Can I own one here
Owning one in Carbon 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 Carbon County.
To confirm. No ordinance in Carbon County's list of 25 opens a county road to an off-highway vehicle, and no Red Lodge, Bridger, Fromberg, Joliet or Bearcreek street is known to be open to an unregistered one. A kei truck titled and registered street-legal drives them all.
In town To confirm
- To confirm Red Lodge. The city's traffic code adopts the Montana motor vehicle statutes of Title 61 by reference. A search summary of the code says it limits leaving a licensed ATV or UTV in one place on a public right-of-way for more than five days, which treats a licensed one as a vehicle and says nothing of opening a street. The code was not read in full because ecode360 blocked the request. Red Lodge traffic code, Chapter 1, not read in full, read 28 October 2026
- To confirm Bridger. The town's code was not read in this pass.
- To confirm Fromberg. The town's code was not read in this pass.
- To confirm Joliet. The town's code was not read in this pass.
- To confirm Bearcreek. The town's code was not read in this pass.
County roads To confirm
The county's own ordinance page lists 25 ordinances from 1982 to 2024 and none concerns off-highway vehicles. The only road ordinances are 98-1, maximum speed limits on all county roads, and 99-1, speed limits on Highway 212 at the Roberts school. The commissioners' resolutions were not searched. Under MCA 23-2-824(2) the board of county commissioners may give permission for an off-highway vehicle on a county road inside a municipality, and that permission need not be an ordinance. ordinance list read, no off-highway vehicle ordinance in it; no resolution read, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Carbon County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Everett, about 800 road miles.
- The Port of Seattle, The Northwest Seaport Alliance North Harbor, about 800 road miles.
- The Port of Tacoma, The Northwest Seaport Alliance South Harbor, about 800 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
Carbon County, counted.
Carbon County averages 74 inches of snow a year. Carbon County has 681 farms and 307 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Farms in Carbon County hold 13,098 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 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 Carbon County?
Ask about a truck, a state or the papers, and we answer with what applies to you.
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