Official Wisconsin Mini Truck Legislation

After a long road and working with several Senators and State Reps, we finally have legislation officially submitted to the State of Wisconsin proposing limited road use of mini trucks on Wisconsin roads. We've tried to be very proactive with this legislation and develop a viable solution in everyones' best interests.

I strongly encourage any mini truck enthusiasts in Wisconsin to contact your local State Representative or Senator to back this bill! The more support displayed early-on may be the difference in the end.

Here is a direct link to the history on the bill and the document itself that we developed with our first supporting Senator: WI Senate Bill 438

This is one of the critical steps in the process. We've gained a lot of support from doing a lot of leg work with this. Your support and additional help are greatly appreciated and will make a difference.

Stay tuned for more details here as I will post critical updates as we proceed.

 

Wisconsin

Dan,

I'll contact all the WI sales I've had and forward them the info.

woodysminitrucks.com N. IL

dan

 

Awesome! Good luck, I hope you get it passed!

 

WOW..polititians in Wis. actually listen to the people? I'm jealous.......good luck and fingers crossed.

 

Update...

We attended our first public hearing on Wednesday last week at the Capitol. We transported a Suzuki with us to demo and show members of the Assembly. It was rather funny because I had to park my truck and trailer several blocks away from the Capitol (due to size) and we drove the MT to grounds. Seeing peoples' reaction to a mini truck on the streets of Mad-town was priceless (including a Madison police officer's grin as he passed us). It was quite the sight having a mini truck parked in front of the Capitol building.

Anyways, the first public hearing on WI Senate Bill 438 went well. The introduction of Mini Trucks and the potential applications/uses for businesses and private citizens raised eyebrows and opened awareness. There was a representative from the DOT who cited opposition to the bill (as expected), but he also represented a quantity of mis-information in regards to MT's. We will be working with our Primary Senator on the bill to continue assembling ammuntion for the cause and to counter concerns.

This was just the first, but ciritcal step in the process. I will continue posting updates as time passes and more information becomes available. It is still VERY important that every Wisconsin mini truck enthusiast contact their State Senator & Representative to voice their support of this bill. When the time finally comes, it will all be about the vote regardless of who voices opposition.

- Dan

op:

 

Awesome! Good news man, keep it up!!!

 

Anyone in Michigan wanna see if this type of thing works?

i love shifting the workload to others, hehehe

-Andy

 

Just curious, what was the mis-information the DOT guy was spouting?

 

The DOT Rep was rather painful to listen to. His primary safety concern on the MT's was based off of a ridiculous set of statistics from a survey done on RHD vehicles in British Columbia and how drivers had difficulty with their vision and seeing out of the vehicles properly (obviously never sat in a mini truck). This set of stats mentioned no inclusion of MT's nor any related accident data on MT's.

From there it was a hodge-podge mess of citing import laws and how the Federal government has no data on MT's because they are imported as Ag vehicles. I should preface this whole by stating that we disclosed this information to the State Senate as we are attempting to allow road use of the MT's through liberal thinking and banning use on Federal Interstate Highways. As he addressed the Chairman, many of the statements he made were inaccurate and based off of old information. The DOT Rep actually unexpectedly came out after the hearing to see the Suzuki we brought with. The most ironic comment, "man...I would have one of those if this passes!" I don't want to get into any more specifics at this point, but just be prepared to combat misinformation and some nonsense if any of you attempt similiar legislation in your state(s).

Keith,

That is not normal - you should've received some type of response from your Senator's office (they all have support staff). Did you contact a State Rep or Senator? That may be the difference. I would re-submit your inquiry and see if you get the same result.

Dan

 

I am wondering if a petition or a web page with a form letter and a digital signature and forwarding to the specified legislator....I've seen this kind of thing for other types of legislation, to create greater exposure and get as many people as possible interested.

If someone one the boards is w/tech savvy enough to create something like that it certainly could help get more people interested.

...or we could all just make signs and stand out by the local wal-mart to get people interested

I am certainly no political activist, but I think it is absolutely ridiculous that U.S. citizens do not have the option of using these remarkably efficient and durable types of transportation , especially given the turbulent state of the economy.

Personally, if these things were street legal, I would own one in very short order and use it as my primary short range transportation.

 

It's funny to watch your posts and see you take digs at all the importers because they bring them in for off road use. From the little bit of importing i've done, they will never be allowed to come in for on road use, get it through your GD head already. How many containers have you imported? How many customs and EPA agents have you dealt with? You always talk like some of these people are holding everyone back when in reality those people you keep slaming are the only ones that are moving mini trucks forward, not backwards. Please for all of us, give it a rest with the on road thing, please

 

Really? Give me the name of ONE importer that is bringing in trucks that are not declared for off road use? I honestly don't care if you give it a rest or not, it's comical to watch you have an anurism about them being imported unspeed limited and for on road use because it's NEVER going to happen.


Waiting on the nameop:

 

Exactly what I thought, not a single person in the states importing them as any thing other than non road vehicles. Just because your state may recognize them doesn't mean that they will ever be classified as an on road vehicle when they are imported, which they NEVER will be.

 

I used www.ipetition.com for my online mini truck petition. It's free and took me about 5 minutes to set up... here's the link to mine if you want to see what it looks like:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mnminitrucks/

 

Bogus bogus booooooooooogus!

Groan. It's bad enough our BC beurocrats are trying to quash RHD for everyone in BC; now they're being quoted by other beurocrats to ruin things for everyone else!

The BC report is itself based on UK stats regarding British truck drivers taking their rigs over to Europe, which is an apples-to-oranges comparison because in that case the key factor is that the driver is used to being the other side of the road not that the vehicle is designed for the other side of the road.

Unlike the British truckers driving in Europe, North Americans who drive minitrucks are still driving on the side of the road they've spent all of their life driving on. So call the DOT on this bogus argument. :frustration:


Robb

 

Thanks for the links, i will have a go at it!

... at least give 'em my two cents worth

 

Wondering if there's been any update on the status of this bill. I recently purchased a Sambar in WI and was going to try several methods of titling it but would prefer it to be as legal as possible.

I have a title from South Dakota but the body type is listed as ATV. WI doesn't title ATVs so they may just overlook this and give me a WI title. Secondly i have a lead on a Subaru Justy with a WI title and if i could swap the engine i was curious if this would count as a kit car with the justy as the base.

 

FWIW the kit car thing is something I've looked into and probably wouldn't work in MN. Which is f-ing stupid because most of the kit cars I've seen are 1000000000000000x less safe than my truck. But whatever.