Making your UTV street legal

Curious if anyone has any experience with making your side by side street legal.

I found a website that offers that service Dirt Legal

Where my cabin is located is not legal for UTV travel. Kind of funny, everywhere around me is though... Arbor Vitae, Minocqua, Eagle River etc.  for some reason Sayner does not see value in it.

I figure if I can make my side by side street legal, I can drive the logging roads by our cabin. 

Anyone have any experience with this?

Sorry guys, started this thread a while ago and forgot to check back..

I’ll provide a bit more color. You can legally drive a side by side to The Burnt Bridge in Conover, however if you head down highway K toward Stillwaters (from The Burnt Bridge) highway K stops being an ATV Route a mile or two short of Stillwaters. 

There are of course public logging roads that connect to highway K.

In areas that allow UTV travel, the logging roads are perfectly legal to drive on with a registered vehicle or ATV.  

However, in Sayner / Star Lake only a registered vehicle can drive on a public logging road. 

I am simply looking for a way to be legal to access surrounding trails, as every area around Sayner has ATV Routes. Not having a route in Sayner, cuts off Sayner from St. Germain, Eagle River, Minocqua, and Eagle River. 

To be honest, I never did anything with it, and trailer my UTV when needed.  It would just be super convenient, and connect Sayner to surrounding communities. 

The Sayner Board is not in favor of ATV Routes, so I don’t think anything will be changing anytime soon, and I’ll just trailer my UTV when needed. 

I went to the site dirt legal you pasted and I have many questions.  From what I understand, thy are registering your UTV in a different state as a work around.  How does this impact insurance, get stopped by LE, how do you prove address.  Impact to title, just to name a few.

The other thing to be aware of when operating an ATV/UTV is whose jurisdiction does the road fall under.  Property with Logging roads may fall under Town, County, State, or Federal ownership and in a few cases private, such as a paper company.  

Jeremy,

I took it the OP was referring to forest service roads...why would anyone ask if their UTV had to be 'street legal' to operate it on a private logging road? That just wouldn't make sense. Forest roads, although a LOT of them are dirt/gravel, are considered public and one would have to have public registration to operate on them, and since they are open to vehicle travel (cars, trucks and SUVs), unless the township adopted ATV / UTV ordinances, would be off limits to ATV / UTV travel under a public use registration. Again, it would be a HARD sell to get stopped on a UTV 5 miles down a forest road, even with ag equipment in the bed of the UTV, and claim you are participating in agricultural activities. Not too many people farm in the National Forest...

ATV/UTV's can only legally be driven on:

Private property, if not owned by operator, must have permission from owner.

If AG use, to and from owned/leased properties on Roads or other private property with permission and proper sticker/registration

On designated routes/trails, frozen waters, with proper sticker/registration.

Logging roads normally are on Public owned property and some are private owned. See above concerning private owned, Public owned needs to be marked as a trail or route which would then make them open.

Thing to remember is different classifications of vehicles.

Master Piker, I am not sure why something would need to be street legal to drive on logging roads unless that is a northern WI thing or on public owned land

Master Piker is straight on with his information.  When you purchase the ATV it is already qualified for either AG or Recreational without adding any additional equipment.  When you register, you decide, and then must live within the rules.

Another thing to remember, if operating the ATV/UTV in an illegal manner, such as not on a designated trail or route,  and an accident occurs, it is not covered by insurance. 

There was a dealership in the MKE suburbs several years ago who was doing some modification to UTV's and then having them registered with the DOT as a street legal motorcycle.  Don't know how this worked out and if it is still happening.

Jeremy,

I can read what is in the DNR regulations. I am pretty well-versed on ATV and UTV laws. Unfortunately, you just proved EXACTLY what I was saying...his UTV is registered through the DNR, not the DOT (so it is NOT a motor vehicle that can legally be driven on the roads in Sayner). It is a UTV by definition and unless he has it registered as a 'Private-Agriculture' use designation, he cannot operate it on roads. Period. Even then, the 'Private-Agriculture' designation would limit him as to where he can operate it on the roads and would take away the public trail option once outside of Sayner. He can drive from his property to his ag fields, livestock pastures, etc. and back TO DO AGRICULTURE WORK, not to the bar, store, friend's house, etc. Sayner is not a highly-agricultural area, so the chances of someone getting away with this for very long is almost non-existent. Plus, how does someone driving on a forest road in the National Forest tell an officer, deputy or warden they are 'spraying weeds in a field'...WHAT FIELD?! It is literally forest and bogs for MILES in every direction?!

Based on Brent's original post, he was under the impression that if he added turn signals and such to his UTV it would become 'street legal' and that is NOT the case. It is still defined AND registered as a UTV. The addition of turn signals and agricultural equipment does not change that. My point was if you were going to try to spin off and use the 'AG' use angle, you better make sure you have legitimate agricultural use if you are on the road. And then, as mentioned, you cannot operate an 'AG'-registered UTV on public trails. It is either AG or recreational. Recreational is not allowed on the road, AG can be, but only for farm use (spraying, rounding up or feeding livestock, etc.). Law enforcement in a non-agriculture area like Sayner are going to know who the farmers are and will know if you are blowing smoke. Trust me. There aren't very many farms up there and they will know who the owners are. I'm just trying to keep him from spending a bunch of money adding things to his UTV that will still not allow him to operate it on the road legally. If he wants to try the agriculture approach, I wish him the best of luck. He would be better off investing his time and energy talking to the town board to try to get them to adopt ATV / UTV ordinances. He would have a strong case, as it sounds like most of the surrounding townships have them in place...

There’s no agricultural practices in Sayner so I highly doubt that would fly. One set of atv or utv tracks leads to many more.  I know from experience that you’ll piss off a lot of people if atvs, UTVs, are in areas they shouldn’t be. Same goes with snowmobiles. All it does is causes problems. Want to ride your UTV on designated trails, routes, etc., get a trailer like everyone else. 

Master_Piker, from the WI DNR ATV/UTV regulations:

The following laws apply specifically to ATVs/UTVs legally registered for “Private – Agriculture”, displaying the corresponding registration de-cal stickers and while being legally used for an “agricultural purpose.”

•ATV/UTV operators may operate on roadways while transporting farm implements, equipment, supplies, or products on a farm or between farms in the following manner:

◊At the extreme right side of the roadway, except for left turns. 

◊With headlight(s) and taillight(s) activated and visible.

◊Obeying the roadway speed limit.

•Helmets are not required for agricultural use.

Brent, I don't understand why it isn't legal in Sayner myself. As far as street legal, I've driven my truck down highway G from N to eagle river. It is a designated ATV/UTV route and they must stay on the pavement. This is on a 55 MPH highway. They aren't registered as a car or truck. I see it almost every time I'm up there. I just don't get it.  

JJ  

It has nothing to do with lighting, equipment on board or having a sprayer in the back. It has to do with the definition of the type of vehicle and how it is registered. If it is registered as a UTV, you can spend hundreds of dollars on turn signals and other equipment, but your UTV is registered (or should be) through the DNR and not the DOT...because a UTV does not meet the requirements / definition to be operated on the road unless ATV/UTV ordinances are adopted by the township. Yeah, you could throw a sprayer in the back and carry a shovel or rake, but keep in mind if you are stopped and get caught in that lie, the consequences are going to be pretty stiff...Remember, law enforcement officers in those rural areas are pretty familiar with the local farmers and property owners. They patrol those roads daily, many for years on end...they have more than likely assisted them with rounding up loose livestock, provided light coverage for broken down machinery, dealt with trespassing issues, etc. I'm not going to say you WON'T get away with it, but the deck is not stacked in your favor...to me, it isn't worth it just to ride my ATV to the bar or store. 

My township passed ordinances allowing ATVs and UTVs on township roads and there have been multiple serious injury and fatal accidents as a result. They were not meant to be driven at high speeds and were not designed with sufficient lighting to be driven on roadways (heck, my Honda Rancher has a tail light, but not a brake light that gets brighter when you brake!?). They have very soft suspensions, low pressure tires and any evasive maneuvers (swerving to avoid deer or a collision with another vehicle) often lead loss of control and/or rollovers. Then there are the people (like with vehicles and motorcycles) that refuse to wear their seatbelts and don't wear helmets or other safety gear and it is a recipe for disaster. You stand no chance against another vehicle traveling at highway speeds. These are my opinions and experiences, your mileage may vary.

I have done that to go about a mile to a cousins place to actually spray . A shovel and rake help seal the deal .

It might work to have private ag registration and carry a small sprayer in the back.  If you are ever stopped tell them you have to spot spray some weeds in a field