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Mini trucks in Inyo County, California
Kei trucks in California belong on private land, farms and closed sites.
Inyo CountyCalifornia
Can I own one here
Owning one in Inyo 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 Inyo County.
To confirm. In Inyo County a kei truck may work private ranch land closed to the public with no plate or sticker, but off that land it needs a road plate or an OHV sticker, and the county roads the Adventure Trails pilot opened to OHVs closed with the pilot on 1 January 2025.
In town To confirm
No town street opening was found in the codes read.
County roads Closed
The Adventure Trails pilot under Vehicle Code 38026.1 let Inyo County name county roads of up to ten miles for combined use, and the board named seven routes in 2015. SB 402 of 2019 set the pilot's end at 1 January 2025. It ended then and 38026.1 is no longer in the code. Whether the county named any shorter segment under 38026 since was not found, and the county code was not read. Vehicle Code 38026.1, which SB 402 of 2019 ran to 1 January 2025, read with the county's notice of 14 June 2024, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Inyo 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 300 road miles.
- The Port of Tacoma, The Northwest Seaport Alliance South Harbor, about 900 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
Inyo County, counted.
9 active surface mines and quarries work Inyo County's ground. Inyo County has 63 farms and 25 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Inyo County is mostly urban, with 42 percent of its people outside urban areas.
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 Inyo County?
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