Home / States / California / Sonoma County
California
Mini trucks in Sonoma County, California
Kei trucks in California belong on private land, farms and closed sites.
Sonoma CountyCalifornia
Can I own one here
Owning one in Sonoma 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 Sonoma County.
To confirm. In Sonoma County a kei truck may work private ranch and farm land closed to the public with no plate or sticker, but off that land it needs a road plate or an OHV sticker, and no combined use road was found.
In town To confirm
No town street opening was found in the codes read.
County roads To confirm
No combined use designation under Vehicle Code 38026 was found in the state record, the OHMVR Commission's papers or statewide searches for county designations. The county's own code and board actions were not searched one by one.
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Sonoma County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Oakland, about 50 road miles.
- The Port of Los Angeles, about 500 road miles.
- The Port of Tacoma, The Northwest Seaport Alliance South Harbor, about 700 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
Sonoma County, counted.
Sonoma County grows 74,436 acres of orchards and vineyards. Sonoma County has 3,097 farms and 390 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Farms in Sonoma County hold 91,057 acres of woodland.
Areas
The areas Sonoma 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 Sonoma 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.