By Bknight (Bknight) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

To all the New Hampshire residents with 6 wheelers. According to DRED's Chris Gamache of NH bureau of trails we (6x6 owners) are not allowed to ride on any state owned or leased land because of our machine width. (this is crap!) I'll include the message I sent to him and his reply.
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I recently read through the new bill that was signed recently concerning
ATV's in NH. I had a question about a section that may seem relatively simple,
but... Under section 215-A:43 Evaluation Process. Part IV reads 'No person
shall operate an OHRV wider than 50 inches OR over 1000 pounds on any
state-owned trails.'

My question is this. I own a 6 wheeler made by Recreative Industries
called a Max II. It is 56 inches wide but only 670 lbs.. It puts less than 1
psi on the ground when in operation due to the combined surface area of the
tires. Does this mean, in the new laws that I am not allowed to use any of the
state-owned trails for recreational use simply because I'm 6 inches over the
limit?
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his reply
---The size restriction is not new. NH law, 215-A:1 I-b, defines an ATV as a motor driven vehicle which cannot exceed 50 inches in width and cannot exceed 1000 lbs net vehicle weight.
Your Max II may be under 1000 lbs but it does exceed the 50 inch width requirement. Therefore, you vehicle is an OHRV, not an ATV, and the NH Bureau of Trails maintains motorized wheeled trails for ATVs and Trailbikes. Your vehicle will not fit through any of the gates that we install on our trails and is technically illegal on any of the trails on state owned or leased lands.
HB 1273 did not make this definition, it already existed. I am sure that it was not what you wanted to hear but any vehicle wider than 50 inches will not be allowed on state owned/leased trails.
Chris Gamache
Program Specialist
NH Bureau of Trails
603-271-3254
cgamache@dred.state.nh.us
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It's funny how the clubs don't mind us riding with them. We all get along fine. (I belong to an atv club) But the state is another matter. Makes me wonder why I should have to pay them to register my 6 wheeler if they are going to discriminate as to where I can ride. Our machines were around long before the 4 wheelers were..

Brian Knight

By Fred Sowerwine, Montana's Max Dealer (Fred4dot) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Brian, In my opinion, skid steer owners need to be brave and push regulations like this - maybe get arrested and have a camera and get some newspaper coverage. Let them take you to court and justify why one vehicle is OK and another is not. You can try the change the law route via the legislature, but that is slow and hard to do (again our numbers are so small that nobody listens to us).

If this gets to court, the PSI on the ground issue should be important. The fact that they take your money and require you to register should be important. If you, like us, have a percentage of the gas tax go to trail maintenance, that should be important. We have to force them to justify their reasoning in a public forum so we can get support from others who believe in fairness and common sense.

Personally I don't worry much about the 50 inch rule. Here we are required to carry a shovel and a fire extinguisher when on public land and have a spark arrestor. I do all that and have the shovel strapped across the machine (funny thing is that the shovel sticks out farther than my machine is wide). "Now officer, am I suppose to carry a shovel or not?" I have never had any problems with the authorities (of course, I often go where no one else is and never see anyone).

Everyone needs to deal with this according to their own stress level and do what they are comfortable with. We do need to stick up for our selves because divide and conquer are the environmentalists' best tool.

By Timothy Schotanus (Mudbuster) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I am interested in riding in the conway area. My friends just bought a large amount of land there and want to use my 6 wheeler to check it out. I am not from NH and should probably get registered. Anybody know where to register in the Conway area? Anybody else want to ride? What are the local rules(other than being too wide) Do I need a helmet? What about fire extingisher? Shovel?
Thanks

By Bknight (Bknight) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Tim
contact the NH Fish and Game dept concerning OHRV laws.. as NH see's our machines not as ATV's but as OHRV's.. (over 50 inches). My post earlier was only for riding on state owned or leased land, not private. As I don't own any private land in NH I still register so I can ride with my club. The other reason we can't ride state land is the gates.. there is room for a 4 wheeler to get around the gate and post..but in some areas there are multiple posts in the ground narrowing the gap. At this point it is not worth getting caught.. I don't have the cash to toss away to the state by overstepping the laws now and pushing our sport further back into the dark ages. Also Tim, you can register your 6 wheeler at any atv shop that offers atv registrations, (most do). As far as I know, you don't need anything extra on your machine to ride, (extinguisher or shovel).

Fred, psi on the ground doesn't me diddly up here. if you read our new law on atv's basically the part I mentioned you could make a contraption that's 7 ft long, 999lbs, 50 inches wide and have 4 - 1 inch wide tires sinking into the soil as it moves and be legal on state land.

I will be talking with a registered lobbyist for atv's rather soon at one of our meetings. Things will change sometime, but it's not doing our sport any good by purposly going out to look for trouble. Because if the Fish and game have a bug up their a$$ they can really ring up the bill on someone breaking the law here. The clubs let me ride with them on their trails, for now that's good enough.

later
Brian Knight

By Bknight (Bknight) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Tim,
http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/OHRVcourses.htm is the url to NH fish and game ohrv section.
603-271-3254 is the phone number of the bureau of trails.

bk

By John Schwab (Johnschwab) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

In my opinion AATVs have not been singled out for exclusion from ATV trails, they (we) were simply not represented in the process that got the trails open in the first place.
A little background: I have had ATVs for decades, but I am new to AATVs and have owned one for a little less than one year (I love it).
During the late 80s and early 90s I was part of the NY State organization that has fought long and hard to finally get us some state land to use for ATV trails. I was also a NY state representative to the national organization (NOHVCC) whose purpose was to promote trail openings nationally. This organization was (and is) financially supported by the major ATV manufacturers.
During the eight years I was personally involved in this endeavour (my ex called it obsession) no one from any AATV organization, manufacturer or group approached us and said"Hey we should be included in this".
So what is most ironic is that all the trails that I and others fought so hard to get open are now closed to me when I am on six wheels instead of four.
To sum it up: We knew AATVs existed, but no one from the AATV community stepped up when it would have been simpler than now when the gates and bridges are all 50" wide. If I only knew then what I know now!!

By Fred Sowerwine, Montana's Max Dealer (Fred4dot) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

John, seeing as how you "have been there" and know the people and know the process, would you be willing to open the door and get the "powers that be" to begin whatever process is needed to allow all recreational machines to use the same trails?

By John Schwab (Johnschwab) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Yes Fred absolutely, Know one knows better than you that there is no environmental issue keeping AATVs off of the ATV trails. Since our machines are registered and insured there is no legal issue either. The biggest obstacle I have been told (other than governmental lethargy) is the bridges and gates that have been erected to limit vehicle width. Most of that can be modified with some manual labor (volunteer, clubs etc.)
The width issue will probably have to be addressed at some point anyhow since all of the Polaris ATVs with independent rear suspension and the oversized tire kits easily exceed 50 inches. When that width issue is addressed by the authorities would probably be our best opportunity to get our foot in the door.
In the Alleghany National Forest Pa. a section was opened on a trial basis for use by AATVs. This section has open- sided bridges and no other physical barriers. Hey it is a start. Since this is National Forest it could be used as a precedent.
It is now 12:30 Am, I am leaving for the Badlands in a few hours, talk more when I return. Hopefully some others have some ideas also