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Guide - licensing a SxS for on-road use in Arizona for non-residents

32K views 52 replies 14 participants last post by  raceu2 
#1 · (Edited)
I promised to post an outline of my experience as an Oregon resident getting my Maverick registered and licensed for street use in Arizona. It ended up not being too difficult overall - hopefully others can learn from (and build on) my experiences.

The premise of this post is that the Catch-22 for non-Arizona residents wanting to drive on the street with their SxS/UTVs is that you can't get an Arizona license plate for it directly without being an Arizona resident, and that's one of ADOT's requirements for being able to drive on the street with them. Out-of-staters can ride off-road with their home state's OHV tag (short term visitors), or you can purchase an Arizona OHV permit.

First off, your SxS/UTV has to meet all of the rules/requirements for off-road use, with the additional requirements of a horn, license plate (lighted), and liability insurance. You may also want to consider adding turn signals and outside rear-view mirrors to your SxS for safety reasons if possible, even though AZ regs don't specifically call for those. (It really depends on where you'll be driving on the streets and how comfortable you are without those two items, though.)

Next, you'll need an Arizona address. I believe this could be for someone you know that lives and is a resident down in Arizona that you could ask to have your mail sent to in care of, but I opted to try to get a PO box. The main issue with doing that however is that even though you can order the PO box from USPS online, in order to finalize the purchase, you have to physically visit the post office where the PO box is going to be at, which means a trip down to Arizona. Fortunately, there is another option - there are mailbox service providers that allow you to setup a mailbox remotely with a real street address in Arizona without having to physically visit the site. I used iPostal1 - it allows you to setup and manage your mailbox right from your computer, including notification for arriving mail items and forwarding to your home address. (There are other services out there, iPostal1 just happened to be the one I chose.)

After you have an Arizona address established, you can get the ball rolling on the actual ADOT licensing and registration process. You can go directly through ADOT for this; however, being a non-Arizona resident, I am not very familiar with all of the rules for vehicle registration down there. Fortunately, there are several ADOT-authorized 3rd party providers down there that specialize in doing exactly this process for you that know the exact steps to make sure that you're legally and fully registered for on- and off-road use. Here's the two relavent websites/URLs that show all of those businesses:


The second link is an interactive map of all of the ADOT-authorized 3rd party providers, it makes it really easy to find one that can help. I chose Footework out of Williams, but I'm sure that the process is basically the same with all of them. In order to get registered and licensed, they require two notarized power-of-attorney forms (one for them and one for ADOT) that allow them to submit the DMV paperwork on your behalf; they also require a perfected copy of the UTV/SxS/ATVs title. Additionally, they will need your Arizona address, a copy of your (state of residence) driver's license, and proof of insurance. In my case, I sent all of that to them via snail mail, but there may be other options for submitting those items (i.e. fax, scanned email attachment, etc). There is also a fee for the service - for Footework, it was a total of $89, but other providers may charge more or less. I had my AZ registration, plate, and both on- and off-road tags in about a week after they received the paperwork, and they were able to actually send it directly to my home address up here in Oregon (other service providers may or may not be able to do the same).

As per the ADOT rules, in order to be street-legal, your new Arizona license plate must be displayed on a lighted license plate holder on the rear of the vehicle, with the on-road tag on the upper right-hand corner of the license plate, and the off-road tag on the upper left-hand corner. Another thing to be aware of is that I believe there is a cutoff for the weight of the vehicle to be able to qualify for the OHV sticker (1,800 pounds, I think). The 2-seater Maverick X3 falls under this limit, but I'm not certain if any of the 4-seaters do.

Again, this guide/outline is based on what I've done, and is accurate is as much as to my experiences thus far. I have not been down to Arizona with the plate on the back yet, so I will update with any negative 'feedback' from LEOs that we may encounter once we take our first trip down there with the Maverick this spring. If anyone has any comments/questions/corrections to any of the above, please feel free to add to this thread as needed.
 
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#5 ·
From what I was reading on the ADOT website (and others), the DEQ inspections are a requirement only if you live or ride in Phoenix or Tucson. All other areas of the state do not require the DEQ cert. Do you ride in either of those areas, and if so, what has been your experience when purchasing/renewing your license or OHV permit? Is it one of those things that you only get nailed on if you get pulled over?
 
#3 ·
We have licensed ours out of Parker AZ.

Our home State is Oregon, so all we had to do is, have an AZ address, which we have from a friend that lives in Quartzsite, if you have your title, you need to switch it to AZ, if you only have the registration, then you need to take to DMV and they DMV confirms Vin #.
All we needed was Horn and license plate light..
Next get insurance for AZ.

$35 later we have our plates.
$25 for plate and $10 for OHV tag
Easy Peasy.

Barbara




Sent from BLR logistics
 
#4 · (Edited)
Oh - the bank holds the title for my Maverick, probably would have been helpful to mention that in my post. Also, SxS's are considered to be Class IV ATVs in Oregon, which do not require or have a registration, so you can't use that. Not sure how difficult it would be to change the title to the Arizona address in my case, since it's not my legal/primary residence up here in Oregon. I would imagine that the lienholder needs that to be your primary residence though. If you hold the title, it's probably far less complicated.

Also, I wanted to have the registration and plate before we left for our weeklong vacation in the spring - if we were spending a little longer down there, I heard that ADOT is pretty quick about turning things around, so we may have been able to get that taken care in time to drive on the streets during our vacation. As it is, we wanted to just have everything taken care of before we arrived in April. Plus, having a service provider take care of everything correctly is worth it to me so there was no doubt that we were legal.
 
#25 ·
Hey, I'm in a very similar situation as you. I'm in Oregon, and bank has my title. What did you have to do with your title when working with Footework? I ask because I originally called them to explain my situation and they said all I need is a notarized bill of sale, which I sent them. Then they called me and said I need a copy of the title which is frustrating.

So curious what all you had to provide them when you did it?
 
#27 ·
I live in the Phx area and have not had to do an emissions test. However I have a 4 seater and my yearly did go up to about 400 per year.
Unfortunately I was not successful in getting them to lower it.
I drive it whenever and wherever I like and have had no issues yet.
same here try calling them they simply said it was an error based upon weight and since it isn’t something being driven obviously down the road daily etc. they did it over the phone as they didn’t want folks in with covid on going.

Another $0.02 they said is if you plug in your renewal for the on road tag first it will change in the system. You have to do the $10 OHV Tab and then go back and do the road tab or else it will assume you are primarily off road hence larger amount. I would try calling them and see about a refund. They refunded my previous registration toward the new truck a few months ago as well. Got a check since it was already paid for from the dealer when buying new.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Hmm......not sure what's up with that, maybe it's one of those things they don't really press too hard with off-road vehicles? Or maybe there's not any OHV trails in Phoenix or Tucson proper? I've never been to either city, so I'm clueless as to what those areas are like. By the same token, I can't imagine that you'd want to slice-and-dice in big city traffic with a Maverick, so it's probably a non-issue in most cases.

Also, I'd heard about the VLT down there - originally I was worried that it was going to cost upwards of $300-$400 bucks to register, but after talking with Footework, they said it wasn't required due to the 80/20 rule you mentioned. That's why I went with them in lieu of trying to do it myself - they know all the rules/regs/loopholes up front so I didn't have to do any back-and-forth with ADOT trying to figure it all out myself. The bonus is that it really didn't cost me much more to go through them versus me doing it all myself.
 
#11 ·
Yes, definitely ask them about that - it would be nice to avoid paying more than you have to. I may be all wet on this, but I believe there's also a weight cutoff on the registration somehow (1,800 pounds, I think), but that may or may not come into play here. I'm by no means any kind of expert on all of this, just relating my experience in registering my Maverick down there is all. That's mainly why I went with Footework, since they're the experts and know the correct way to do it so that I don't run afoul of any of the rules and/or miss anything in the process.
 
#13 ·
The smaller (i.e. 2-seater) Mavs and RZRs and such sneak in just under the limit, but I do recall specifically seeing the 4-seater Max's with plates on the road last time we were down at Havasu, so folks are still definitely getting them registered/licensed. No clue on what they paid to do it though. I would guess the reasoning is that ADOT has to write the rules so that normal passenger cars and trucks can't get around paying that VLT, but I don't think there's many cars that are under 2,000 lbs.
 
#16 ·
I got some of the scoop today at DMV

We went into license our 2020 RR
Total cost was $35.00 with OHV permit.

3 different types of licensing
#1 totally off road has to be trailered to trails. $25
#2 is 100% on and off road $543.00 a year
#3 which is the best for most of us.
80% road 20% off road. $35

Now this is where people are getting the higher price is, when you do renewal online, make sure you buy the OFF ROAD PERMIT 1ST, Otherwise you will be charged the Full road permit at $500 plus with NO REFUND.

Didn't ask about the weight and it was on our registration from Oregon.
No emissions either

Barbara


Sent from BLR logistics
 
#17 ·
My understanding (and from the info that Footework told me) is that the higher license/registration and VLT only come into play if you're spending a majority of the time driving it on the road, so that all makes sense. That's where the magic of the 80/20 off-road usage rule comes into play.

I did pay a bit more to go through Footework to get all of this done, but in my situation it just made more sense. Between your info above and my experience with Footework, it should give visitors a couple of options for getting their SxS's registered for on-road use if needed.
 
#18 ·
I have to disagree on your statement about online renewal. I did mine again this year just 2 weeks ago. Renewed the registration first ($10.38) and then got the OHV permit ($25.50) on ServiceArizona.com with no issues at all. Not sure how this got started but it has never been an issue in the past.
 
#19 ·
I have to disagree on your statement about online renewal. I did mine again this year just 2 weeks ago. Renewed the registration first ($10.38) and then got the OHV permit ($25.50) on ServiceArizona.com with no issues at all. Not sure how this got started but it has never been an issue in the past.
I did everything at DMV.
All at one time no need to go to service Arizona website.

I'm just relaying what DMV said,
You can do it how you like.

Barbara

Sent from BLR logistics
 
#20 ·
Question, does Arizona recognized other state endorsements for on road use? I opted with New Mexico as I’m a California resident and ride in AZ Nm and Utah among other states.

I went with NM as I was able to do it all from the inner web


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#21 ·
There used to be reciprocity listed for each state but I’m now having problems verifying that. I am street legal in AZ but to ride in NM I have to have their OHV tag. As far as I know, if you are street legal in NM you are street legal in AZ and vice versa but you still have to have a state specific OHV tag.
 
#23 ·
I know that you have to have an OHV tag for up here in Oregon - the AZ plate/tags are worthless up here as far as the law is concerned. However, I've heard elsewhere on the forum that you can ride legally on the road in Utah with AZ tags. I don't recall if there's a separate OHV tag for Utah though.
 
#22 · (Edited)
There may be other ways of doing this, but for my specific situation as an out-of-state resident, not knowing AZ rules and regs, and not getting clear answers from anyone (including ADOT/DMV), my biggest concern was being sure to get properly, fully and legally registered for both on- and off-road use in AZ. Secondary concern was not paying any more than I had to for the type of machine I had using it down there for the type of riding we'll be doing while down there. It just made sense to use a third-party service to make sure it was done right the first time without running into any pitfalls (such as Barbara mentioned regarding the VLT/registration fees).

As an example, early on, I contacted ADOT directly about registering for on-road use, and was told by them directly that as an Oregon resident that does not require UTV registration, I could not get a plate for my Mav without being an Arizona resident. Given my lack of knowledge regarding the rules down there and whatever workarounds there are for out-of-state riders, it was worth it to me to pay a few extra bucks for the peace of mind knowing that everything was done correctly, and that I didn't miss any details by trying to do it myself. Now when we visit down there in April for vacation, all I need to do is fill up and ride, and I absolutely know I'm legal both on- and off-road.
 
#29 ·
ah crap, so I did a similar thing to @stevenk2 and got a mailbox with ipostal1. when I gave my new "AZ Address" to them they are saying the system recognizes it as a commercial address for mailboxes and need an actual physical address. FML.

I don't have any family in AZ, anyone have any other thoughts? Once I provide an AZ address to them I'll have my temp plates in a couple hours and can be street legal! So close! HELP :)
 
#30 ·
ah crap, so I did a similar thing to @stevenk2 and got a mailbox with ipostal1. when I gave my new "AZ Address" to them they are saying the system recognizes it as a commercial address for mailboxes and need an actual physical address. FML.

I don't have any family in AZ, anyone have any other thoughts? Once I provide an AZ address to them I'll have my temp plates in a couple hours and can be street legal! So close! HELP :)
When you say you gave your new address to them, do you mean ADOT/DMV, or are you talking about Footework? When I went through Footework, it wasn't an issue - I'm sure your experience would be similar with other 3rd party providers though.
 
#34 ·
This is an excerpt of what appears to be an ADOT/DMV newsletter regarding what MAX is. Not much more info than what Footework told you, but I would assume that it's more stringent than the old system was.

View attachment 263433
Typically, it’s easier to renew registration, of any kind anywhere, than it is to get a new one. So hopefully you’re ok as long as you still have the same address. If you were to change your address I bet you’d run into issues for sure. But yeah time will tell.
 
#35 ·
@stevenk2 and anyone else interested,

OK, I got all this figured out and wanted to share my experience and update to the info originally provided, this is a clear example of things can change at any time haha.

To keep things easy, and since I was in a rush and wanted to make sure it was all done correctly, I did everything pretty much exactly as Steven did.

I'm also from Oregon, the bank also has my title, we have no registration on UTV's in Oregon.​
I registered an AZ address through ipostal1 (this ended up being useless haha)​
I worked through the cottonwood Footework location (3rd party to handle all DMV paperwork)​
You need to have a notarized Power of Attorney sent to them, you can print it on on their website.​
I had to have the bank email them a copy of the "Perfected Title"​
This was the most frustrating as I was told different things​
First I was told I just needed a notarized bill of sale. sent it. nope, they can't accept it.​
Then I was told I could send a copy of the title paperwork the dealer sent out. sent it. nope, they can't accept it. sent overnight air too ugh.​
Then I talked to their compliance officer and she explained I need a Perfected Title if I don't have a copy of my registration. All good with the Perfected Title​
They have a new dmv "MAX" system. This new system found the ipostal address to be a commercial mailbox address, you have to have a physical address!​
Thankfully I remembered that my brothers wife's parents live in Mesa, so I asked and was able to use theirs as the physical address​
This will be more difficult for you if you don't have any connections in AZ, honestly not sure what I would've done if I didn't have extended family there.​
She had asked for the exact model name of the car, I have a 2020 XRC Turbo RR​
Not sure if it would have mattered but I did say it was an X RS RR. According to the Canam website, the RC is 1803 lbs, I've read about issues if you are over 1800 lbs, I didn't want to test it and have issues because of 3 lbs.​
All the info was finalized last night, they called me today to let me know what the fees are, paid over the phone, and 30 min later they sent me my temporary license plate and registration!​
This is for off-road and partial on road, so street legal.​
The total for me came out to be $163 ($115 basic out of state convenience fee, $44 MVD fee, $4 surcharge for credit card). I was OK with this​
With the holidays and everything they said it will be 2-3 weeks before I get the physical plate, but at least I have the temp plate now I can print and attach.​
They will also mail the OHV sticker separately, hopefully I'll get that quicker.​
I'll be traveling to UT for a few weeks then off to Sedona area for another few weeks, so I gave them my parents address in UT to send everything to for now.​
All in all, everything worked out well, and most importantly excited to be street legal (now if only Oregon would get onboard with it!)​
Thanks again @stevenk2 for starting this, it was very helpful to have as a guide and starting point.​
 
#38 ·
Has anyone had any experience registering a heavier UTV in Arizona? I just got a 2021 Ranger XP 1000 Crew and it has a dry weight of 1931 pounds. I live in Georgia and go out to AZ every year so I was interested in getting both the off road permit and the street legal tag. I called Footework but the woman I spoke to wasn't any help at all.
 
#41 ·
On road will come with the plate , I just got mine last week , my off road sticker came the week before
 
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#42 ·
I used a service in parker, pretty simple she e, mail the forms, power of atty so she can handle everything took about a week and Im street legal in az now, im in ca they sent it to my po box in ca. Total was less than a 100.00 for the lic and service fee’s Im a happy camper
The name of the service was xfinity in parker az.
 
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