Can I own one here
Owning one in Kalawao County.
On your own land
No plate and no insurance are required on a farm, a ranch or other private land in Hawaii. Both rules start at the public highway.
On the farm
Hawaii's farm street rule is written for ATVs and UTVs, and a kei truck is neither. The registration exemption for implements of husbandry is the one untested farm path.
Whether a county director of finance or the police would treat a kei truck used only on a farm as an implement of husbandry under 286-41(g)(2) was not found. Hawaii County's code defines special mobile equipment as a vehicle not designed or used primarily for carrying persons or property, as a 2021 newspaper column quotes section 24-3(43), and a kei truck is built to carry property, so that class does not fit it.
A 25 year truck on the road
Closed to road use. Hawaii does not register a vehicle its maker did not certify to federal motor vehicle safety standards, so a kei truck is not registered for Hawaii roads.
A newer governed truck
Unclear. No Hawaii title path for an off-highway vehicle was found.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Kalawao County.
To confirm. Kalawao is the Kalaupapa settlement, run by the state Department of Health with no county government and no road link to the rest of Molokai, so a kei truck has no route there and any vehicle on the peninsula is the department's to allow.
In town To confirm
No town street opening was found in the codes read.
County roads To confirm
Kalawao has no county government and no county roads in the ordinary sense. HRS 326-34 places it under the Department of Health and keeps the general county provisions of the HRS from applying there, so whether the farm street rule of 286-12 reaches it is doubtful. The department's rules for vehicles in the settlement were not read. HRS 326-34, read in the current HRS on 28 October 2026, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Kalawao County.
The sailing
- By sea from the Port of Oakland.
How to import a mini truck, step by step.
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
Kalawao County, counted.
100 percent of Kalawao County's people live outside urban areas.
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 Kalawao 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.