Texas "Farm Use Only" Vehicle Alert
 

If your truck or trailer is registered for Farm Use Only - be careful. Locally some State Troopers have been issuing tickets (rightly or wrongly) to motorists using their vehicles to "go to town". If they ask where you are going or you are going at a time when "farm activities" wouldn't be being conducted they are issuing tickets. The proper response is I am going to pick up/deliver (fill in the blank) farm supplies. People have taken to always carrying some feed in their trucks/trailers so they can semi-honestly say they are delivering these feed items to ...... or have just picked up these items and are taking them back home.

Same applies here in Indiana. I know guys who always carry some new machine part in their truck to prove they are on an ag mission.

Except if you go to http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/lw/cmvl...ation/Farm.asp you will find that what the troopers are saying is horses--t in the biggest manner.

Their own website noted above says:

The vehicle may be used for:

* Transporting the person’s own poultry, dairy, livestock, livestock products, timber in its natural state, or farm products to market or another place for sale or processing.

* Transporting laborers from their place of residence to the owner’s farm or ranch.

* Transporting without charge, materials, tools, equipment, or supplies from the place of purchase or storage to the owner’s farm or ranch exclusively for the owner’s use or for use on the farm or ranch.

* TRANSPORTING THE OWNER'S FAMILY:
TO ATTEND CHURCH OR SCHOOL:
TO VISIT A DOCTOR FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT OR SUPPLIES: OR
FOR OTHER NECESSITIES OF THE HOME OR FAMILY. (emphasis mine)

* May not use a vehicle registered under this section in connection with gainful employment other than farming or ranching.

* May not use a vehicle with a "FARM TRUCK" license plate to tow a trailer with a "TOKEN TRAILER" license plate.


My suggestion is to print off a copy of this page from their website and if you are stopped, tell the DPS officer to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

They are also stopping people for "being too far away from their farm/ranch" If you notice the above says nothing about any distance from anywhere. Purely POWER RUN AMOK.

I'd be safe. I never run to town without a shopping list of farm supplies as long as my arm. :)

I agree with this one. It's just a way to extort more money out of people, period. Meanwhile, while you are pulled over on the side of the road getting your bogus ticket, the crack head illegals are speeding by with their tires loaded with dope and laughing their a**** off at you. :flame:

I HOPE I get pulled over. Please. Pull me over. Make my day.

....................Before I got out of fence building a couple of years back , I had 4 trailers with farm tags on all . Plus , I had an old 1977 f250 flatbed with Farm truck tags which I drove very sparingly , mostly back and forth to town and was never stopped . Of all the crime going on you'd think the H. Petrol would have more important things to do than jack around with folks with Ag tags . :rolleyes: , fordy... :shrug:

What kind of vehicles do you all have your farm truck plates on if you don't mind me asking?

I think they have ticket quotas to fill. I know it's an easy way to fill the coffers.
Take 'em to court! Do not pay the fine. A few times of wasting the court's time - they'll quit.

My pickup has farm plates, my car has regular passenger plates.

Years ago when I lived in Texas we went through the same thing. Some decided to go ahead and take it through the courts. Their defense was farmers had the same right as anyone to use their vehicles for pleasure. No one had to farm 24 hours a day. Even farmers take vacations and they should not have to buy and tag a different vehicle just for vacation. They won.

Thanks Rosegarden - I was curious because the regs here seem to confuse the clerks at the MVA so I wondered how it worked in other places. If I'm not being too nosey, what size pick-up is that? Would like to hear from others on this too, especially anyone in Maryland with farm plates (I have never actually seen one!)

I was randomly pulled on a main highway in broad daylight by a State Trooper here in NC about 6 years to randomly check if my F-350 was running on dyed diesel fuel (farm use only). It was not. He didn't apologize.

farm plates
 

When I bought my truck in 2000 I was in a business and the dealer got me a business plate. When I went in this year had to get a new plate, not just tags and I asked the gal if farm plates were still issued. She said yes and asked if I had a farm. I told her yes and she said I should get farm plates. Then she said several of the farmers who were coming in to get plates said they had been stopped and questioned. That I wouldn't be able to use my truck for anything but farm use. The trooper who stopped a couple guys told them they had to have a sign on their truck and/or trailer with the "farm name" on it. Any other Michiganders heard that? Would I use the web site listed with MI instead of TX to find out the laws for this state? I'd like to know, I pretty much always have something "farm" in the truck, will be sure to now. Our state budget is so bad the State Police have been cut severely, less patrols and only on main highways.

Mistletoad, it seems that clerks at any MV dept. are easily confused... it's part of the job requirement you know :rolleyes: My pickup is a 3/4 ton, I use it for my business, obviously. But on days I use it for deliveries, I will also stop at the grocery store, pharmacy, auto supply, etc if I need to. I'm not going to waste fuel by driving all the way home to get my car and then driving all the way back to town to do my personal shopping. They can bite me. Besides, as the Tx. regulations read, I can use my farm truck for personal shopping because I read of a case years ago where personal shopping falls under the clause of being necessary for home or family. People have to eat and buy clothes, you know.

On the other hand, if I don't have deliveries and only need to go to the store, I drive my car because it gets much better mileage than the pickup. But I can see it being problematic for people who only have one vehicle and have it as a farm vehicle.

For us Texans with Farm Use trucks I suggest you do as I and my neighbors have done and print a copy of the Web page I cited in the earlier post and keep it with your registration in your glovebox. When a DPS clown stops you for not being on a farm mission you provide it for him to read. After he is suitably enlightened as to what his own laws say and mean then wish him good day.

If he insists on ticketing you, then get his badge number and his supervisors name and phone number and go see your county commissioner and have him contact DPS and get them to set their people straight. Challenge the ticket in court and provide the Judge with a copy of what the DPS has on their website and what do you want to bet the judge finds you INNOCENT.

I am going to have a talk with my local County Commisioner beforehand and be proactive on this subject.

I have found that the troopers, police, and motor vehicle department employees often do not know the details of laws and ordinances that they are enforcing. They know the "regular" common stuff, but not much out of the ordinary. And they don't want to admit it when they stop you and you have questions. The best thing to do is to do some research on your own (as others have suggested) and print out copies of the pertinent info from web sites or books of legislation (usually available at libraries) so you can show the officer what the law says. Same thing goes with the folks that do drivers license tests and renewals, and that sell vehicle plates.

Mine is a 92 Chevy S10 (which is one of the "tiny" trucks, yet has half ton specs.) People kinda laugh at me when I pull up next to all the 3/4 and one ton trucks at the feed store to buy a round bale, and I had a local cop try to give me a little grief about the farm plates on a little truck... but I laugh all the way to the bank when I fill up with gas. I miss the feel of a 3/4 truck, but I do not miss the fuel bill every month.

Instead of a copy of a website, copy the law itself from the law books along with the law number. That will make a difference. IMHO, I dont usually ---- off the cop on the scene because they usually end up writing more tickets. Wait until you see the magistrate to ---- him off. You dont have to wait until the court date. The last time I got a seatbelt ticket, I took care of it an hour later.


WAB

Printing off a copy and having it to show the officer / trooper is a great idea, having a copy of the actual ordinance is even better.

Telling the officer / trooper to “stick it where the sun doesn't shine” is just plain stupid. There are more folks that have been given a citation or taken to jail (both are considered arrests) for running their mouth when they should have been polite.

I have stopped a number of folks over the past 23 years and have found out I was mistaken. The tag year being ok happens ever so often (hard to read sometimes). Upon realizing that an ordinance had not been broken, I apologize for stopping the person after explaining why I had done so.

Now if I stop you and you have an attitude, are rude, impolite, or just a plain ass, then I will be looking for anything I can cite you for. Its human nature, be nice and get treated nice. Being hostile not only escalates the situation, it casts suspicion that there may be something more going on than the issue you were stopped for.

Use common sense folks.

Oldpagan

Could be that some folks are abusing the farm vehicle tags as some in New Jersey did with farmland assessment for taxes. If one has five acres and $500/year income, one can have their land assessed at farmland values, Many five acre "estates" or gentlemen farms were taxed at the lower values even though no actual farming was done, since it doesn't take much firewood sold to achieve the $500 requirement. The state then made everyone who needed a farmland assessment go through the wringer proving they were bona fide farms and not tax dodges. So it could be many may abusing the farm tag system, and those who need those tags are caught up in the mess. Here it New Jersey, the Democratic legislature following true form, punishes everyone to avoid doing something really worthwhile like actually going after the violators, which comprises much of the voter base.

so u have a farm truck wouldnt you need insurance and here in va a inspection sticker so why not just tag it and be able to take it any wheres. if you have it on the road with no insurance and you have an accident u gonna be up the creek with out a paddle. so just be smart and be legal and go anywheres u like.

Here in Missouri if you Farm Tag you can only drive so many miles from the Farm.

Plus if you use an ATV and you want to take it on the road you have to have a Farm Permit for that.

But I have a Pickup that won't pass State Inspection that I use anyway to go get stuff Local.

big rockpile