Why to people want to make things complicated for themselves.
Very complicated because each state has its own laws about titling and registering vehicles.
Why not buy the truck and the trailer in Canada, title and register it to your home, then you can travel anywhere in the US with it.
Because years ago, I bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle from the US because it was such a good deal compared to here. Even with the dollar difference and extra expenses like gas and motels, I was still way ahead, like 4-5k ahead. It's just supply and demand. US has way more bikes, cars, boats etc hence less cost.
My son and I drove 750klms (one way) to pick up the bike. Had all our paperwork in order, there's a "Registrar of imported Vehicles" thing we had to pay for in advance and I had the bill of sale notarized by a public notary however the Canadian boarder patrol said "how'd you pay for it?" I said PayPal since I didn't want to carry a bunch of cash with me. Boarder patrol said "prove it" so I tried to log into pay pal but since there was no wifi at the boarder, I couldn't. So we tried tethering the laptop to my son's phone which had data but that resulted in "wrong credentials" and we were locked out. After trying to get though to Pay Pal on the phone for like 45 minutes, the Canadian Boarder patrol said "here's what's gonna happen". Im like "really? whats gonna happen? Enlighten me. They're like "WE'VE SEIZED YOUR BIKE! Now you have two choices. You can leave the bike here in impound, go get a lawyer and a court date, and subpoena the seller, pay his time off work, food lodging etc and hope you win because if you lose, we sell your bike at auction OR you can choose whats behind door number 2 which is an 1850.00 FINE, pay it and leave! Which I did. I wasne't planning to leave the bike there after all that. I talked to a lawyer after who advised me to walk away. Cost too much plus time to get though the courts and if you win, all you get back is your fine. They likely won't award you extra costs. I argued with the patrol saying "why do you think I drove 750klms one way in the worst possible snow storm to buy this bike if it wasn't a good deal?" They just went by black book value, charged me HST and some other fees based on book value plus the fine.
So your initial costs of buying things in the US are less. Your taxes are less and without importing it, I would avoid all the extra fees as well as getting involved with values and possible fines. Insurance is another big one. I have friends in the US who ride their bikes year round and pay from 100-300 per year for full coverage. I pay 1200/year for the same bike, same coverage but we only ride 6 months of the year. Used to be that we could insure for 6 months but now, if you discontinue your insurance, you are looked at as a new rider, hence higher fees, so they got you coming and going here.
So getting back to "Florida" for instance, how would one register a vehicle there if they don't own property there?
thanks for your help.
HSMC
