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Kentucky
Mini trucks in Ballard County, Kentucky
Kei trucks in Kentucky, plated where the county opens the road and at work on the farm.
Ballard CountyKentucky
Can I own one here
Owning one in Ballard County.
On your own land
KRS 189.517(3) and (4) ask for the consent of the landowner, tenant or person responsible on private property and the approval of the responsible agency on public property. Neither section registers a mini-truck or an ATV for use off the road.
On the farm
KRS 189.515(7)(b) and 189.517(5)(b) let an ATV and a mini-truck run on any two lane public highway while the operator is engaged in farm or agricultural related activities, construction, road maintenance or snow removal, with a valid operator's licence, the lights lit and in daylight except for snow removal and emergency road maintenance. A vehicle used primarily for farm or agricultural activities is left out of the street-legal class of KRS 186.077.
A 25 year truck on the road
Road use with limits. Kentucky puts the kei truck in two laws. Where a county or city has opened its highways by ordinance, a minitruck equipped to the state's street-legal list, inspected, registered and insured as a motorcycle runs on those highways under a motorcycle plate. Everywhere else the mini-truck law still lets it cross a two lane highway and work on one for farm, construction, road maintenance or snow removal, in daylight.
A newer governed truck
Utility terrain vehicle. County clerk title, within 15 days of buying it (KRS 186A.070(1)). Registration comes only when the truck is to be operated on a highway.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Ballard County.
To confirm. Ballard County's fiscal court was reported to have given a first reading in 2025 to an ordinance allowing street-legal UTVs on most county roads. A second reading was not found, so the routes are to be confirmed.
In town To confirm
No town street opening was found in the codes read.
County roads To confirm
Reported: a first reading of an ordinance to allow licensed street-legal UTVs on most county roads and exclude certain state highways, with second reading due the next month. A second reading was not found. Ballard County ordinance, first reading reported 2025, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Ballard 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 2,000 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
Ballard County, counted.
Ballard County grows 161 acres of orchards and vineyards. Farms in Ballard County hold 10,025 acres of woodland. Ballard County has 307 farms and 71 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.
News for Kentucky Kentucky lets a county or city open its highways to minitrucks
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