Thousands of military machines are put out to pasture every year. Some of it is in poor to scrap condition, others are repairable, while some are in fine condition. Why is it auctioned off? It’s tough to say, but it sometimes involves changing tables of distribution allowances (TDA). Every time a unit’s mission changes, its equipment allowance changes. Sometimes an overage of equipment gets chopped, and the public gets the chance to swoop in and buy it.
Whatever the reason, you can find some pretty awesome deals out there, and folks have done some awesome projects out of these finds. Surplus trailers, especially the single-axle varieties, are popular for many applications. They are auctioned off fairly cheap, crazy overbuilt, super rugged, and have a high coolness factor. But how do you go about making your surplus military trailer street legal? Time to find out.
Does Your Military Trailer Even Need to Be Registered?
In a word: maybe. As a civilian, your trailer absolutely has to be registered to legally go on the road. Naturally, the military has a special set of rules that they operate by, which does not require them to register their off-road vehicles in a typical way.
Without getting into the weeds about how this all works (the weeds are pretty thick), military fleet vehicles are not titled, registered, or tagged in any conventional way. They are assigned to their branch of the military and to their gaining unit. These vehicles are considered off-road vehicles and are issued an SF97 when they are auctioned instead of a street-legal title.
But back to the original question: does your military trailer need to be registered? It all depends on your home state’s rules; each state has different rules regarding trailer registration limits. You need to figure out what yours are. However, since we know about 40 million people live there, we’ll throw California a bone and use them as an example.
Cali Case Study
In California, most utility trailers are required to be registered under Permanent Trailer Identification (PTI). In fact, according to the linked webpage, the vehicles affected include “most trailers.” Since that is not specific at all, let’s just assume that if you own a trailer, it will have to be titled, registered, and tagged.
This is not the case in many other states, but we’re talking about California here.
We already know that getting a title in California is hard enough; now, mix that in with trying to do so with a surplus trailer that doesn’t have a title.
This is a great place to use our military vehicle titling service. We take the guesswork out of getting your surplus military trailer titled and registered if you live in California (or anywhere else, for that matter).
Assuming You Do, What Do You Need to Do Beforehand?
While we take a lot of the guesswork out of the registration process, we can’t do it without you.
You need to get a valid bill of sale from the auction house when you buy the trailer. Simple, we know, but sometimes simple still trips up folks.
Here’s what you need to have available before we get started:
→ID/Passport/Drivers License (Copy)
→Bill of sale
→Proof of insurance
→Proof of tax paid in the form of a dealer bill of sale or DMV tax receipt (if applicable)
→Photo of VIN
→VIN Inspection (We provide this form)
What Happens if You Don’t Register It?
Well, it depends on where you live.
If you are in California, towing around an unregistered military trailer will almost certainly draw a ticket. Some states are extremely unfriendly to surplus military vehicles being driven on public roadways (Colorado has taken a sharp turn against surplus vehicles and is known as a street-legal UTV-hating state) and trailers are along those same lines.
It’s a tough angle to determine how an individual state or county will respond, but you need to know how to read the room.
While Colorado may be ok with a surplus military trailer being street-legal, they are clearly unfriendly to surplus military vehicles in general. This is how Colorado defines a surplus motor vehicle:
C.R.S. 42-6-402(10) "Motor vehicle" means any self-propelled vehicle designed primarily for travel on the public highways and generally used to transport persons and property over the public highways, including trailers, semi-trailers, and trailer coaches, without motive power. "Motor vehicle" does not include the following:
(a) A low-power scooter, as defined in section 42-1-102;
(b) A vehicle that operates only upon rails or tracks laid in place on the ground that travels through the air, or that derives its motive power from overhead electric lines;
(c) A farm tractor, farm trailer, and any other machines and tools used in the production, harvesting, and care of farm products; or
(d) Special mobile machinery or industrial machinery not designed primarily for highway transportation.
By reading that, a surplus trailer appears acceptable, but there’s no reason to risk it. Get the title and tag it out-of-state.
More than likely, so long as your lighting is legal, you won’t draw a second glance from the authorities. But this isn’t about California or Colorado; this is about making sure you understand you’ve done what’s right to get your trailer on the road legally.
For instance, you could definitely tag your surplus trailer out-of-state if you live in Colorado. You might be good…for a while. Of course, if the local authorities notice you have out-of-state plates, but you’re always around, they might just pull you over to find out why. Upon finding out you are local and your address doesn’t match the plate on the truck, they might just tell you to park it and trailer it like they do with UTVs.
We aren’t trying to talk anybody out of our services, but we want you to know what may happen. Just be sure to research your state’s stance on making military vehicles street-legal and be conscious of that if you’re going to put a military trailer on the road.
How to Register a Military Trailer for Private Use
Our services are made with your convenience in mind. We want to get you and your vehicle out on the road, whether it is a Humvee, a UTV, an imported car, or a military surplus trailer.
Thankfully, military trailers are built to be used on roads, so many are already equipped with DOT lights, hitches, and brakes.
Beyond the DOT safety essentials for trailers, it is all paperwork from here. Your state might even have a process whereby they consider a military trailer to be homebuilt and issue it a homebuilt VIN – that’s certainly worth looking into, but in our experience, it’s rare that states offer a nice clear path like that, and it’s especially hard to pass off a more complicated trailer as homebuilt.
What About Military Trailer Campers?
That’s one way to pick up your surplus trailer.
We love these little rascals. Seriously, is there a better platform for an overlander trailer than a surplus military trailer? No, there isn’t. They are built with the specific purpose of traveling in convoys over the harshest terrain in the world. They are overbuilt like crazy, and spare tires and parts are easy to source.
Regarding registering your military trailer as a camper, it depends on the state. Keep your eyes open for a full extrapolation of this question in a later post.
An Easier Way to Register Military Trailers
If you are concerned about how you can get your military surplus trailer street legal and tagged in your home state, we have the solution for you: the Dirt Legal Military Vehicle Street Legal Service.
Just a bunch of dudes, living in the moment, not a cell phone in sight.
We’ve invested the time and energy to figure out and coordinate the registration process for military vehicles, so you don’t have to. All you need to do is fill out the information in our inquiry, then wait on the mail. We’ll send you everything that needs to be filled out, along with the appropriate proof of ownership.
The process takes about 4-7 weeks to get your tags and registration and another 1-3 weeks for a title.
Also, suppose you need a little time to break up te process. In that case, we offer Afterpay as a payment option so you can worry more about turning your trailer into an Overlanding masterpiece and less about paying for title and registration upfront.
Wrapping Up
Used military surplus trailers can be a great find. A look at the local marketplace revealed several options for less than a grand. These trailers are crazy sturdy, built out of all steel construction, and built to take a beating. But if your home state requires all trailers to be titled and tagged regardless of size (i.e., California), and you don’t know where to start, your street-legal military trailer project could be a non-starter.
Check out our military vehicle service today!
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Check out our military vehicle service today! 🪖🚛
We will help you get your trailer registered and on the road with an out-of-state title and registration. We make the process as easy as possible so you can focus on doing what you love instead of dealing with the DMV.
Also, make sure to check out our other OHV Services to get all of your toys legally on the road!
John McCoy is a lifelong car and truck enthusiast and has a strong mechanical background off the road. He spent over 13 years in the U.S. Air Force as a crew chief, assigned to the B-1B Lancer, affectionately known as the Bone to those in the community, and the KC-135R Stratotanker. He resides on a small farm in Eastern Kansas where he (sometimes) enjoys fixing ancient farm equipment.