV insurance and a whole lot more. Check them out on our Insurance page along with some helpful advice for making sure your calls with insurance go as smoothly as possible.

Be careful with big-name companies

We all know some of the biggest names in American car insurance by heart. In our experience, we’ve found those companies to be highly generalized and not very experienced with specific niches like street legal UTVs. It makes sense: most of their customers aren’t driving street legal UTVs and most of their phone agents rarely deal with them.

While researching this guide, a phone agent from a well-known company told us they didn’t cover UTVs when their website specifically said they did. Imagine how lost they would be if we said we had a Polaris RZR XP Turbo registered as a street legal quadricycle through an LLC in Montana!

Street legal UTVs are gaining popularity every day, but they are still a drop in the pond of all the vehicles on the road. The topics we’ve talked about here – from incidental road use coverage to full street legal endorsements – will be second nature to someone who works with UTVs every day as opposed to once a month. Especially if your registration involves a special factor like an LLC, you’ll be much better off with a specialty company than you will be with a big-box store.

If you do end up choosing a big-name company, try to get on with a local agent in your area. You’ll get reliable information from a familiar voice instead of having to explain your situation every time you call.

Well, there you have it. Insurance is one of the most complicated aspects of getting out on the road in your side-by-side, so if that all made sense to you, you're doing great! If you’re still unclear on something, make a quick call to one of those insurance companies listed above.

If you’ve made it this far in our Nationwide Street Legal UTV Guide, you have learned just about everything there is to know about getting a UTV on the road. The next and final section will bring everything together. It’s a bit poetic if we’re being honest.