These Are All the Ways to Make Your UTV Street Legal

There are only a few states where you can go to the DMV and get a plate for your UTV – everyone else has a few more steps involved to get street legal.

The most critical aspect of making a UTV street legal isn’t the parts involved or the laws that let you drive on the road, it’s how the vehicle is registered. There are only a few states where you can go to the DMV and get a plate for your UTV – everyone else has a few more steps involved to get street legal.

It’s well worth it – the result will be a machine you can drive on highways, city streets, and rural roads like a car and still do trails, OHV areas, and public lands as a UTV. What’s not to love about that?

Depending on where you live there might be several ways to make a UTV street legal. You also need to decide what level of street legality you’re aiming for. Many people want as much as they can get, but some just want the ability to drive to their local trail or OHV area without the law raising holy heck.

You have probably heard of people registering in other states to make their UTV street legal. The question is, is that necessary in your situation? And what does that involve?

There are three main ways to make a UTV street legal in the United States. Let’s explore those now, and we’ll learn also about some of the laws that make this whole concept of a street legal UTV possible in the first place.

Why make your UTV street legal?

The popularity of street legal UTVs has boomed in recent years. What was born out of necessity for farmers, hunters, hobbyists, and outdoorsmen has grown into widespread acceptance and a culture all its own.

The benefits are endless. No more loading your side-by-side on the trailer just to get across town, no laws saying when and how far you can drive your UTV, and no need for a truck and trailer to hold you back on your vacation.

We’ve all accidentally driven our tow setup into a restaurant parking lot that’s tighter than we thought it would be. If you’re like us, you thought, “this would be a whole lot easier if I could just drive my UTV around like a car.” Well, you can!

And look, everyone knows there are places where the community looks the other way and lets UTVs drive on public roads without any special parts or paperwork. While that might be all cool and chill and stuff, if any laws are ever broken there's bound to be a problem. What's more, that handshake agreement only applies in a very specific area, and if you ever want to leave that area you can’t even go to the next town over – let alone the next state over – without the laws changing on you. You’re shoot out of luck.

The good news is there isn’t just one way to make a UTV street legal, but depending on where you live, there might even be several.

3 levels of street legality for UTVs

There are three main avenues through which UTVs and other off-highway vehicles can use public roads in the United States:

1. Basic permissions

2. Local permits

3. Statewide registrations

Basic permissions can be enacted by towns, counties, cities, and states and usually require little to no special parts or paperwork to drive under. They address fundamental elements of driving around, like the ability to cross roads or drive on shoulders. For example, the entire state of Missouri allows all UTVs to be driven on rural roads within 3 miles of the owner’s residence. Local jurisdictions can then build from (or walk back) that baseline.

Local permits are issued by towns, counties, and other local jurisdictions to give UTVs expanded or reduced abilities as the community sees fit. Continuing the Missouri example, the city of St. Louis could say that UTVs are not allowed to drive within city limits even though that contradicts Missouri’s basic permissions. Meanwhile, the rural town of Belle could allow UTVs to drive around as freely as a car can on their town permit.

Statewide registrations involve registering your UTV at the state level to achieve a higher level of street legality. Some states will pretty much let UTVs do whatever they want, but most impose heavy restrictions even at this level. Those can include restricted hours of operation, being limited to roads below a certain speed limit, or having to stick to a list of roads approved by the state.

Most street legal UTV laws are localized

There are no nationwide laws allowing UTVs to use public roads. In fact, the decision often comes down to towns and counties to decide what roads UTVs can use and when.

It’s important to note that most street legal UTV laws only apply within the borders of a given area, be that a city, town, county, or state. Going back to the Missouri example, a person couldn’t cross the border into Iowa using Missouri’s 3-mile-radius exception because Iowa doesn’t have that law. The same logic applies to the registrations and license plates many states issue for street legal UTVs.

That’s great for someone who only needs to drive around their local area, but it isn’t as useful if you need more.

The highest levels of street legality will allow you to cross state lines, so let’s explore them.

Two main concepts make it possible

It’s possible to make a UTV street legal beyond the limits of a localized area. Doing so revolves around two critical aspects of motor vehicle laws in the United States.

Registration Reciprocity

Many vehicle-related laws in the United States are not made by the federal government, but by individual states. These laws control things like how high your bumpers can be, how dark your window tint can be, and how much tread can be left on your tires before they are considered unsafe. Vehicles must pass state inspections based on these requirements to be registered for road use. But there is no nationwide standard – states, districts, and territories all have their own unique requirements for making a vehicle street legal.

Instead of asking you to meet a new set of requirements every time you travel between states, everyone has agreed to honor each other’s registrations through reciprocity. In a nutshell, Registration Reciprocity means a vehicle which is legally registered in one state can be driven in other states without needing fundamental changes to its parts, equipment, or registration. Thanks to this, you can take a 50-state road trip even though your window tint is too dark to pass an Iowa inspection and your exhaust is too loud for California.

When it comes to street legal UTVs, exceptions to this ability are few and far between. For example, Georgia doesn’t allow lewd stickers on vehicles and California requires auxiliary driving lights to be covered and switched off while driving on public roads. There are also a few places where all street legal UTVs are prohibited regardless of how they are street legal.

Registration Reciprocity can even apply to entire categories of vehicles that aren’t legal in some states but are in others, and that's a big part of the magic behind how to make a UTV street legal. Let’s look at that now.

Vehicle Categories

Each state has different categories of roadgoing vehicles defined to varying levels of detail.

For example, most states define a motorcycle as a vehicle with two or three wheels, and some get more granular by requiring a seat that is straddled by the rider and steering that is controlled by handlebars. Most states define an autocycle as a three-wheeled vehicle with bucket seating and a wheel for steering, and some go further by requiring an enclosed cabin with a roof.

A regular passenger vehicle like a car or truck must meet an even more exhaustive list of requirements designed to weed out things that aren’t cars, like UTVs. So how do you make a UTV street legal?

Most vehicle categories have remained unchanged for a long time, but as we learned back in Part 1: Strengthening Support, many states are expanding their categories to include UTVs to varying degrees of street legality. Some states give you a registration that’s only good within the borders of that state, and some states are more open-minded.

The vehicle categories defined by Montana and South Dakota are written in such a way that anything commonly referred to as a UTV can be made street legal by registering as a quadricycle or four-wheel motorcycle, respectively. Add in Registration Reciprocity and the recipe is nearly complete: a street legal UTV that can be driven across state lines.

We’re just missing one element. What if you don't live in Montana or South Dakota? How do you make your UTV street legal then? Well, what if you could register in those states without ever going there? And is there a chance that your local laws already give you enough freedom to do everything you want to do?

Let’s find out.

Three Ways to Make Your UTV Street Legal

1. Register locally

If you're only looking to drive within your local area, you might be in luck. A growing number of states are allowing UTVs to be made at least partially street legal, and it’s even more common on a localized level with many towns, counties, and cities offering some form of road use for UTVs.

This often comes in the form of a permit or sticker that makes your UTV street legal within the limits of a given area, but it could also be a state-level registration or statewide permissions given to all UTVs whether they are street legal or not.

If figuring all that out sounds complicated, check this out. We researched all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and 5 US territories so you don’t have to. Read your section to see what’s possible on this most basic level before pursuing a higher form of street legality. You might even find all your needs are already met without needing a more complex solution.

It’s great for limited local travel. Registering locally is a great option for people who just need to get to a nearby trail or OHV area. It's also great for hunters and farmers looking for better land access. Some areas even give UTVs pretty much the same freedoms a car has, but that’s typically not the case.

But there are often restrictions. This level of legality typically allows for only incidental road use by imposing speed restrictions, reduced hours of operation, and other limiting factors. The most frustrating aspect is that you won’t be able to go anywhere else without all those laws changing on you. You might not be able to drive in the next town over – let alone another state – or you might have to learn an entirely new set of laws just to do so.

2. Register out of state

Remember the vehicle categories we talked about earlier? South Dakota allows motorcycles to have four wheels, so UTVs can register as street legal four-wheel motorcycles. Montana allows the same through a category called quadricycles.

What’s more, both Montana and South Dakota allow you to register a vehicle without ever going there and without a vehicle inspection of any sort. There are other states you could register in without leaving your home, and there are other states where you can register a UTV as street legal, but Montana and South Dakota do both.

The best states for making a UTV street legal are Montana and South Dakota. They have these things in common:

• Inspections are not required

• A motorcycle license is not required

• Living in the state is not required

The magic of registering out of state is that it allows people to get street legal when there’s no other way. Maybe your state doesn’t offer a path to street legality or maybe you need more freedom than you can easily achieve for a given area.

Limitations are few and far between. There are some parts of the country that should be avoided because they either don’t like street legal UTVs or have specifically made them illegal. UTVs registered in Montana and South Dakota cannot use interstates in those states and may be subject to other localized limitations. These topics are all covered in the next part of the guide along with the parts and paperwork you will need to register there.

There is one major caveat to this method. Most states have title transfer windows requiring out-of-state registrations and license plates to be transferred in-state within a certain number of days. But because other states don’t have the same vehicle categories as Montana and South Dakota, this can lead to a vehicle type mismatch which leaves you no way to transfer your registration.

It’s a better way, but not the best way. Using an out-of-state address to register your UTV means there is no obvious reason for its registration to remain in another state. Using an in-state address would expand your options, but most people don’t live in Montana or South Dakota, which brings us to Option 3.

3. Register under an LLC

An LLC (a Limited Liability Company; a business) is considered a resident of the state where it is located. It has an in-state presence and an in-state address, and it can have vehicles registered to it through a registered agent. A vehicle registered to an LLC belongs to an established resident of the state: the LLC itself. Even if the registered agent lives somewhere else, the LLC remains there.

Title transfer windows typically activate when the vehicle’s owner becomes a resident of the state in question, but that never happens if the vehicle’s owner is an LLC located in another state. In other words, there should be no need to transfer your UTV’s registration or plates if it is registered to an LLC located out of state.

If your UTV is registered to an out-of-state LLC, you will enjoy all the benefits of registering out of state without having to contend with title transfer windows and vehicle type mismatches between states. The trade-off is a slightly higher upfront cost and a nominal fee to keep the LLC active on an annual basis.

A street legal UTV registered to an LLC in Montana or South Dakota checks all the boxes. It can be:

• Registered with an out-of-state address

• Registered without an inspection

• Driven in other states on out-of-state plates

Of course, nothing’s perfect. The limitations from Option 2 still apply; these are covered in the next part of the guide along with more details on how to register under an LLC. We encourage you to be mindful of the title transfer windows that apply to you, as some are based on different definitions of residency.

The best way to make a UTV street legal

Having seen just about every scenario related to street legal UTVs, we believe that registering under an LLC in Montana or South Dakota is the best way to make your UTV street legal. Registering under an LLC gives you a set-it-and-forget-it way to make your UTV street legal, and it’s the least likely to take more of your time down the road.

Let’s review the facts:

• Montana and South Dakota both have unique vehicle categories allowing UTVs to become street legal on a non-localized basis, allowing Registration Reciprocity to apply across town, city, and state lines.

• Both states allow vehicle registrations without the person or the vehicle ever entering the state. That means no inspections and no DMV trips, and it allows you to register your UTV as street legal without ever leaving your home.

• Registering under an LLC should secure your UTV’s registration without the need to transfer it to another state. The process of forming an LLC is simple and straightforward in both Montana and South Dakota.

The LLC approach is possible in other states as well, but it’s better to stick with Montana and South Dakota for reasons covered in the next part of the guide.

Time and effort are still involved

At this point, the major drawbacks are the time and effort required to make it all happen. If your time is worth money or you aren’t a fan of the complexity of it all, we have a solution for you.

At Dirt Legal, we have helped thousands of people make their UTVs street legal through our Street Legal UTV Services. Creative name, isn’t it? We’re pretty matter of fact around here, which is exactly what you want when someone is registering your UTV on your behalf. We can even form your LLC at the same time.

Our expert team can save you the time and trouble of figuring out the process while removing the risk of mistakes. Just fill out a few forms, send them back to us, and receive a new title, registration, and street legal license plate for your UTV in a matter of weeks. If you have an MSO or off-road title for your UTV, or even just a bill of sale, you already have what you need to get street legal without ever leaving your home.

We’re all for people getting on the road by themselves, but if we can make it easier on you we’re happy to help.

We’ve talked a lot about Montana and South Dakota in our Nationwide Street Legal UTV Guide, so let’s take a deeper dive and explore what parts you need, what laws you need to know about, and what’s involved in making a UTV street legal in those states.