Registering your vehicle as an OHV

Registering your Vehicle as an Off-highway only vehicle
By: Caleb Call

No matter if your vehicle is a competition tube framed buggy on 40" tires or a Toyota Four Runner on 32" tires, sometimes it just makes more sense to register your vehicle as an Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV). Registering your vehicle as an OHV is a permanent change in the titling of your vehicle. It has never been real clear on what exactly you need to do and the steps that need to be taken in order to register your vehicle as such. You would always get different stories and steps depending on the person you spoke with about this. Having recently gone through the process I will give an outline of what needs to be done to keep your vehicle legal.

The very first thing you need to consider if you have an existing vehicle is, is this really for me? When you change the titling of your vehicle to an OHV, it becomes for Off-Road use only. It will no longer be legal to drive it on any public streets. However, for buggies and the more extreme vehicles this is not an issue because they cannot legally be driven on the street anyways.

So now you have made the choice to register it as an OHV. You need to go down to the DMV and pick-up a couple forms or you can visit their website and download the PDF files to be printed out (URL is at the end of the article). The forms you need are forms TC-661 which is a Certificate of Inspection and form TC-569A MVA which is an Ownership Statement. The next step is to get your VIN inspected, you will need form TC-661 for this, by a Motor Vehicle Examiner, designator contractor, Utah Peace Officer, or a certified safety inspector. I called the Salt Lake County Sheriffs office (non-emergency number) and had an officer come to my house and inspect my buggy. There is a little bit of difference in this step for those who have an existing VIN versus those that are getting a new VIN for their homebuilt vehicle. If you have a VIN already they will be inspecting it to make sure it has not been reported stolen or anything along those lines, if you need a new VIN they will be inspecting to make sure there is not already a VIN assigned to it. The Officer, or whoever you have inspect it, will then fill out their portion of form TC-661, you need to fill out the top portion.

You will also need to fill out the form TC-569A, the Ownership Statement, which is just information about the vehicle. Now that you have all the forms filled out you need to take at least two good pictures of your vehicle to take with you to the DMV, they will put these on file. Now that you have the two forms and the two pictures you need to return to the DMV where you will be assigned a new VIN and also be given another form TC-661.

You now need to go attach your new VIN and and remove your old one if you had a pre-existing one then have it inspected once more to ensure that you really did attach it to your vehicle. After getting it inspected you need to go into the DMV one last time where You will be given your OHV registration stickers and assigned your registration numbers. Depending on the DMV you go to you may have to fill out form TC-162 or TC-656 which are both Applications for Utah Title. If you have an existing title you will also need to bring that with you to the DMV, they will shred it and you will get a new one in the mail in a week or two. I need to mention it again, if you register your vehicle as an OHV you will not be able to legally drive it on public streets, your vehicle will essentially be a large ATV.

http://tax.utah.gov/forms/current.html#motorvehicle
 
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Kiel

Formerly WJ ZUK
Right on, thats exactley the way I figured it out and did it last year, good stuff:D
 

Jeremy

total tacoma points: 162
i am very unfamiliar with anything not street legal. what about insurance, is it required or is it even available for an OHV? my jeep is due for registration this month, and it probably wont pass safety or IM. it will only be used till after safari then the motor will be yanked and the carcass will be junked for a fresh body/frame, which i will try to build street legal.

one more thing, what about the cost to register as an OHV only vehicle?
 

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
yes ins. is available, its purchased as OHV ins. I don't know anything about costs becasue i sold my rig before I could get it. I do know its cheaper then regular ins. but it also does not cover you if you are on public roads. Oh yeah, and it is not required but, IMO, if you dont have atleast liability you are just asking for problems.
 

Jeremy

total tacoma points: 162
Supergper said:
yes ins. is available, its purchased as OHV ins. I don't know anything about costs becasue i sold my rig before I could get it. I do know its cheaper then regular ins. but it also does not cover you if you are on public roads. Oh yeah, and it is not required but, IMO, if you dont have atleast liability you are just asking for problems.



my cost question was refering to the registration not the insurance.:D
 

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
the cost is based on value, since your's is an existing vehicle they will likely already have a value for it, for the tube buggies you jsut give them a cost. It cost me total of about $37 (if I remember correctly). It is cheaper than regular registration, but does take some time out of your day.
 

Meat_

Banned
Location
Lehi
I told them my K5 was worth $500, they didn't bat an eye.

The reg fee is around $15 + prop tax

Liability and comprehensive including medical on me and anyone I hit with a $250 deductable is $20/month on my '04 Polaris. Not sure how they would handle an OHV truck.
 

Kris K

4x4 Addict!
Location
Heber City, UT
When I got my samurai done I told them it was worth $150 which is how much I got it for of course it's worth more, but they didn't care.

Also the only problem I had was I still had my windshield in so they just told me to pull it out when I had time. I just haven't had time, and it''s been almost a year.

I love when I get pulled over the city cop (Nephi has road for OHV to get to the mountains on) thought he had a good one intell I should him all the paper work. Didn't say anything about my shaddered windshiled ether?
 

redrockcrawler

earth rover 2012
Location
hooper
there are side effects to this as well. once a vehicle is registered ohv it can to be changed back to normal registration also a fine for driving on the road is a minimum of $250 fine in grand county

the good news is sb181 can change the law around the roads it will allow towns to easier designate roads for ohv and that would be great for all of us
 
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1995zj

I'm addicted
Location
Herriman, UT
Registering your vehicle as an OHV is a permanent change in the titling of your vehicle. It has never been real clear on what exactly you need to do and the steps that need to be taken in order to register your vehicle as such.

I know this is an old thread, but since it is being discussed in another thread, I just wanted to clear this up. If this is saying that once a vehicle is registered OHV, then it cannot be changed back to a street-legal vehicle, that is NOT true.

My brother purchased a Toyota Hilux 2 years back that was registered OHV. We did some necessary changes so it would pass inspection, had an inspector at the DMV look it over, and then registered it back as a Toyota (4-Runner I believe). So it IS possible to change it back if wanted. More of a pain, but possible.
 

chadschoon

Well-Known Member
Location
lehi
Bringing back an old thread again ;) Needing to get my buggy OHV registered here pretty quick. Looking at the forms that are needed it is asking for the current VIN # well it doesnt have one due to being custom built. Also what would you do for value of vehicle and purchased value? Do you out 0 for purchased? Or amount your into it lol. Will it hurt you in any way in putting a $1000 value of vehicle vs 1 billion amount?
 

driver920

Active Member
Location
West Valley
well as far as the not having a number would go to dmv first and get thier form and number and as far as the 1000 over a billion do you want tyo pay sales tax on a billion .............. that is why they want a dollar amount is so they can charge you sales tax on the value as in their eyes you just bought it either as a whole or in peices and then it has an assigned value
 
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