Can I own one here
Owning one in Carroll County.
On your own land
On land that is not a highway a kei truck needs no Illinois plate, because registration and title attach to a vehicle driven or moved upon a highway, 625 ILCS 5/3-402(A).
To confirm.
On the farm
The farm allowance of 11-1426.1(h) lets an all-terrain or recreational off-highway vehicle run county and township roads for farming operations between the home, farm, farm buildings and nearby farm land, without the equipment list of (e) and with farm, home or non-highway vehicle insurance if not on a motor vehicle policy. It names only those two classes, so it does not reach a kei truck.
No Secretary of State page, rule or opinion applying 1-130 or 3-402(A)(2) to a kei truck was found.
A 25 year truck on the road
Road use unclear, to confirm. Illinois registers only a vehicle originally manufactured for operation on highways, and the Secretary of State's own rule lets it refuse one it finds not manufactured or designed for general highway use. The Secretary of State has published nothing on kei trucks, so its Vehicle Title Division decides each truck.
A newer governed truck
Unclear. No Illinois title rule for a non-highway kei truck was found.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Carroll County.
To confirm. Carroll County has no county act that was found, Mount Carroll issues golf cart and UTV permits and Savanna, Thomson and Lanark were not read.
In town Some
- Open Mount Carroll. The city issues golf cart and UTV permits after an inspection, under its golf cart and UTV ordinance. Read only in the city's application form, the ordinance was not read. city golf cart and UTV ordinance, number and date not read, read 28 October 2026
- To confirm Savanna. The town's code was not read in this pass.
- To confirm Thomson. The town's code was not read in this pass.
- To confirm Lanark. The town's code was not read in this pass.
County roads To confirm
No county act opening county highways to non-highway vehicles was found in this pass. The county's own site was searched where it answered, but its ordinances and board minutes were not read one by one. Township roads need each township's own act, and none was read.
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Carroll County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Savannah, Georgia Ports Authority, about 1,000 road miles.
- The JAXPORT, Jacksonville Port Authority, about 1,100 road miles.
- The Port of Everett, about 1,900 road miles.
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
Carroll County, counted.
Carroll County averages 33 inches of snow a year. Farms in Carroll County hold 17,109 acres of woodland. Carroll County has 665 farms and 156 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
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 Carroll County?
Ask about a truck, a state or the papers, and we answer with what applies to you.
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