DOT tires/street legal

[cowman1820]

Anyone on here have luck getting a VIN #, and road legal. Will they over look the tires not being DOT, or is that a big deal. As far as I know, all I need is washer solvent, license plate light, high beam indicator, some side mirrors. a couple forms from the Sec State. and an inspection by police. then you get the plate and insurance. Does this sound accurate. Will have glass winshield, w/wiper, turn signals,taillights, bumpers. Tires would be a decent $, would have to part with the brand new maxxis. Thoughts..

[trainman]

I think you will find that you will not be able to make your Gator or any four wheeled vehicle (side by side, UTV, etc.) street legal. Four wheeled vehicles like these would fall into the automotive group and will have to be crash tested and all the other requirements that automotive vehicles fall into to pass the Automotive Safety Regulations. Motorcycles are street legal because they do not have to meet these safety standards as well as the three wheeled bikes, but four wheeled vehicles are a totally different class of vehicles. As far a DOT tires I ride Dual Sport bikes and I do run DOT tires, but when I get the bikes state inspected (Texas) the inspector has never looked at the tires to see if they where DOT approved or not. Auto manufactures spend billions of dollars to get their products government approved, I don't think there is a side by side manufacture out there that would do that, not even John Deere. Best thing to do here if you want a street legal vehicle is to buy one already street legal, like a Jeep.

John

[msutherlund]

What state do you live in? That may be the biggest Factor. In Michigan I believe you could do it as an assembled vehicle. Similar to getting a dune buggy registered. They will issue you a vin number to put on after your road legal safety inspection. Dot tires are part of the inspection though. Do you know anyone that has road legal tires to use during the inspection then switch? You could still be cited for non road legal tires later but you would be plated. There is a guy near me that used to make Polaris rangers road legal then sold them. They were registered as a Polaris pickup truck. I don't think there was much money to be made though because he stopped.

[cowman1820]

10/4 John, there are many many, street legaled UTV's in michigan, so its very do able. both my inlaws have plated ranger crew's. so I suppose I'll pick there brains a bit.also dealer is making one in June for a guy. so I'm on deck

[trainman]

That's great if you can get it legal in Michigan, didn't know that.

John

[Cacophony]

I just came across this forum looking for similar info. Was at the cottage this weekend and got pulled over. Didn't get a ticket but got threatened with an impounding if I did it again. So I started researching tonight and it's definitely possible and I've come across a bunch of posts on other UTV sites that have successfully done so. From my research so far I've discovered you need to get a TR-54 form filled out by a police officer. Here is a link to it: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/TR-54_38480_7.pdf

This means you need...
Safety Glass Windshield with Wiper and Washer
Adjustable Side Mirror on driver side.
High and Low beam Headlights with highbeam indicator
Front and Rear Turn Signals and Tail light
License Plate Light
DOT approved tires

There are kits for most of this stuff... I haven't looked for DOT tires let, though. I think if we come across any of the above items we should post it here as well as any other experiences with doing this so that we all know what to expect. We use the gator quite frequently at the cottage to run to the local convenience store; mostly without issue until this weekend (it's only a two mile ride and most of it outside city limits and on all 25mph speed limit roads). It'd be quite the inconvenience to not be able to use the gator this way in the future so I'm determined to get this done!

Here's a link to where I found some of the needed stuff: http://www.shopgreendealer.com/xuvpartsandaccessories.aspx

A lot of their stuff seems a bit pricey... but at least I know it exists. In anybody comes across better deals feel free to post them!

[cowman1820]

If anyone finds a "rumble seat" that would pass inspection, would like to know also thanks....!