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Kentucky
Mini trucks in Nelson County, Kentucky
Kei trucks in Kentucky, plated where the county opens the road and at work on the farm.
Nelson CountyKentucky
Can I own one here
Owning one in Nelson County.
On your own land
KRS 189.517(3) and (4) ask for the consent of the landowner, tenant or person responsible on private property and the approval of the responsible agency on public property. Neither section registers a mini-truck or an ATV for use off the road.
On the farm
KRS 189.515(7)(b) and 189.517(5)(b) let an ATV and a mini-truck run on any two lane public highway while the operator is engaged in farm or agricultural related activities, construction, road maintenance or snow removal, with a valid operator's licence, the lights lit and in daylight except for snow removal and emergency road maintenance. A vehicle used primarily for farm or agricultural activities is left out of the street-legal class of KRS 186.077.
A 25 year truck on the road
Road use with limits. Kentucky puts the kei truck in two laws. Where a county or city has opened its highways by ordinance, a minitruck equipped to the state's street-legal list, inspected, registered and insured as a motorcycle runs on those highways under a motorcycle plate. Everywhere else the mini-truck law still lets it cross a two lane highway and work on one for farm, construction, road maintenance or snow removal, in daylight.
A newer governed truck
Utility terrain vehicle. County clerk title, within 15 days of buying it (KRS 186A.070(1)). Registration comes only when the truck is to be operated on a highway.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Nelson County.
To confirm. Nelson County's fiscal court posted Ordinance 2025-003 for a second reading on 15 July 2025 that would open every highway posted 55 mph or less to street-legal special purpose vehicles on DOT approved tires. The posted copy is unsigned, so the routes are to be confirmed.
In town To confirm
No town street opening was found in the codes read.
County roads To confirm
The draft for second reading on 15 July 2025 opens all highways within the county where the speed limit is 55 mph or less to street-legal special purpose vehicles, requires DOT approved street tires before inspection and registration, bars controlled-access highways and bars minitrucks from highways built under a federal highway program. The posted copy leaves the adoption date and signatures blank, so whether it passed as written was not confirmed. Nelson County Ordinance No. 2025-003, the draft posted for second reading 15 July 2025, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Nelson County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Savannah, Georgia Ports Authority, about 600 road miles.
- The JAXPORT, Jacksonville Port Authority, about 700 road miles.
- The Port of Los Angeles, about 2,200 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
Nelson County, counted.
Nelson County has 1,241 farms and 562 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Nelson County grows 120 acres of orchards and vineyards. Farms in Nelson County hold 30,610 acres of woodland.
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 30 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.
News for Kentucky Kentucky lets a county or city open its highways to minitrucks
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