How to Easily Title a Military Surplus Trailer for Road Use

The army uses a whole lot of trailers and trucks to do what they do. The army moves over the ground. By definition, they close ranks and attack and conquer. To do so, they rely heavily on huge caches of vehicles which they use to haul everything literally into the field. 

The cool thing is that they decommission (and sometimes demilitarize) hundreds of vehicles and trailers every year – maybe even thousands – which means that you can be the owner of an incredible piece of military history and a highly versatile and durable piece of machinery that you can make street legal: a military surplus trailer.

Let’s look at what it takes to make a surplus military trailer street legal and give you a great place to start.

What Is a Military Surplus Trailer?

So here’s the thing: when we think of army vehicles, we generally think of the green, camouflaged variety. This is a great place to start, and it is what we are talking about here. 

With that said, the DoD owns thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of commercially available off-the-shelf vehicles, including all kinds of trailers. 

When I worked for the Department of the Army as a civilian for nearly a decade, my directorate owned a handful of trailers. Public Works, on the other hand, owned probably 50+ trailers. These included standard job site boxes, flatbeds, and landscaping trailers. 

The DoD auctions off these trailers all the time, too, but these aren’t what we’re talking about here. You’ll have no problem getting those commercially available trailers titled and registered. 

Our focus is on the surplus fleets of off-road trailers. These are the burly-looking trailers hooked up to a Humvee or LMTV. We won’t focus on the specific models too much since there are so many variations, but some commonly available military trailers which are popular to make street-legal are:

• M105 (several variations)

• M1101

• M1102

Several manufacturers make these trailers, including Raytheon, Schutt, and Silver Eagle, to name a few. 

Now, larger, twin-axle trailers are made to marry to the LMTV and FMTV platforms, but they require an air brake system and aren’t intended for light vehicles. That’s outside the scope of this article and most backyard enthusiasts, but those heavier military trailers can still be made street-legal in ways we’ll cover in a moment.

How Can I Find Military Surplus Near Me?

Qualified auction houses exist in many states and protected territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, etc.). Auction houses are usually attached to major military installations since those are prime sources of surplus equipment.

The best leads for auctions come from www.govplanet.com. This is the leading, authorized auction house; they are highly reputable and auction off thousands of items yearly through their parent site IronPlanet, which specializes in construction equipment. 

What Types of Military Surplus Trailers Are There?

For the sake of this article, let’s focus on light off-road use utility trailers, which we mentioned above, including M105, M1101, and M1102. (Also, if you need this sort of thing, you can also buy potable water tanker trailers, but I digress.)

These utility trailers are built of a steel and aircraft-grade aluminum composition. They are quite heavy, but the benefit is that you won’t beat them up. Also, if you happen to do work or travel in the way-off-there’s of the world, both the M1101 and M1102 are built using an independent suspension. Each runs on the massive Humvee tires, making them a great match for your street-legal Humvee (yes, we do those), although as long as you have a pintle hitch attachment for your receiver, any truck will do.

These trailers are wonderfully adaptable. In the field, they are used for hauling everything. As in, everything. They haul tools, spare parts, weapons, ammunition, food, mail, soldiers, and anything else you need to throw in a trailer. Each trailer has a sidewall of about a foot, so you can safely chuck tools and gear in it. Oh, and did we mention the sixteen inches of ground clearance? Ridiculous, right?

After looking in the ‘sold’ section of GovPlanet at some of the trailers, it looks like the M1101 and M1102 usually stay between $1,500-$3,500. Nothing is set in stone, but those numbers seem consistent. 

Only your imagination limits the uses for these trailers: hauling firewood (the M1102 has a payload of 2,740lbs), overlander trailer campers, picking up lumber from Lowe’s, or whatever else you want to use it for. You’ll get instant street cred if you roll up to the lumber yard for some mulch towing an M1102 behind your street-legal Humvee. Legit. 

Is It Hard to Title & Register a Military Trailer?

Is it hard to register a military trailer? Not really, if you play your cards right. 

But here’s the catch…

Not every state is altogether friendly towards surplus military vehicles being tagged and titled in their states. 

Get this: Colorado actually banned the street-legal titling and registration of all surplus military vehicles in the state. It’s right here in Colorado Senate Bill 19-054. Ironically, the standards do not apply to military vehicles built for other countries, only those built for the United States Armed Forces. 🙄. Colorado is one of the more egregious examples, but plenty of states make it too hard to tag and title your stuff. 

What Are the Hurdles?

The main hurdle is getting beyond the trailer being recognized exclusively as an off-highway vehicle (OHV) or for off-road use only. This is a serious sticking point for some states, although not everywhere. Every state has different trailer titling and registration requirements depending on the trailer’s GVWR.

For example, California requires basically all utility trailers to be titled and tagged through the Permanent Trailer Identification (PTI) program. But in other states, like my home state of Kansas, you don’t have to tag a trailer until the combined weight of the trailer and load exceeds 2,000lbs unless it is a farm trailer, in which case that load requirement is extended to 6,000lbs. But the M1101 and M1102 will require tags in either state if they have any load. So basically, there are not a lot of situations (if any) where you would be able to use a surplus military trailer without a tag unless you’re getting it specifically for farm or ag use. 

So, back to the hurdles. You will have to figure out whether or not your state will entertain an OHV-branded SF-97 with your trailer. We already know where Colorado stands fairly well, but you’ll have to check with your local DMV to be sure. 

Or, of course, you can press the easy button and make it street-legal through the Dirt Legal process. 

The Dirt Legal Advantage

You could go to the DMV 3-4 times, always bringing back what they said was all they needed (yes, I am still bitter). Or, you can pick a service, press checkout, and let us do the work for you.

What is the bottom line? 

1. Answer the questions at checkout.

2. Fill out the paperwork we send you. 

3. Send any attachments and/or documents we need. 

4. Wait a few weeks. 

5. Attach the tag to your trailer. 

6. Go do stuff with your trailer. 

Get this: you never have to leave your couch to get your military trailer street-legal! Be aware of your local laws when you hit the road and ensure all your lights, markings, and other street-legal parts of your trailer are in good working order when you use it – especially if you live in a state like Colorado.

Wrapping Up

Tl;dr: Army trailers are awesome and can be cheap, but not every state makes titling and tagging surplus military vehicles easy (or even allows it). We take the hassle out of it, and you don’t have to leave your couch.
Check out our military vehicle street legal program to see what’s right for you. If you’re unclear on which option to choose, just call us! Oh, and if you own more than one vehicle (or are planning on buying more), you can put as many as you want in a Montana LLC, with each vehicle getting a Montana plate and no sales tax paid to register.