Minnesota Boat Trailer Registration

[Crappie2760]

I am looking for some input on whether a ranger bass boat trailer is required to be registered in MN or not.  I just bought the boat, but the DMV wouldn't accept the trailer registration card because I didn't have the trailer title.  The seller doesn't have a trailer title.  The trailer has the Permanent Registration sticker on it so I shouldn't have to register the trailer right?  Thanks!

[awolff]

Sure, as long as your rig is under 3000 lbs. and has the sticker you're legal, but if it were me I'd still try and get it transferred over.  Otherwise you could run into problems down the road, like if it got damaged/stolen, or if you decided to sell it and it was still under another guy's name.  That's weird that the DMV gave you a hard time with this.  I think if you've got a Bill of Sale and the serial number it shouldn't be a problem, just bring it in and expect to pay a few fees/taxes.

[knoppers]

you do need to have the title transferred to you, if the seller doesn't have it, he still can get another one, then transfer it over to you.

[Crappie2760]

Yeah, the problem is my father in law bought the boat 3 years ago and never got the title from the seller.  He never used the boat so I was able to take that original bill of sale and transfer the boat into my name.  The trailer is still a problem because the guy moved, got divorced and changed his number.  We have literally no way of finding him.  Now what?  In this type of scenario, shouldn't the DMV be able to cancel that title and assign me a new one?  It's messy.

[Crappie2760]

The boat is 100% mine now.  The trailer still belongs to the guy who titled it 2 owners ago who is MIA.