Wisconsin trailer no title?

[vroom ZOOM]

Hello, I am feeling really screwed so I hope someone can help me out here. I recently bought a boat and trailer in WI with the intent of bringing it into ontario. The boat is easy, the trailer is the problem. I just learned that WI does not have registration for trailers of this size. Now I have no papers to show to RIV get it into ontario. What do I do?

 

[Scott Danforth]

you call your local office in Ontario and ask them what you do. they will know the answer.

and yes, Wisconsin doesn't title small trailers.

 

[vroom ZOOM]

Thanks, will try to do that. I will also have the place that sold it to me try read the vin off of them and write me up a bill of sale, that might work.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Definitely take the bill of sale into the RIV.

I bought a snowmobile trailer this past winter. None of the previous owners had registered it so I basically had to take a risk. Our DMV said that unless I tracked down each previous owner to find the original registered owner....it wasn't worth it. She said to just use it and not worry.

 

[roscoe]

Is this a new trailer?

If new, the dealer should have provided you with a manufacturers certificate of origin.

That is the document used to title/register a trailer for the first time.

 

[Aardvarkjff]

I had a similar issue here in NY. I bought a boat with a title and a trailer without. What happened was our local Dept of Motor Vehicles took the bill of sale (with the trailier's VIN) and issued me a NON-transferable registration after collecting the sales tax of course. They then ran a search of stolen vehicles and nothing came back. About 6 months later I got a transferable registration. Best contact your local agency and explain the situation. That way if you need any signed statements or anything you will be prepared.

If the owners are in WI, they should be able to go to the DMV there and get a replacement right at the counter and then sign that over to you. Pretty sure most states are the same. Good Luck.

 

[JASinIL2006]

I live in Illinois, where trailer title and registration is required, and was looking at a boat and trailer that had been titled in Wisconsin, which does not require trailer registration. I looked at all sorts of options, and the one that would have been 'easiest' was to title the boat out east (Maine, I think), which has very lax registration laws, and then transfer the trailer to IL. As it turned out, the boat had enough problems upon inspection that I passed, but I probably would have bailed on the sail simply to avoid the trailer hassle. Just not worth it.

I forget which ministry up there handles this sort of thing, but I'd go talk with them. Surely this is something they've seen before.