Can I own one here
Owning one in Stillwater 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 Stillwater County.
To confirm. No ordinance in Stillwater County's list of 14 opens a county road to an off-highway vehicle, and no Columbus street was read. A kei truck titled and registered street-legal drives them all.
In town To confirm
- To confirm Columbus. The town's code was not read in this pass.
County roads To confirm
The county's ordinance page lists 14 ordinances from 2000 to 2025 and none concerns off-highway vehicles. Eleven are speed limits on named roads and one bars parking on North Stillwater Road. 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 Stillwater 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
Stillwater County, counted.
Farms in Stillwater County hold 7,246 acres of woodland. Stillwater County has 464 farms and 192 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Stillwater County averages 87 inches of snow a year.
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 Stillwater County?
Ask about a truck, a state or the papers, and we answer with what applies to you.
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