Can I own one here
Owning one in Cascade County.
On your own land, yes
Owning a kei truck and working it on a ranch, a farm, a mine or private property does not depend on a road title. Some states still ask for a title or an off road registration.
A 25 year truck on the road
Open to road use. Montana's Motor Vehicle Division titles and registers Japanese mini-trucks as unconventional light vehicles. Once the owner certifies its street equipment, a kei truck registers as a passenger car or truck with ordinary plates.
A newer governed truck
Off highway vehicle. Titled and registered as an OHV through the county treasurer. The title manual lets a mini-truck owner choose OHV instead of street-legal.
Roads and towns
Roads and towns in Cascade County.
To confirm. Great Falls' traffic code of 2018 opens no street to an unregistered off-highway vehicle, and no Cascade County act opening a county road was read. A kei truck titled and registered street-legal drives them all.
In town To confirm
- Closed Great Falls. Title 10, Vehicles and Traffic, as Ordinance 3188 of 2018 replaced it, was searched for off-highway, all-terrain, ATV, quadricycle and golf cart. It has no chapter on off-highway vehicles and opens no city street to one, so under MCA 23-2-824(2) an unregistered off-highway vehicle has no street. ATV appears once, in the parking chapter's list of what counts as a vehicle. Snowmobiles are barred from every public right-of-way in the city by 10.14.010. Amendments after 2018 and the rest of the code were not read. Great Falls Code of Ordinances Title 10 as replaced by Ordinance 3188 of 2018, Exhibit A as it went to public hearing; no off-highway vehicle ordinance in it, read 28 October 2026
- To confirm Belt. The town's code was not read in this pass.
- To confirm Cascade. The town's code was not read in this pass.
- To confirm Neihart. The town's code was not read in this pass.
County roads To confirm
No resolution or order of the Cascade County commissioners on off-highway vehicles was read in this pass. Under MCA 23-2-824(2) the board of county commissioners may authorize off-highway vehicle travel on county roads inside a municipality's boundaries, and no section of the part names a county road outside a municipality. not read, read 28 October 2026
State highways Closed
Closed to OHVs.
Getting one here
From Japan to Cascade County.
The nearest ports with a sailing from Japan on record
- The Port of Everett, about 600 road miles.
- The Port of Seattle, The Northwest Seaport Alliance North Harbor, about 600 road miles.
- The Port of Tacoma, The Northwest Seaport Alliance South Harbor, about 600 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
Cascade County, counted.
Farms in Cascade County hold 70,955 acres of woodland. Cascade County has 976 farms and 349 cattle operations, by the 2022 Census of Agriculture. 2 active surface mines and quarries work Cascade County's ground.
Areas
The areas Cascade County is part of.
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 30 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 Cascade County?
Ask about a truck, a state or the papers, and we answer with what applies to you.
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