By Big Wolf on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I did not see any thing posted for the State Of Michigan ORV requirements, so I thought that I would share this information with other Michiganians.

You can also confirm this same informaton that I have provided through the Secretary of States Web site.

The State of Michigan laws requires that all ORV's must be legally titled, regardless of how many wheels it has. If it is used as an Off Road Vehicle it must be titled, and it must have an ORV registration sticker afixed to the body in plain view.

To obtain a legal title for your ORV, you must have a copy of the (M.S.O.) Manufacturers Statement of Origin for all new ORV's sold in Michigan. When you provide the (M.S.O.) document, along with the bill of sale document to the Secretary Of State office, they will provide you with a legal title. Here is the "GOTCHA" part of titling a new ORV, if you bought the machine within Michigan from a dealer, you indeed paid your sales tax, and they will not give you any problem with it at all. If you bought the new machine form out of state, and did not pay sales tax, they will check and see this on the bill of sale, and then proceed to charge you the Michigan 6% sales tax, and then provide you with a legal title for your new machine! "GOTCHA" any way!

When you buy or sell a used ORV machine within the State of Michigan, you must apply for a new title for the ORV through the Secretary Of State office. The state does not allow or recognize transferred titles as a legal title period! "GOTCHA" once again!

If you do indeed operate your amphibious ORV in any type of recognized body of water, pond, lake, stream, river, it must be registered as water craft. You must also have the proper water craft registration numbers clearly afixed to the body of the ORV. Basically if it has any type of permanent engine on board and it floats in water, it is considered a water craft when it enters any body of water period! "GOTCHA" one last time!

You can now get your ORV registration sticker from any retail Out-Of-Doors establishment, that has a state licensing computer, that sells and issues hunting and fishing licenses over the counter.

But seriously folks these are only the legal formalities of owning, titling, registering, and operating any ORV in our state. If you abide by these basic laws in our state, you are completely legal and above board, and no law enforcement officer will ever give you any hassle about it!

You may want to educate yourself about the proper safety gear required on board for a water craft. And also read up on the safety gear required to operate an ORV. One interesting item to note is that if you have a roll cage apparatus with a hard top, you are niot required to wear a helmet.

By Big Wolf on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I forgot to mention one other very interesting piece of information, that should have been included in the above message!

When and if you do operate an ORV on a frozen body of water in Michigan, you are only required to have your ORV registration sticker on the machine. You do not need to have the ORV registered as a water craft for traveling over frozen bodies of water.

The one instance that I am not sure about would be in the case of operating the ORV on frozen water, and then being forced to transition operation to open water for crossing. I would have to say this one is wide open to interpretation by the law enforcement officer that see this happening. If you have a good convincing story that you are doing an emergency evacuation from the ice, and had no other choice but to cross the open water to get back to land, then you should not have any problem at all. If the reason is other wise, then be prepared to get busted!

By Jon Hoath on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Big Wolf,
Also I would like to add that the trails in michigan that are marked orv trails have a 50 inch width limit, and are gated to only allow those width. I did squeeze through on my bigfoot on one a few years back, but I found out by the dnr that I was way illegal. He did tell me that orv routes were legal for us amphibs, but their are not many of those. Their is something being done though. A state rep. my distributor knows has a bill to introduce to the state legislators, ( House Bill #110 I believe) that is going to make our width vehicle legal on the trails with the 50 inch limit. So get word out, that bill would open up hundreds of miles of trails in michigan. Jon

By dt5428 on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Hey Big Wolf you forgot one.Actually two you also need a snowmobilee registration and trail permit we have on for the Argo.

Later,Dan

By Big Wolf on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Jon,

That new bill sounds like it will be a long over due great change for our state. If you can confirm the new Bill #110 is correct, and any other details about it, I can also start working on getting some more substantial support from the Michigan United Consevation Club (M.U.C.C.), and some board members of my tribe up in the Soo to get behind this thing also. This is our tribal boards big election year, and they are always looking to jump on board and support some good causes during this time.

Although we probably can go and do just about any thing we want in our state, with out really being hassled that much, it will be nice to say we can do it legally once and for all.

Dan, the information about the snow mobile regitration is a real surprise to me, I read most all of the regulations and I did not see that one. I will have to go back and read it again!

You know the one good thing about all the proper registration requirments is that, they are really not that costly to do, it is primarily just a hassle to read up on and remember and do every thing required.

I do like the latest new thing the state is doing now for registration and plating of all trailers. You only have to do it on time for the life of the trailer, and pay one flat rate registration fee. I think that is a good thing, and it was also long over due!

By Uncle Pete on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Taxes, taxes, taxes again and again. That is what I see. Some folks call them permit fees or registration fees or whatever you want. If you get to use a trail, well maybe it's okay to have to have it registered but far too many states force you to register as an ATV, ORV, OHV or whatever their abbreviation is and they still won't allow 6 or 8 wheelers on the ATV trails.

To have to register an AATV as a snowmobile is down right stupid. Let's start registering all the snowmobiles as highway vehicles like cars and trucks since snowmobiles are allowed in a lot of states to drive along the roadway too.

Why is trailer licensing in MI long overdue? Are you a tax collector? Small recreational trailers used to haul a small boat, ATV, AATV or snowmobile or a small pop up camper should't have to be licensed in my opinion. This stuff is all my opinion. I'm glad my state has no registration requirements for my AATV or the trailer that hauls it. Sure, I can't go on the ATV trails but so what. Who wants to go in a straight line with graded and graduated hills on gravel anyways. Not with my 6 wheeler I don't.

I use my AATV for enjoyment, hunting and for work out in the fields or woods. I can even drive it into town as long as I have my orange triangle on the back.I can use my tractor for the same purposes. I don't want my AATV registered nor do I want my tractor registered. My two trailers are not registered either.

I like having no registration laws, titles, licenses etc on AATV's in my state.

By Big Wolf on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Well Pete, the new one time registration and licensing of all trailers in Michigan is long over due because, historically we have had to do it every year, and pay the fees every year.

Now we only have to do it one time and be done with it, for us up here in Michigan it is a very good change. When you own an assortment of vehicles and trailers, it is very easy to forget to renew the registrations by the dead lines year after year. When you get a ticket for having an expired license plate, it usually costs quite a bit to pay for the ticket.

It would also be nice if they do the same thing for all ORV's and water craft and snow mobiles and so on. Like I mentioned the registration fees on these items are not much cost at all, it is just more of a hassle to renew registrations for them year after year. It is hard to say if this will happen or not, the state does seem to like the having the constant cash flow going for the general fund and what ever other reason.

Unfortunately even though all state and federal employees and politicians do technically work for us the tax payers, for some odd reason they do not really understand or see it that way.

I also use my machine for hunting and other outdoors activity, and I also have a farm implement orange triangle on the back end. They do seem to tolerate me and my machine locally, however, when I travel outside my general area, then they will not be so tolerant witn me.

We actually do have tens of thousands of miles of trails and two tracks that you can ride on up here. I can assure you some of the two tracks and hills can be a challenge for any kind of machine. When and If you do get bored of riding and hunting the two tracks, you can always do a turn left or right and attempt to blaze a new trail through the peat bog swamps and beaver ponds. At that point you will be up to your waist or neck in all the challenge that you could ever deal with!

By budman (209.115.67.76) on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 04:36 pm: Edit

Mi State Laws reguarding trailers and vehicles are confusing and misleading to there interpitation. No Plates for permenantly mounted equipment trailered on wheels My Dune Buggy is titled as a roadster which the requirements were easier to meet.