bought a ponderoas aire byne 3 horse slant from a family member. come to find out the tag that was on it when he bought it and the shop made title he got with it do not belong to that trailer. in the state of texas you can not register the trailer without the title tag number or vin. so my question is are there anyway for me to find out if this trailer is stolen and if not then how can I register it? the vin tag is missing and I cannot find a vin anywhere on the trailer. lucky for me ponderosa is also now out of business. I would appreciate any help and would love to sort this whole thing out as I have no use for a stolen or washed trailer.
Posted 2014-01-07 7:40 PM (#156741 - in reply to #156739) Subject: RE: ponderosa aire byne
Veteran
Posts: 218 Location: Ohio
Does the tag that is on the trailer have a vin number on it that is for a different trailer? Not sure what you were saying there. The trailer has to have a placard or plate that has the vin number on it. If the one on it is not for that trailer or there truly is not one on it, I would be suspicious of a stolen trailer. It would be like scraping the serial number off a gun.
Posted 2014-01-08 12:09 PM (#156764 - in reply to #156739) Subject: RE: ponderosa aire byne
Expert
Posts: 1351 Location: Decatur, Texas
Originally written by jsum59 on 2014-01-07 5:03 PM
bought a ponderoas aire byne 3 horse slant from a family member. come to find out the tag that was on it when he bought it and the shop made title he got with it do not belong to that trailer. in the state of texas you can not register the trailer without the title tag number or vin. so my question is are there anyway for me to find out if this trailer is stolen and if not then how can I register it? the vin tag is missing and I cannot find a vin anywhere on the trailer. lucky for me ponderosa is also now out of business. I would appreciate any help and would love to sort this whole thing out as I have no use for a stolen or washed trailer.
First off, in the State of Texas you can go to the court house and get a home made trailer tag or farm trailer tag with just some sort of Bill Of Sale on the trailer! Must show a year model, make of the trailer and they will ask for an empty weight.... Going with farm tags the gross weigh does not matter because the farm tags are good for 34-klbs! So what I would do is make you a bill of sale put year model:xxxx, make: Ponderosa, model: horse/combo, empty weight: 2800lbs. They will charge you a transfer fee, tax if you are not getting farm tags and the tag fee. Then the next year you will get a receipt in the mail so you will not have to worry about it again... The on the Ponderosa trailers they only have 1 full vin plate and they use the last 4 of the vin and is welded or stamped into the frame on the lower left side between the hitch and body of the trailer most of the time on the under the bottom out of site. I have bought and sold a lot of these cheap trailers and most are missing the original vin plate because of cheap pop rivets not holding the plate to the body.
Posted 2014-01-12 9:47 AM (#156843 - in reply to #156739) Subject: RE: ponderosa aire byne
Regular
Posts: 79 Location: Bonham, TX
We don't have an "Ag" exempt tax number, so when converting farm tags to regular tags I had to have a 16' flat bed trailer inspected by a trooper because of no title. I had the receipt from 1997 and it is not a home made trailer. Luckily I didn't have to have it weighed first. The vin plate was so worn out the trooper could not read it. The receipt had the vin number on it and because the last 4 digits were also on the frame he passed it.So, even if you get a bill of sale you will still probably have to have it weighed and then inspected before you can get a "title" and license plate.Yes, I'm in Texas. Call your local tax assessor/collector or whichever department handles license plates and they can give you the paperwork necessary to have the trailer inspected and will know where you can take the trailer to get it weighed.Mary
Posted 2014-01-15 9:24 AM (#156932 - in reply to #156739) Subject: RE: ponderosa aire byne
Regular
Posts: 79 Location: Bonham, TX
Hogtown,
Since we are not a "producer" of any type, ie: hay, cow, goat, chicken, food crop, etc, we do not qualify for ag exemption. Our 35 acres is mostly timber and is under wildlife management property tax which is same as ag tax. But, state changed the law regarding wildlife management can no longer be used for ag exemption. Even livestock trailers/horse trailers no longer automatically qualify for farm tags unless you have the farm/ag exemption number. Hence, why we are having to switch out farm tags on the 16' flat bed, the 18' WW stock trailer and our 4 mule GN slant CM trailer.
Sure don't want to go the route of timber exemption, wouldn't take long to timber out 35 acres! lol
ponderosa aire byne
