Kei trucks for the mine sites and hollows of the Central Appalachian coalfields

West Virginia lets a titled, registered and equipped mini-truck run as a street-legal special purpose vehicle, off controlled-access and federal-aid highways and for no more than 20 miles on a road with centerline markings. Kentucky names the kei class in its law and keeps a mini-truck off public roads except to cross a two lane highway, to work on one for farm, construction, road maintenance or snow removal or on roads the state, a city or a county has designated. Virginia has no mini truck class and no kei restriction. It titles and registers an imported vehicle 25 years or older on its export certificate and federal entry papers, like any other import. Each state page gives the full rule.

Inside the gate it moves people, tools and parts around a surface mine or a plant where the operator allows it. Outside it, the hollow road and the home place, where 67 percent of people here live outside urban areas.

It enters the country as off road equipment, governed to 25 mph. In West Virginia it works farms and private land; public highways other than expressways when going from one tract of land to another, up to 35 miles, in daylight; and as a registered street-legal special purpose vehicle on roads that law allows. In Kentucky it works private land with the consent of the landowner, tenant or person responsible, public property the responsible agency approves, two lane highways to cross or while farming, building, maintaining roads or clearing snow and roads the state, a city or a county designates. In Virginia it works farms, private land, job sites and designated public highways posted 25 mph or less in localities that have authorized utility vehicles by ordinance. Each state page has the rest of the rule.