# Thinking about changing my pickup to PA Farm Truck registration



## paoutdoorsman

Are any of you PA guys running Farm Truck plates on your pickups? Looking for pros/cons.


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## Farmerbrown2

My understanding is farm plates are good but they are for farm use only it's an insurance liability thing .

So let's say you run to get tractor parts you get in an accident and kill somebody your covered no problems .

Now let's say you need some groceries and you get in the same accident now your using it for non farm related activities this leaves you open to liability.

This is how it was explained to me but I could be wrong I'm sure more people will be along.


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## endrow

We use farm exemption stickers white ones and yellow ones the white ones require the truck to be inspected and you can drive it at night the yellow ones you don't have to inspect the truck you can't drive it at night. If you're talking about either the stickers for the farm plates there's different restrictions to the mileage you can drive from the farm or to the farm how you insure and different things like that. But there's one thing they all have in common you can only use the vehicle for farming purposes. We always keep one or two trucks around with regular plates and all the rest have either Farm plates or stickers


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## endrow

G


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## endrow

farmerbrown said:


> My understanding is farm plates are good but they are for farm use only it's an insurance liability thing .
> So let's say you run to get tractor parts you get in an accident and kill somebody your covered no problems .
> Now let's say you need some groceries and you get in the same accident now your using it for non farm related activities this leaves you open to liability.
> This is how it was explained to me but I could be wrong I'm sure more people will be along.


 Yes you are correct you are driving a truck that is Exempted from having a license because it was doing Farm work. You are also driving a truck that is Exempted from having a standard insurance policy because it is doing farm work. So in essence they say if they want to push this to the letter of the law. If you're driving this thing down to the Fish Fry on a Friday night for that sole purpose and that sole purpose only the registration and insurance do not apply so you are driving an unregistered and uninsured truck and if anything goes wrong. Trouble. I would highly recommend you research the restrictions in PA motor vehicle code and maybe talk to your insurance man to see if it's right for you.


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## paoutdoorsman

I'm not interested in the options available for farm vehicles that exempt you from registration. That is an option in PA, but carries night time and distance restrictions. PA actually has a 'Farm Truck' registration plate. The registration fee is less, but there are no night time or distance limitations. I still want to use the truck to pull the camper and car trailer, and that's where the local notary place cannot give me a straight answer on the legalities. I didn't think about insurance, but I wouldn't plan to reduce my coverage's.


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## endrow

This is what we use on the true Farm pickups


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## endrow

http://extension.psu.edu/animals/equine/news/2012/operation-of-pa-farm-vehicle-farm-trucks-registration-plates


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## Farmerbrown2

endrow said:


> http://extension.psu.edu/animals/equine/news/2012/operation-of-pa-farm-vehicle-farm-trucks-registration-plates


 I think that pretty much sums what I was getting at no pulling camper unless you need to sleep over at another farm you farm.


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## 8350HiTech

I have farm plates. It's insured like any other plated truck but the registration is less. That's nice on a 15,000 gvw truck. Of course, I don't pull a camper with it...


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## BWfarms

I have 2 trucks, Cummins is weighted and Silverado has farm tags. I still have to fully insure and have yearly inspections. If I got caught pulling a boat or RV for recreational use, I'd get walloped with a fine and possible stripped of plates. If I was using the RV at a stockshow or fair, that's acceptable but still kind of a gray area. I don't worry so much about being stopped when I'm in town for a burger, officers can't pull you over unless they observe a moving traffic violation. There are hundreds of us driving around town so it's not like they go out of their way to stop us. I've seen people that don't have farms or suv's that the wife picks kids up in with plates, are they suppose to? No, but they don't get pulled over. Any given day you'll see a dozen parked at Wally World, restaurants, gun shops, etc.

https://www.ncdot.gov/download/dmv/VR_MVR9.pdf


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## NewBerlinBaler

Topic has been well covered by everyone above. One thing to add: if you can make it to the next Messick's Open House, there's a seminar called "Farm Safety on the Road". I attended this a few years ago. It's put on by State Troopers and they cover this in detail, you can even ask questions. The event is later this month.

If I remember correctly, you can't leave the state with farm tags. Personally, the limitations aren't worth the few hundred dollars you'll save.


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## r82230

BWfarms said:


> Any given day you'll see a dozen parked at Wally World, restaurants, gun shops, etc.
> 
> https://www.ncdot.gov/download/dmv/VR_MVR9.pdf


But it is in 'he grey area', is the problem. Here in Michigan it is a law you have to come to a complete stop BEFORE pulling out of your driveway (and it is illegal to back out of your driveway on to a state/county road). But who stops it there is no one coming? How do I get out of my driveway, without driving on my lawn?

I think the point that farmer & endrow are making is there could be a difference in what is legal and what some folks get away with. I like the idea of checking what good is your insurance coverage (liability) IF you are not using your vehicle as a farm vehicle.

I personally, think I would have too much to lose, to check my legality after the accident happened. Hence here in Michigan I pay the freight and skip the farm plate 'savings'. Because I know there could be a time or two that I am not following the letter of the law (call it the grey area), I could be in an accident (and not at fault). But this is in MY area, where we have ambulance chasing attorneys, PA could be vastly different. If you are in need of some ambulance chasers let me know, we seem to have a record crop here. 

Larry


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## 8350HiTech

I'm almost certain one can leave the state with farm plates.


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## somedevildawg

You ain't got no monopoly on 'em Larry.....


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## luke strawwalker

A lot depends on the state... In Texas the farm plates have been pretty lax, though they have tightened up on them some the last few years. You can go anywhere anytime (in/out of state, day or night-- that's bizarre those PA stickers!) but you're not supposed to use a farm plated vehicle to go to a paying job "in town", though you CAN use it to take your kids to/from school.

A time or two when I needed to work on the wife's car or it was broke down, she's taken the farm truck to school. She was stopped once "in the burbs" for some moving violation and the cop gave her the third degree over it being farm plates, but she explained she was picking our daughter up at school (not mentioning on her way home from her teaching job, thankfully) and so the cop just steamed and couldn't say anything more... It's not like she drives it all the time.

A couple years ago they started requiring you have an ag exemption number in the vehicle owner's name to get/renew farm plates. Rather stupid IMHO because it's just another hoop to jump through, but not enough of one to keep the cowboy cadillacs/rodeo-n-horse-n-pony set from getting farm plates, since you can get an exemption number online in like 10 minutes... We already had an exemption number for the farms, since I run the places for my folks, they had it in their name since they pay the bills. I tried using their number to renew my plates since I own the farm truck, and was told I had to get a number of my own-- just duplicating the effort and more gubmint paperwork for them to keep track of as well... rather stupid just for a friggin' name. Oh well, their problem not mine.

Dad had farm plates on his minivan for awhile because he was hauling feed and molasses tubs and stuff in there from the feed store. When he went to get farm plates for his newer van, they wouldn't allow him to have them-- apparently his first van was titled as a "truck" and the second one was titled as "passenger" and therefore couldn't have farm plates issued without changing the title, and having to "rip out all the seats other than the front driver and passenger seats" to show it was a 'cargo van'. Course that nixed that idea, which was one of his rather goofy ideas anyway IMHO. He finally just went to all regular plates because it was just easier, and it's not that much more expensive. I think farm plates cost like $55 bucks a year versus like $70 bucks a year or so for regular plates, so not a big deal anyway. Insurance is unaffected in TX either way you go. Inspection requirements are the same either way you go as well...

The "passenger" thing was rather amusing IMHO... my seed/chemical/fertilizer guy when I was row cropping had a wooden leg courtesy of his time in Korea, and he didn't like climbing in and out of pickups and the rougher ride, and he had a sh!t ton of money anyway, so he always bought new Lincoln Continentals and put a receiver hitch on the back and used them for his farm vehicles-- complete with farm plates... Sorta like how Red Adair used to use new Cadillacs for his "pickup truck" for carrying around light equipment to oil well fires... he wanted a comfortable vehicle and money was certainly no object! Course that was 20-30 years ago now-- now the gubmint police state don't allow such things to go unchallenged!

I'll probably end up dropping the farm plates as well one of these days. More hassle than it's worth anymore. Used to be farm plates were like half price of regular plates on the renewals, now it's not much difference at all.

Later! OL J R


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## JD3430

Farm tags put too many limitations on your light trucks.
IMO, there's better ways to save money.
Heavy trucks, of course.


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## SCtrailrider

Here in SC I don't think there are any restrictions for farm plated trucks, I changed mine last year to farm plates and if there are restrictions I'm unaware of them.... maybe I should look in to it more.....


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## IH 1586

We never had farm plates. Just insured them as farm use only to save money and that restricts your usage also. Would drive the truck to work and figured if I had accident would just say going to get parts after work. Of course a couple of times had the mower hooked up to truck sitting in parking lot.


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## endrow

We have two semis in a straight truck I have a white sticker that means they are exempt from being registered. They must be PA state inspected they absolutely cannot haul anything or drive anywhere that it is not related to the day-to-day operation of my farm and it's a hundred miles limit from the farm. The registration annually for those trucks is $50 the annual insurance is $150. The local law enforcement knows that as well and they hate it, they keep us on our toes ,They Know Each one of those exemption trucks well, they will not allow miss you use of the privilege


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## PaMike

You guys are talking about the stickers on the door that exempts you from registration..but what about the license plate that says "FARM TRUCK". Its a PA state issued plate. Kreider farms actually has those plates on the back of their semi trailers that haul milk,ice cream,eggs etc.

Those are limited to 150 miles???


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## paoutdoorsman

Below is text from the penn state ag extension article linked earlier. No distance or daylight driving restrictions. To weight my Silverado at 26,000 combination, the annual registration is 1/3'rd - $168.33 vs. $505. The notary tag place is telling me that is the way to go for pushing the weight up on my truck to haul hay legally with a trailer over 10K. But if I'm going to be bothered when using the truck for hunting or recreation, then I'm not sure it's worth it...

Farm Plates- If you need to use your truck or truck tractor beyond the distance limitations imposed for vehicles operating under a biennial certificate of exemption, you will need to obtain an annual registration from PennDOT. The Vehicle Code allows farmers to obtain a special farm vehicle registration plate at a lower annual fee than commercial vehicles ($76.50 for weight classes 1 through 4, and one-third the commercial truck fee for all other weight classes).

A farm registered vehicle, is limited in the manner in which the vehicle may be used. It may be only operated:

1. On roads that are part of the farm;

2. On roads between farms that you own or operate;

3. On roads between any of your owned & operated farms and a place of business for the purpose of buying or selling agricultural supplies or commodities or for servicing the vehicle;

4. If sold at auction, roads used in the course of delivering of your agricultural commodities from an auction site to the purchaser's place of business (the same vehicle that transported the commodities to the auction site must be used); and

5. Roads to facilitate use of the vehicle in a driver's license examination.

Note that there are no distance limitations for registered farm vehicles. The driver of the vehicle, however, may need to comply with driver requirements imposed under federal and state regulations.


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## SVFHAY

I have a semi tractor with a sticker, a semi with a farm plate that travels out of state and a regular tag on my pickup.

You could probably get by just fine with the pickup and a farm plate, maybe pay a fine one day or get extra scrutiny from Johnny law. My real concern is how a slick lawyer might use that against you if there were some kind of accident.


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## FarmerCline

Here in NC if you go by the book it says with a farm tag that you are restricted to 150 miles as the crow flies and cannot go out of state. In reality that is not enforced and most farmers around here have farm tags on the pickup trucks which they drive daily. A friend of mine drove his f250 with a farm tag pulling a camper to Saskatchewan last year.

My daily driver is not a pickup truck so I don't feel I can get by with a farm tag but if a truck was my daily driver I wouldn't hesitate to put a farm tag on it here in NC. I do have a farm tag on a Ford f800 dump truck but I have no intentions of driving that POS anywhere close to 150 miles away. A farm tag in NC cost about half what a regular tag does.


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## endrow

One thing good with the exemption sticker Pa on your big trucks and semis, not only do you save a ton on registration and insurance you can run Red fuel on the on those trucks . All comes down to if you can live with the restrictions


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## PaMike

Wow, didn't know you could run red fuel..That would be a big savings for some people..


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## endrow

One point of confussion in Pa. at what point of GVW or CGVW do you need a drivers medical TEST /CARD. ? Do other states require that ?


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## Tx Jim

You can run red diesel fuel in Texas with farm or regular licence plate but GRAB ON TO your checkbook if you get your fuel tank sampled. Farm tags on pickup truck in Texas aren't enough savings for me to mess with them.


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## r82230

Same as TxJim, don't drive your truck on any Michigan roads with red fuel and get caught. 

Larry


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## 8350HiTech

r82230 said:


> Same as TxJim, don't drive your truck on any Michigan roads with red fuel and get caught.
> 
> Larry


That may be true, but if we try to keep this at all on topic of PA farm vehicles, one can legally run dyed fuel in a PA farm STICKERED vehicle, drive it on the road, and remain in compliance with the law. PA farm PLATE must run road fuel.


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## SVFHAY

endrow said:


> One point of confussion in Pa. at what point of GVW or CGVW do you need a drivers medical TEST /CARD. ? Do other states require that ?


https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/faq/how-can-map-21-"transportation-agricultural-commodities"-exemptions-be-summarized

Hope that link works. My belief is a pa licensed farm truck can travel within that 150 air mile limit without log, physical, drug screen, or cdl as long as truck is within manufacturer weight limits and properly inspected.

Cross a state line and now you are still legal but you must run ifta sticker. Unless you go to Virginia, they still have law on books saying you can't go over 20 miles into state with a farm truck from another state. Weird. There are some other strange state specific farm truck laws like no farm trucks hauling Christmas trees in Idaho and no citrus hauling in Florida.

Now if you give over that 150 mile limit you must have log, physical and cdl. I have all that and I think I can haul a load of hay from here to the California border with my farm truck. California would not be cool with my emissions though and they would probably put the mack in a car crusher and me in a cell.


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## luke strawwalker

8350HiTech said:


> That may be true, but if we try to keep this at all on topic of PA farm vehicles, one can legally run dyed fuel in a PA farm STICKERED vehicle, drive it on the road, and remain in compliance with the law. PA farm PLATE must run road fuel.


Okay... Pennsy laws are WEIRD compared to most of the rest of us, sounds like...

Later! OL J R


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## PaCustomBaler

I always do our registration on farm plates in Harrisburg, it's just quicker to go straight to the source. You might want to check on the red fuel in Farm Plate trucks, I don't think that's the case. In stickered trucks you can. Harrisburg told me that as long as it's your commodity, there's no limitation on distance.


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