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Montana
Mini trucks in Beaverhead County, Montana
Kei trucks in Montana register for the road as unconventional light vehicles.
Beaverhead CountyMontana
Can I own one here
Owning one in Beaverhead County.
On your own land, yes
Owning a kei truck and working it on a ranch, a farm, a mine or private property does not depend on a road title. Some states still ask for a title or an off road registration.
A 25 year truck on the road
Open to road use. Montana's Motor Vehicle Division titles and registers Japanese mini-trucks as unconventional light vehicles. Once the owner certifies its street equipment, a kei truck registers as a passenger car or truck with ordinary plates.
A newer governed truck
Off highway vehicle. Titled and registered as an OHV through the county treasurer. The title manual lets a mini-truck owner choose OHV instead of street-legal.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Beaverhead County.
To confirm. Dillon's traffic title opens no street to an unregistered off-highway vehicle and lets golf carts on streets posted 25 mph or less in daylight. Lima's code and Beaverhead County's acts were not read. A kei truck titled and registered street-legal drives the roads.
In town To confirm
- Closed Dillon. Title 10, vehicles and traffic, as the city posts it, lists seventeen chapters and none concerns ATVs or off-highway vehicles. Chapters 10.03, 10.04 and 10.95 were read. Chapter 10.04 adopts the Montana traffic statutes of Title 61. Chapter 10.95, from Ordinance 468 of 19 January 2022, bars golf carts from city streets except under its terms: daylight only, a licensed driver, registration, insurance, no more than two people and never on a street posted above 25 mph. A kei truck is not a golf cart, which Title 61 defines as a vehicle built for a golf course that averages under 15 mph. With no off-highway chapter, MCA 23-2-824(2) leaves an unregistered off-highway vehicle without a city street. Only Title 10 was read. Dillon Municipal Code Title 10, chapters 10.03, 10.04 and 10.95, Ordinance 468 of 19 January 2022; no off-highway vehicle chapter, read 28 October 2026
- To confirm Lima. The town's code was not read in this pass.
County roads To confirm
No resolution or order of the Beaverhead County commissioners on off-highway vehicles was read in this pass. Under MCA 23-2-824(2) the board of county commissioners may authorize off-highway vehicle travel on county roads inside a municipality's boundaries, and no section of the part names a county road outside a municipality. not read, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Beaverhead County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Tacoma, The Northwest Seaport Alliance South Harbor, about 600 road miles.
- The Port of Seattle, The Northwest Seaport Alliance North Harbor, about 600 road miles.
- The Port of Everett, about 600 road miles.
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
Beaverhead County, counted.
4 active surface mines and quarries work Beaverhead County's ground. Beaverhead County averages 35 inches of snow a year. Farms in Beaverhead County hold 6,660 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.
Contact
A question about the law in Beaverhead County?
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