How Much Does It Cost To Register A Homemade Trailer In California

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California requires the registration of about utility trailers with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Permanent Trailer Identification (PTI) program, which ensures that owners properly title and maintain the trailers to make them rubber for themselves, other drivers and their cargo, particularly animals. Most people who ain utility trailers tin use this service, but information technology does accept a few exceptions.

Utility Trailer Types and Their Uses

Utility trailers be in several different sizes and shapes. Some open, allowing for the dumping of their contents, and some have enclosed walls. Most have multiple functions for transporting appurtenances. A basic utility trailer unremarkably has a tailgate, a platform, wheels and guardrails around it and is helpful for noncommercial drivers when moving equipment or supplies from place to place.

Different types of utility trailers include:

Lowboy trailers that adjust to a shallow deck height, making loading and unloading heavy objects easy. These trailers usually acquit moving equipment that doesn't fit on a flatbed trailer or on a single-drib trailer.

Car haulers move vehicles from one place to another. The trailer can be a simple motorcar dolly attached to a vehicle'due south two forepart wheels or a hydraulic car carrier trailer with a tilting cab that a driver can drive upwardly on.

Dump trailers operate much as dump trucks practice – their platform lifts at an angle to dump the trailer's contents on the ground. They work well for moving objects in mounds, like clay, gravel or mulch.

Enclosed utility trailers, as well known every bit cargo trailers, offer protection from the elements for animals, equipment and supplies.

Flatbed utility trailers do non have guardrails, unlike a bones utility trailer. They have different configurations, but the most common is a deck above the trailer'due south wheels which has the flattest load area possible in a utility trailer.

California DMV Permanent Trailer Identification Program

California has a Permanent Trailer Identification (PTI) program through the DMV that owners use when registering their utility trailers. The department issues a PTI license plate and a permanent ID bill of fare instead of standard trailer plates. When initially converting to the program, the DMV allows trailer owners to retain their existing plate numbers or to exchange their old trailer plate for a PTI plate for gratuitous. The agency does not offer Fractional Twelvemonth Registration (PYR) or Permanent Fleet Registration (PFR) for utility trailers, and owners cannot register them under the International Registration Plan (IRP).

Trailer owners can also retain special interest or personalized plates on their PTI trailers, which are non bailiwick to registration fees, including California Highway Patrol (CHP) fees, county fees, licensing fees or weight fees. However, when renewing a PTI trailer registration, fees for special plates may be due to the DMV part.

Utility Trailer Registration Process in California

While PTI trailers do not have annual registration fees, owners must pay a maintenance service fee or file the Planned Not-Operation Certification (PNO–REG 102) form every five years. This process began with registrations that expired on or after December 31, 2006.

When registering a trailer with the PTI program, owners must apply the DMV'due south course REG 4017. Owners who want a newspaper title for their trailer should complete and sign Side A of the document. The owner will fill up out Side B when transferring a trailer'due south buying without a paper championship through a registered owner transfer or when releasing a lien holder or legal owner.

Utility Trailer's Certificate of Title

The DMV doesn't automatically issue a paper title until full payment of a lien occurs. Instead, owners have access to Electronic Lien and Titling (ELT). When they satisfy their lien, the DMV receives notification and issues the paper title to the vehicle'south registered possessor or a new lien holder.

Lien holders do not have to wait for a newspaper title to take proof of lien fulfillment. An electronic notification comes the next business day, with the necessary information included. ELT also offers these transactions:

Paper title release to the utility trailer'due south registered owner without their modify of address.
Newspaper title release to the utility trailer's new legal owner with a certificate of registration sent to the registered owner.
Power to alter the lien holder branch/location with a certificate of registration sent to the registered owner.
Newspaper title release to the lien holder with no changes. No registration certificate is required.
Paper championship release to a dealer, sale or insurance company. No registration certificate required for the registered owner.

Trailers Excluded From the PTI Program

The DMV excludes some utility trailers from the PTI program. These trailers must utilise for the standard annual registration:

Coach Boat Trailers: Owners must annals a trailer coach with a hull equally a dual vehicle/vessel.

Park Trailers (like campers or travel trailers) nether California Wellness and Condom Code Section 18009: Owners must register a utility trailer designed for human inhabitants and seasonal or recreational use that has less than 400 square feet of floor surface area, excluding the loft, built on single chassis, and transported via highways with a California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) permit.

Manufactured homes and park trailers must have a label or data plate detailing its structure. Park trailers display an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) label from the DMV, while manufactured homes display a HUD information plate from the California Department of Housing Community Development (DHC).

Utility Trailer Insurance

A utility trailer owner should accept insurance for their trailer, merely how they buy it is up to them. This blazon of policy provides the money necessary to pay tertiary parties for damage or injury from accidents involving the trailer. It may also comprehend legal and court fees up to the policy limit. Car insurance also provides some coverage, but additional liability for the trailer may exist necessary, depending on its use.

Trailer owners may want to have other types of insurance coverage depending on their needs. For example, standoff coverage compensates for repairing or replacing the trailer if an accident occurs regardless of fault. Comprehensive coverage finances an owner when repairing or replacing a trailer involved in a noncollision-related occurrence, such as a fire, flood, theft, vandalism or tempest in which the trailer is damaged past falling droppings.

Contents coverage compensates an owner to repair or replace the objects transported, regardless of fault, but live animals need a specific type of insurance coverage. Finally, roadside assistance covers towing or breakdowns if the trailer becomes inoperable while on the road.