Just a cut'n'paste from my facebook, fyi:
I am stunned and numb at the latest turn of events today. As some of you know, early this year I decided to get an adventure trailer to mate with my truck for off-road adventures to enjoy my photography and nature. Early this year I had contacted fellow in New Mexico who runs a south African tour guide company, and who also imports adventure trailers from South Africa into the US. We have spent months working on the custom design of this trailer that I wanted, I even put down a sizable down payment, not to mention the countless phone calls, emails, design changes, and waiting for all of this to come to fruition. It was even prototyped at the Overland Expo show in AZ with great reviews.
Before I even started, and you know where this is leading, I checked transport Canada's web site to see if there would be any problem importing it. The site said that as long as it was under 10,000lbs, had a valid vin & statement of compliance badge it would be fine. I even phoned them, explained the situation, and got a verbal acknowledgment.
This weekend I had planned to drive down to a halfway point near Salt Lake City UT to do a couple of days camping and to pick up my trailer, so I had to get all my paperwork finalized. So I called Transport Canada again, and this time as it turns out, they said that it was inadmissible into Canada because it had a South African SOC badge and not a US one. I was told the rules were designed for "safety purposes." However, if the trailer was older than 15 years old, it would have been just fine to bring back! How is this logical?
So then I thought, since I live so close to the border, I'll just store it across the line in Sumas, WA and pick it up when I want to go camping. So I called ICBC to find out about how I could do this, and I was told that it is illegal for someone with a BC driver's license to tow a trailer with a US plate!! They wouldn't even let me across the border with it, even if I owned it! This is just bureaucratic insanity.
Now my trip is off, they were kind and immediately refunded my down payment, but of course my disappointment is absolutely epic considering all these months of planning. They are looking into the legality of moving the components onto a US-built trailer with a US Statement of Compliance, so perhaps this might be a way.
Typically my beefs with bureaucracy involve large private companies, this is the first time I can recall that I've been screwed by my own government. Time to take action!
I am stunned and numb at the latest turn of events today. As some of you know, early this year I decided to get an adventure trailer to mate with my truck for off-road adventures to enjoy my photography and nature. Early this year I had contacted fellow in New Mexico who runs a south African tour guide company, and who also imports adventure trailers from South Africa into the US. We have spent months working on the custom design of this trailer that I wanted, I even put down a sizable down payment, not to mention the countless phone calls, emails, design changes, and waiting for all of this to come to fruition. It was even prototyped at the Overland Expo show in AZ with great reviews.
Before I even started, and you know where this is leading, I checked transport Canada's web site to see if there would be any problem importing it. The site said that as long as it was under 10,000lbs, had a valid vin & statement of compliance badge it would be fine. I even phoned them, explained the situation, and got a verbal acknowledgment.
This weekend I had planned to drive down to a halfway point near Salt Lake City UT to do a couple of days camping and to pick up my trailer, so I had to get all my paperwork finalized. So I called Transport Canada again, and this time as it turns out, they said that it was inadmissible into Canada because it had a South African SOC badge and not a US one. I was told the rules were designed for "safety purposes." However, if the trailer was older than 15 years old, it would have been just fine to bring back! How is this logical?
So then I thought, since I live so close to the border, I'll just store it across the line in Sumas, WA and pick it up when I want to go camping. So I called ICBC to find out about how I could do this, and I was told that it is illegal for someone with a BC driver's license to tow a trailer with a US plate!! They wouldn't even let me across the border with it, even if I owned it! This is just bureaucratic insanity.
Now my trip is off, they were kind and immediately refunded my down payment, but of course my disappointment is absolutely epic considering all these months of planning. They are looking into the legality of moving the components onto a US-built trailer with a US Statement of Compliance, so perhaps this might be a way.
Typically my beefs with bureaucracy involve large private companies, this is the first time I can recall that I've been screwed by my own government. Time to take action!
