Home / States / Indiana / St. Joseph County
Indiana
Mini trucks in St. Joseph County, Indiana
Kei trucks in Indiana, plated for the road and kept off the interstate.
St. Joseph CountyIndiana
Can I own one here
Owning one in St. Joseph County.
On your own land
On private land with the owner's consent an off-road vehicle needs no local act. Indiana asks for BMV registration and decals on an off-road vehicle and DNR rules govern public land.
To confirm.
On the farm
IC 14-16-1-20 does not apply to a farm vehicle being used for farming, which is outside the off-road vehicle class by the BMV's own page. No Indiana source read puts a kei truck on a county road for farm work outside the local acts.
To confirm.
A 25 year truck on the road
Road use with limits. Indiana titles and plates a mini truck for the road, and it may go anywhere except an interstate highway.
A newer governed truck
Off highway vehicle. ORV title, required for an ORV bought after 31 December 2009, applied for within 45 days.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in St. Joseph County.
To confirm. St. Joseph County's council passed an ordinance in March 2025 that public radio reports opens unincorporated county roads to off-road vehicles at eighteen or older, with lights and single file. The ordinance text was not read.
In town To confirm
No town street opening was found in the codes read.
County roads Open
Unincorporated county roads, excluding city, town and state roads, for off-road vehicles with a driver of at least eighteen, headlights and taillights and single file in groups. Snowmobiles are allowed when conditions permit. Golf carts and farm vehicles are excluded and the sheriff may close roads for safety. Read only in a WVPE report of 14 March 2025. St. Joseph County Common Council ordinance on off-road vehicles on county roads, passed 9 to 0 in March 2025, news report only, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to St. Joseph County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Savannah, Georgia Ports Authority, about 900 road miles.
- The JAXPORT, Jacksonville Port Authority, about 1,000 road miles.
- The Port of Everett, about 2,200 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
St. Joseph County, counted.
St. Joseph County is mostly urban, with 10 percent of its people outside urban areas. St. Joseph County has 547 farms and 120 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture. St. Joseph County averages 53 inches of snow a year.
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 St. Joseph 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.