On March 3rd, 2010, Wisconsin Assembly Bill AB 592, registration of Historic Military Vehicles became Wisconsin Act 135 and was signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle at the State Capitol.
To answer questions about the provisions of the new law, here is a summary that briefly explains the points of the bill. Read the bill for the full legal read.
What is created by the new law:
1) Allow privately owned former military vehicles to be registered and operated in Wisconsin as an item of historic interest.
2) Creates a new license plate only for HMV’s
a. Two per vehicle one front and one rear
3) Any former wheeled military vehicle may be registered
4) Wheeled Armor is allowed
5) One time application, non expiring plates. No future renewal requirements
6) Low cost for new registrations.
a. No fee to re-register from existing Collector plates
b. $5 + $25 = $30 per each new vehicle registration
c. The fee goes back to $5 when the state has collected $11, 800 to cover the development and administrative cost of the new plate
7) No age requirement for US manufactured HMV to qualify (That’s A Biggie)
a. Doesn’t matter and no need to prove if it is a 1935 or a 1975 or a 2005 military truck – it is now considered historic, period.
8) Foreign imported HMV’s must be 25 years old to qualify for registration
a. Federal requirement
9) No weight restriction
10) Municipalities, including Vol. fire departments can continue to operate MV’s under municipal registrations
a. And sell them to collectors when they are done
11) Military trailers that require a license plate will use an HMV plate
12) No mileage limits
13) No annual inspection requirement
14) Must be kept in unmodified original military configuration
15) Original military style markings are encouraged
16) Military motorcycles are included. With smaller size HMV plate
What is prohibited:
1) Vehicle is to be used for events, displays, club activities, parades and is expected to be operated occasionally as part of normal vehicle maintenance.
2) The HMV may not be used for daily transportation or commercial operation.
3) Commercial advertizing or non military paint scheme.
4) Tracked vehicles will not be registered.
What else you need to know:
1) The law becomes effective October 1st, 2010. Don’t try and apply before then.
2) Continue to operate on existing collector plate until the forms and new plates are available after September.
3) The DMV will not send any notice to current owners of HMV’s with collector or regular plates
4) Current owners of HMV’s with collector plates must by law re-apply for the new HMV plate and remove the blue collector plates.
a. Operating with regular or collector plates after the change over will make you subject to a vehicle citation and fine.
5) Application will only be by mail to Madison DMV. Forms will be on line. If you try and go to the local DMV branch, they will mail the documents to Madison anyway.
6) No additional fee for the new plates for vehicles already registered as collector now.
7) The blue collector plates are yours, you keep them. Can be re assigned to your future GTO or Corvette
8) The new plate will be a random number. We could not keep your collector number or have the second vehicle “A” “B” “C” letter scheme for additional vehicles.
9) If your current title has incorrect or incomplete descriptions, the DMV will consider correcting it in the reapplication process. If your Ford GPW has always been incorrectly shown as a Willys Jeep, and you can’t sleep at night, now is the time to correct it.
a. You will have to show some evidence from the manual or reference books to demonstrate how the correct information should read.
10) The application will likely require a photo or two of the actual vehicle to verify it is military and unmodified.
11) The application for registration may require a copy of an illustration from a military TM manual or collector reference book for the DMV to verify it is U.S. military or whatever.
These are simply notes from our review and meetings with the DMV. The Law is the law and overrides any implied instruction shown here. This list is subject to change as the process proceeds. We believe this summary indicates correct information from state of Wisconsin documents at this time.
