Can I own one here
Owning one in Hawaii County.
On your own land
No plate and no insurance are required on a farm, a ranch or other private land in Hawaii. Both rules start at the public highway.
On the farm
Hawaii's farm street rule is written for ATVs and UTVs, and a kei truck is neither. The registration exemption for implements of husbandry is the one untested farm path.
Whether a county director of finance or the police would treat a kei truck used only on a farm as an implement of husbandry under 286-41(g)(2) was not found. Hawaii County's code defines special mobile equipment as a vehicle not designed or used primarily for carrying persons or property, as a 2021 newspaper column quotes section 24-3(43), and a kei truck is built to carry property, so that class does not fit it.
A 25 year truck on the road
Closed to road use. Hawaii does not register a vehicle its maker did not certify to federal motor vehicle safety standards, so a kei truck is not registered for Hawaii roads.
A newer governed truck
Unclear. No Hawaii title path for an off-highway vehicle was found.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Hawaii County.
Some routes. In Hawaii County a farm ATV or UTV may use two lane roads posted 35 mph or less between agricultural properties in daylight, but a kei truck is neither and cannot be registered, so it stays on the farm, the ranch or other private land, where it needs no plate.
This rests on Hawaii law. No Hawaii County ordinance or resolution was read.
In town Some
No town street opening was found in the codes read.
County roads Some
Any county road of two lanes or fewer posted 35 mph or less, for an ATV or UTV used as farm equipment travelling between properties zoned for agriculture, in daylight, under HRS 286-12. The statute names no roads, and no county act adding to it or limiting it was found. The county code was not read. A kei truck is not a UTV under the statute's definition, so these roads stay closed to it. HRS 286-12, L 2014, c 71, read in the current HRS on 28 October 2026. The county code was not read., read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Hawaii County.
The sailing
- By sea from the Port of Oakland.
How to import a mini truck, step by step.
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
Hawaii County, counted.
Hawaii County grows 25,644 acres of orchards and vineyards. 11 active surface mines and quarries work Hawaii County's ground. Hawaii County has 3,638 farms and 760 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
Areas
The areas Hawaii County is part of.
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 Hawaii County?
Ask about a truck, a state or the papers, and we answer with what applies to you.
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