how to registering a DUKW in PA?

[crazy837]

working on buy a dukw, it runs and drives good but needs alittle work before it will swim. The only problem I can find is that as far as I can tell it has never been titled, and will only have a bill of sale. My question for anyone with an old military truck in PA is how did you go about registering it? and did you go with antique plates or standard plates? Now a question for other dukw owners is do you also have to register them with the boat commission to be legal on the water?

 

[slantflat]

As far as registering it for the road, tell them it is a truck. Because it is. If you tell them it is half boat, it swims, it is anything other than a truck you will create lots of grief for yourself. Because it isn't a boat. It is a truck.

Now, I'm a member of the Amphicar club. Some years ago a member in PA went to take his car out on a lake and almost got arrested. He had proper boat license but there was some clause in some law that said vessels that resembled his car were not allowed. We as a club jumped through many hoops and got a clarification to the law and now Amphicars are allowed on Pennsylvania waterways.

I know you aren't asking about an Amphicar, and I don't know much about the PA law and that doesn't help you, but my point of all this is that Pennsylvania has an odd law about public water that you need to research before you go to the DNR to get water registration. Good luck.

 

[saddamsnightmare]

March 26th, 2014.

Don't know about PA., but in Texas you would need both an FMV or truck license and a boat license, as that is how the laws treat DUKW's down there. Good Luck!

 

[mikey]

"it has never been titled"

That will be a problem in PA. Form MV-38 O can be used for a lost title, if signed and notarized by the title holder, but I'm not sure it's possible to get a title otherwise. PA WILL accept transferable registrations, but bill of sale alone may cause you a serious headache.

 

[eaw46]

Here in Canada it has to have both a road and a marine licence and insurance. Eddy

 

[renovate7]

I can't tell you specifically about PA but can tell you however you go about it to just register it as a TRUCK first. Don't say anything about boat etc. Just tell them it is a 194? GM TRUCK. When that is done, then you will have to register it as a boat, I don't think there is any state that will let you put something that big on the water without registering it. Here in FL I was able to register it as a Horseless Carriage, a vehicle made before 1945, and as an Antique Boat. Both are permanent tags and don't require yearly fees...When I first went in to get it registered in my name, and I had a good NC title for it as a motor vehicle (!), all h*ell broke loose when I said I wanted to also register it as a boat. Took 2 days and several calls to Tallahassee, as well as involving the Tax Collector himself, to get it squared away.

 

[Rustyhood]

Heya ! I'm here in Michigan and just went thru titling and registering our DUKW...it was without title..but the Sec of State did land and water in one visit..good luck !