Home / States / California / Imperial County
California
Mini trucks in Imperial County, California
Kei trucks in California belong on private land, farms and closed sites.
Imperial CountyCalifornia
Can I own one here
Owning one in Imperial County.
On your own land
No plate, registration or off highway sticker is needed on private land closed to the public under the owner's or an agent's immediate control where permission is required and granted.
On the farm
A truck used only in farming is an implement of husbandry under Vehicle Code 36005(k) when its one highway use is hauling farm products no more than a mile along the highway from where the trip began, and it then needs neither registration, 36100, nor an off highway sticker, 38010(b)(2).
No DMV or CHP page applying 36005(k) to a kei truck by name was found. Federal import terms for a truck brought in as off road equipment still apply.
A 25 year truck on the road
Closed to road use. California registers an imported kei truck for the road only after it is modified and tested under CARB's direct import program, which the DMV says may be expensive or impossible for a vehicle over two years old.
A newer governed truck
Private land only. The DMV registers an off-highway vehicle only if it was originally built to US and California emission standards, which an imported governed kei truck was not.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Imperial County.
To confirm. In Imperial County a kei truck may work private farm land closed to the public with no plate or sticker, but off that land, Heber Dunes SVRA included, it needs a road plate or an OHV sticker, and a 2019 proposal for combined use near Winterhaven was not found adopted.
In town To confirm
No town street opening was found in the codes read.
County roads To confirm
In 2019 a proposal sought combined use on short segments of Evan Hewes Highway and Gordons Well Road where it crosses Interstate 8 near Winterhaven, so OHVs could link trails at the Imperial Sand Dunes. The board passed a resolution supporting it and the OHMVR Commission took it up on 15 August 2019. No adopted designation or CHP approval was found. OHMVR Commission staff report of 15 August 2019 on the board's resolution of support, the resolution itself not read, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Imperial County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Los Angeles, about 250 road miles.
- The Port of Oakland, about 600 road miles.
- The Port of Tacoma, The Northwest Seaport Alliance South Harbor, about 1,300 road miles.
How to import a mini truck, step by step.
A newer off road truck never lands in California. It comes in through Tacoma or by way of Houston.
Trucks travel in containers, one to a 20 foot box with room for parts or three to a 40 foot box.
Road miles are an estimate, the straight line times 1.2.
The ground
Imperial County, counted.
Imperial County grows 5,798 acres of orchards and vineyards. 7 active surface mines and quarries work Imperial County's ground. Imperial County has 482 farms and 45 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
Importing a kei truck
The essentials, in short.
A truck under 25 can come in only as governed off road equipment, and only if its engine family held an EPA nonroad certificate for that model year. No kei engine family was certified for mini trucks before model year 2010, so a truck built after 31 October 2001 and before model year 2010 has no federal door until its 25th birthday.
Two lanes
A road truck must be 25 years old by its own build date. A newer truck comes in only as governed off road equipment with a certified engine.
The 25 percent duty
Every kei truck pays the 25 percent truck duty at the port, whatever its age.
The paperwork
The customs entry and the two federal declarations, DOT Form HS-7 and EPA Form 3520-1, travel with the truck to your title office.
The title
Keep every stamped paper with the truck. Your state title office asks to see them.
Contact
A question about the law in Imperial County?
Ask about a truck, a state or the papers, and we answer with what applies to you.
Reach us
Use the form on this page. We read every message.