Street Legal UTVs: Knowing Your Legality

Just because your street legal UTV can climb a mountain doesn't mean you should hop the median to Wal-Mart or drive through the front yard at McDonald's.

Anyone making a UTV street legal today is at the forefront of a booming movement. Off-road enthusiasts, police officers, lawmakers, and the general public are all working to understand street legal UTVs and expand their rights in the safest possible ways.

In that sense, breaking the law in a street legal UTV makes it harder for the community to grow, but how do you know what laws to follow in a street legal UTV? It’s sort of a car and a UTV at the same time, after all.

Even when you're doing everything right, do you still get the feeling you're doing something illegal just by driving around in your street legal UTV? You're not alone – this pervading feeling can be hard to shake, but by knowing the ways your UTV is legal for road use, you can rest easy knowing that you are following the law to the best of your ability.

If it’s something you couldn’t or shouldn’t do in a Honda Civic, you shouldn’t do it in a street legal UTV either. Of course, that doesn’t apply when you’re off-roading in places like public lands or OHV areas, but there are actually times when your street legal UTV might still be considered an off-highway vehicle even in those places.

Let’s find out what you can and can’t do in your street legal UTV.

We are enthusiasts, not attorneys. This is not legal advice.

Staying safe on the road

• Street legal UTVs need to observe all laws and rules of the road just as a car would.

• You might occasionally be pulled over. Don’t worry, it’s usually just to verify your UTV is street legal. Here’s how to prepare.

• Running certain parts will increase your chances of getting pulled over. Here’s the list.

Always remember that while your UTV might be able to fall down a rocky escarpment and drive away unscathed, it might not do so well against a roadgoing vehicle. It’s your job to ensure that you and your passengers make it home safe in a vehicle that doesn’t have air bags or big crumple zones. Use your blinkers, give wide berths to other drivers, and assume everyone has overlooked you just as you would on a motorcycle.

Because UTVs tend to lack front and rear bumpers, major suspension components are often the first thing to get damaged by a direct impact. That means even a less serious accident could easily leave a street legal UTV parked and waiting for a tow truck.

Thankfully, UTVs are designed from the ground up to keep occupants safe. This is usually achieved by surrounding the cabin with thick metal impact bars known as a rollover protection system (ROPS). If your UTV doesn’t have any form of ROPS and you plan to drive it on the road, installing a rollbar or full cage will help keep you and your passengers as safe as possible on the road.

You can go the extra mile by equipping your UTV with parts that might not be required in the eyes of the law – shatterproof glass, DOT approved lights and blinkers, and multi-point harnesses to name a few. Similarly, seatbelts might not be required depending on how and where your UTV is registered, but you should install and use them since that is what local authorities will expect from a street legal vehicle. And, you know, the whole safety thing.

On that note, we have made a complete list of parts every street legal UTV should have based on years of experience – find it here.

Using trails, public lands, and OHV areas with a street legal UTV

You probably know that places like trails, National Parks, National Forests, BLM land, and OHV areas usually require UTVs to have certain parts. What you might not know is that these places – we’re just going to call them all OHV areas for brevity – are almost always going to require you to have those parts whether your UTV is street legal or not.

This comes up a lot with people trying to use forest roads and paved roads in National Parks by calling their street legal UTV a regular motor vehicle instead of a UTV. But these places usually call a spade a spade, ignoring your vehicle’s registration status in favor of seeing it for what it really is: a UTV.

What parts will you need?

OHV areas will mostly require things you should already have, like working lights, strong brakes, and a lack of excessive smoke and leaks. Additionally, many OHV areas in the United States require a Forest Service qualified spark arrester and a maximum noise level of about 80-90 decibels. A good reference for what to expect is this pamphlet from the USDA covering OHV use in the Pacific Northwest.

Can I leave my street legal parts on?

Looking at the other side of the equation, none of your UTV’s street legal parts should cause any problems in OHV areas, including DOT tires. As long as you’re still within any height, width, and length requirements the site has, you should be good to go.

What about my license plate?

We’ve never heard of anyone getting in trouble for having a license plate, but some areas might ask you to remove it for reasons like insurance requirements or state funding stipulations. If your plate causes confusion or someone has a problem with it, just take it off and put it back on when you leave.

Can I use paved roads in OHV areas?

That depends on the area. Many public lands use the road classifications found in the United States Forest Service Manual to determine which vehicles can use roads and trails. In our opinion, the Forest Service’s definition of “highway legal vehicle” includes any street legal UTV registered through Montana or South Dakota, though it might not include UTVs registered in other ways through other states.

There are some high-profile National Parks, National Forests, and BLM lands where UTVs can’t use certain roads even if they are street legal. In our experience that information isn’t always clear online – it’s really best to call ahead and explain your situation to be 100% sure. It's much better to know the rules upfront than to be turned down at the door.

Should helmets be worn in street legal UTVs?

The short answer is that all street legal UTV occupants should wear helmets on public roads.

The long answer is a bit more complicated and enters a gray area of street legal UTV laws in the United States. To make the best choice on this, we need to look at the situation through the eyes of local law enforcement.

You may have noticed we mentioned motorcycle helmet laws in that bulleted list just now. But a street legal UTV isn’t a motorcycle you say! Well, you’re absolutely right. Most states define motorcycles as vehicles with a maximum of three wheels, and most UTVs have four wheels, so those laws aren’t applicable to a street legal UTV. But motorcycle helmet laws are usually the closest thing local law enforcement has to go on. They see a nonstandard vehicle like a UTV, possibly with a motorcycle-sized license plate, and they automatically think of their state’s motorcycle helmet law.

Similarly, if you happen to be driving in an area where UTVs can achieve street legality, possibly through a town or county permit, chances are there will be a specific helmet law attached to that program. It could even be woven into the state’s motorcycle helmet law through a clause for vehicles with windshields or enclosed cabs. Will local law enforcement apply that law to your UTV even though you aren’t part of that specific program? Only an attorney could answer that for sure, but it’s completely understandable how both sides – the officer and the driver – could think they were in the right here.

The plot thickens when you factor in registering out of state. Someone with a street legal UTV registered in Montana might assume that Montana’s helmet laws are all they ever need to worry about. But the fact is, helmet laws must be followed on a state-by-state basis. That’s why you sometimes see motorcyclists pulling over and taking their helmets off the second they cross into a non-helmet state. Montana’s helmet law doesn’t matter anywhere except Montana, and the same goes for whatever state your UTV is registered in if you’re driving it somewhere else.

The best choice is to wear a helmet

To us, the best choice is to try and avoid the situation altogether by doing what local law enforcement is most familiar with based on a combination of the state’s motorcycle helmet law and laws pertaining to street legal UTVs in the area. Of course, that would involve following each state’s motorcycle helmet law along with UTV-related laws at the state, county, and city levels, and then wearing a helmet if any of those laws required you to.

Honestly, that’s a lot of work. We’ve given you a running start by breaking down the helmet situation in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and 5 US territories, but the only way to cover all possibilities is to wear a helmet at all times.

• Our advice is this. As experienced riders, we strongly suggest all occupants wear helmets whenever a UTV is driven on any public road. Anything you can do to keep yourself and your passengers safe is well worth doing. Not only that, wearing a helmet removes any doubt or question as to what the law requires. At the very least, state motorcycle helmet laws should be interpreted as applying to street legal UTVs.

• Children should always wear helmets. First off, it’s the safe choice. Second, we have heard stories of people being pulled over for having children riding helmetless in a street legal UTV even when no laws seemed to be broken by doing so. Anyone younger than 18 should always wear a helmet in a street legal UTV.

• Helmet laws change from state to state. Remember that helmet laws need to be followed on a state-by-state basis, not where your UTV is registered!

• OHV areas have their own rules. Even if your UTV is street legal, you will still need to wear a helmet when an OHV area, trail, or public space requires you to.

Title Transfer Windows

Many states require residents to transfer out-of-state registrations and license plates within a certain window of time, usually within 30 to 90 days. Every state defines residency differently, so you’ll have to look at your state’s laws to find that out. Some are based on other variables like time spent in the state, and some states don’t have a transfer requirement at all.

One little-known fact is that you and your vehicle can be residents of two different states.

• If you maintain residency in another state, you should be able to keep your vehicle’s title there. Check your state's laws to learn how residency is defined.

• If your vehicle is registered to a business located in another state, you should not need to worry about local title transfer windows because the business is a resident there.

As we covered in Part 3 of the guide, registering your UTV to a business is considered by many to be the best way to get street legal. Not everyone chooses to register under a business, but just know that local title transfer laws may still apply if you don’t.

Of course, if your state doesn’t have a way to register a street legal UTV in their system you can’t transfer the registration anyway, which brings us to another topic.

Vehicle Type Mismatches

Back in Part 3 we discussed something called Vehicle Categories, internal definitions states use to register vehicles for road use. Because each state makes its own motor vehicle laws, it can be possible to register a certain kind of vehicle as street legal in one state but not another. This happens with autocycles, golf carts, and Low-Speed Vehicles, to name a few, and it’s a critical factor of making a UTV street legal by registering out of state.

It can also cause problems when you try to transfer a perfectly good title and registration for a street legal UTV from one state to another.

Let’s say your UTV is registered in Montana as a quadricycle. If you tried to transfer that registration to a state that doesn't have a similar category, your registration could be denied on the grounds that the state doesn't have a category to register your vehicle under. You might think the registration would suddenly change to something like a car or motorcycle, but the last thing the state wants to do is call a vehicle something it isn’t. That would change tons of things from what parts need to be equipped to what tax rate applies, and we all know the state doesn’t like to lose money.

Sometimes, the easiest answer for the state is just to tell you they can’t register your vehicle at all. That’s fine if you have a compelling reason to leave the registration in another state, like being registered under an LLC. But if you don’t, now the title transfer window says the registration must be transferred but the state says they won’t accept it.

What do you do? In other words, how can a title transfer window be enforced when the state won’t honor the vehicle’s registration?

This is a gray area

According to some people, this catch 22 means you are free to drive your street legal UTV because nothing can be done. Some people have even gone as far as explaining the problem if they happen to get pulled over. From our perspective, if you end up in this situation your best bet is to contact a local attorney with a deep understanding of the vehicle laws in your state.

The good news is that you might not ever encounter this, especially if your UTV is registered to an LLC located out of state or if you maintain residency in another state.

Getting Pulled Over in a Street Legal UTV

We are enthusiasts, not attorneys. This is not legal advice.

• If your UTV is legally registered, your equipment is correct, and you don’t break any laws while driving around, you should have nothing to worry about.

• Street legal UTVs registered in Montana or South Dakota cannot be driven on interstate highways in their respective states.

• Avoid the handful of areas in the country where street legal UTVs should not be driven.

Earlier we touched on the pervading feeling of doing something wrong or illegal that many people get while driving their street legal UTV. It can be a tough feeling to shake – you can expect to attract a lot of attention driving around town in something that looks like it belongs on a mountaintop. Especially in major cities, people might take one look at your UTV and assume it can’t possibly be street legal.

It doesn’t help that some law enforcement officers believe there is no way to register a side-by-side for road use. They might not know exactly what you’re doing wrong, but they are 100% sure there’s something illegal going on even though your rig has a license plate and a valid registration. Because UTVs are a rare sight among the millions of cars on the road, local law enforcement may not know that a UTV can be made street legal in your area.

With that in mind, let’s explore what you can do if your UTV’s legality is ever brought into question.

What can I do if I get pulled over?

Refer to this checklist of things you can do if you get pulled over in a street legal UTV.

• Only operate a street legal UTV on a full and valid driver’s license.

• Provide physical copies of your UTV’s registration and insurance card, not digital.

• Provide copies of the registration reciprocity statute and helmet law for the state you’re driving in. Find them here.

• Provide copies of laws related to your vehicle’s registration status. For most people, this will either be Montana’s quadricycle statute or South Dakota’s four-wheel motorcycle statute. Find them here.

• Explain your situation in detail. For example, you are driving a Polaris RZR XP Turbo registered as a street legal quadricycle to your LLC in Montana.

• Explain your vehicle’s parts in detail. For example, you added a license plate light to meet Montana’s quadricycle requirements and turn signals for added safety.

• Explain your insurance coverage to the best of your ability. Learn more about street legal UTV insurance.

For example, if your UTV is registered as a quadricycle in Montana and you are driving in Wyoming, it would be good to have copies of Montana’s quadricycle laws, Wyoming’s helmet law, and Wyoming’s registration reciprocity statute. We suggest carrying physical copies to eliminate any doubt a digital version could cause (not to mention lack of cell service, a dead phone, etc.). Print those things out, put them in a folder, and keep the folder in your UTV in case its legality is ever called into question.

Do I really need to worry about this?

Getting pulled over in a street legal UTV is rare enough that most people won’t ever encounter it, but it’s important enough that you should know what to do in case it does happen.

In most of the stories we’ve heard, getting pulled over is either out of sheer curiosity or simply to confirm nothing illegal is happening. Some officers have even asked how to make their own UTVs street legal during traffic stops. In rare cases, we have heard stories of people being threatened with tickets or citations, usually for driving an off-highway vehicle (ATV, OHV, etc.) on the road.

Is that actually possible? Would that ticket hold up in a court of law?

We can’t say for sure because we aren’t attorneys, but there have been several court cases where street legal UTV owners challenged tickets like those and won. Public documents can be found in various places online. We can’t speak for every situation, but it often comes down to a lack of understanding of the street legal process coupled with how rare street legal UTVs are in many parts of the country.

As long as you follow the three bullet points from the beginning of this section, you should have nothing to worry about.

Knowing Your Legality

It's no secret that you will have more fun and attract more attention in a street legal UTV than almost any other vehicle. With great power comes great responsibility, and it's your job to follow the rules of the road and keep yourself and your passengers safe so you can all ride another day. Being knowledgeable on exactly how your UTV is street legal could come in handy, so be sure to bring those important documents whenever you hit the open road.

We briefly touched on another topic that raises a lot of questions: how do you insure a street legal UTV? Let’s tackle that now. It’s part 7 of 8 – you’re almost there!