Can I own one here
Owning one in Kent County.
On your own land
A kei truck works private land in Delaware as a registered OHV, with the express permission of whoever controls the land. No insurance is required.
On the farm
Farm use does not lift a kei truck out of the OHV class. The code leaves out a farm vehicle being used for farming but never defines one, and the Superior Court held in 2023 that intended farm use does not make a mini truck a farm vehicle. Special mobile equipment is the one farm class nobody has tested.
Whether the DMV would treat a governed kei truck used only in agriculture as special mobile equipment under 101(81) and 2120 was not found. The 2023 case concerned a 1997 truck imported under the 25 year exemption, its owner sought a farm vehicle tag and the court never reached special mobile equipment.
A 25 year truck on the road
Closed to road use. The Delaware DMV does not title or register mini trucks for road use, and the Superior Court upheld that position in December 2023. A mini truck registers here as an off-highway vehicle.
A newer governed truck
Off highway vehicle. No road title. An OHV carries a registration and decal, and 21 Del. C. 6801(a) requires a bill of sale on every OHV sale.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Kent County.
To confirm. In Kent County a kei truck registers with the DMV as an off-highway vehicle and may work a farm or other private land with the express permission of whoever controls it, but every public road, street and sidewalk is closed to it and it may cross one only pushed in neutral. Dover is reported to forbid off-road vehicles inside the city.
In town Closed
- Closed Dover. State law closes every street. The city adopted Ordinance 2024-23 amending Chapter 106, Section 106-14 on off-road vehicles, and a search summary of the adopted text says it forbids operating off-road vehicles within the city and adds locking or immobilizing duties for owners. The city's link to the ordinance redirected to its home page and the text was not read. 21 Del. C. 6814(a). Dover Ordinance 2024-23, not read., read 28 October 2026
County roads Closed
No public road is open to OHVs. 21 Del. C. 6814(a) closes every public highway, street, sidewalk and right of way in the state and gives no county a way to open one, so an OHV may only be pushed across in neutral or run at a permitted special event. One farm path is untested. 101(81) and 2120 waive registration and inspection for special mobile equipment used in agriculture that goes on the highway only as an incident to its work off it, never over 30 mph and never more than 50 miles a trip, and no DMV page or court has applied that class to a kei truck. 21 Del. C. 6814(a), 101(81) and 2120, read on the Delaware Code Online on 28 October 2026. The county's own code was not read., read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Kent County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Savannah, Georgia Ports Authority, about 700 road miles.
- The JAXPORT, Jacksonville Port Authority, about 800 road miles.
- The Port of Los Angeles, about 2,800 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
Kent County, counted.
Kent County grows 382 acres of orchards and vineyards. 3 active surface mines and quarries work Kent County's ground. Farms in Kent County hold 17,511 acres of woodland.
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 Kent County?
Ask about a truck, a state or the papers, and we answer with what applies to you.
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