Home / States / California / Kern County
California
Mini trucks in Kern County, California
Kei trucks in California belong on private land, farms and closed sites.
Kern CountyCalifornia
Can I own one here
Owning one in Kern County.
On your own land
No plate, registration or off highway sticker is needed on private land closed to the public under the owner's or an agent's immediate control where permission is required and granted.
On the farm
A truck used only in farming is an implement of husbandry under Vehicle Code 36005(k) when its one highway use is hauling farm products no more than a mile along the highway from where the trip began, and it then needs neither registration, 36100, nor an off highway sticker, 38010(b)(2).
No DMV or CHP page applying 36005(k) to a kei truck by name was found. Federal import terms for a truck brought in as off road equipment still apply.
A 25 year truck on the road
Closed to road use. California registers an imported kei truck for the road only after it is modified and tested under CARB's direct import program, which the DMV says may be expensive or impossible for a vehicle over two years old.
A newer governed truck
Private land only. The DMV registers an off-highway vehicle only if it was originally built to US and California emission standards, which an imported governed kei truck was not.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Kern County.
To confirm. In Kern County a kei truck may work private ranch and farm land closed to the public with no plate or sticker, but off that land, Onyx Ranch SVRA and California City's permitted dirt routes included, it needs a road plate or an OHV sticker.
In town Some
- Some California City. Since March 2008 the city has let OHVs carrying its street operating permit and a current green or red sticker run on dirt routes within its designated riding area, keeping to the marked trail system into the main part of town. Street legal and dual sport vehicles need no permit. California City OHV street operating permit, in effect since March 2008, read on the city's OHV page with no code section cited, read 28 October 2026
County roads To confirm
Vehicle Code 38026.3 lets State Parks run a combined use pilot of up to ten miles on roads in Red Rock Canyon State Park until 1 January 2030, and a bill analysis names Sierra View Road. No designation under it was found. No county designation under 38026 was found in a search for the county's board actions, and the county code was not read.
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Kern County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Los Angeles, about 150 road miles.
- The Port of Oakland, about 300 road miles.
- The Port of Tacoma, The Northwest Seaport Alliance South Harbor, about 1,000 road miles.
How to import a mini truck, step by step.
A newer off road truck never lands in California. It comes in through Tacoma or by way of Houston.
Trucks travel in containers, one to a 20 foot box with room for parts or three to a 40 foot box.
Road miles are an estimate, the straight line times 1.2.
The ground
Kern County, counted.
Kern County grows 623,590 acres of orchards and vineyards. 15 active surface mines and quarries work Kern County's ground. Kern County has 1,691 farms and 402 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
Areas
The areas Kern County is part of.
Importing a kei truck
The essentials, in short.
A truck under 25 can come in only as governed off road equipment, and only if its engine family held an EPA nonroad certificate for that model year. No kei engine family was certified for mini trucks before model year 2010, so a truck built after 31 October 2001 and before model year 2010 has no federal door until its 25th birthday.
Two lanes
A road truck must be 25 years old by its own build date. A newer truck comes in only as governed off road equipment with a certified engine.
The 25 percent duty
Every kei truck pays the 25 percent truck duty at the port, whatever its age.
The paperwork
The customs entry and the two federal declarations, DOT Form HS-7 and EPA Form 3520-1, travel with the truck to your title office.
The title
Keep every stamped paper with the truck. Your state title office asks to see them.
Contact
A question about the law in Kern County?
Ask about a truck, a state or the papers, and we answer with what applies to you.
Reach us
Use the form on this page. We read every message.