Crazy idea for you AZ guys... registering a corolla as an OHV? LOL

Ok, so I know I'm going to be shot down... but I'm too old to care anymore:

I got a 2009 corolla for basically the price of a tow ($125 for a AAA membership) from a friend. It's an absolute beater, rusted up, front and rear bumper covers trashed, interior is absolute filth. Given the symptoms I thought for sure the motor was toast - sudden loss of power, overheated. Figured a head gasket in the least for sure - plus the motor has 320K on it. To my utter surprise in diagnosing and repairing it the motor and tranny seem to be completely okay. Block tested it - no head gasket issue. The loss of power turned out to be an ignition coil. AC is shot - needs a new compressor...TONS of little stuff. I figure that if I can fix the AC it would be worth fixing up. The compressor is the clutchless type and after doing some testing it might just be a $45 solenoid.

HOWEVER - I got a sudden crazy idea. I'm into this thing, including cheap chinese ignition coil and tow - a total of $150. At that price it's cheaper than if I were to buy a go-kart. Now is my once in a life time to turn this thing into something truly spectacular and FUN. I was thinking of ripping off the doors, cutting a sun roof into it, removing the trunk hatch and opening it up to the interior and making this like a hill-billy side x side with custom paint job - you know, lightning bolts - the whole nine yards - with some rattle cans.

I was wondering if it's even possible to register this thing as a primarily offroad vehicle... I know it's likely not possible since it wasn't designed as an offroad vehicle from the get go but it's something I'm considering. Throw some offroad tires on it and have fun until she goes.

It might just turn out to be a fun little project for us desert rats in AZ...

**edit: DARN it... I thought this was a general forum at first - this post will probably get deleted since it's not tacoma related but darn it guys - this is the only forum I use... please have mercy.

 

Love it. Do it.
What part of Az you in?

 

It's not old enough for a historic vehicle plate (25 years). That or the Montana plate option seem to be the cheapest choices out here.

 

Surprise

 

Montana plate option - sounds intriguing... never heard of it but I like the sound of it...

 

https://www.hagerty.com/media/marke...the-montana-license-plate-loophole-explained/

 

If it’s truly for off-road, what’s the maximum fine if you’re caught not on a road with it?
The Montana thing sounds great, but seems like you’d get hassled for it anyways since (what I understand) a lot of states are familiar with people doing it to skirt the taxes/registration fees.
I’m not knocking the Montana route, I was tempted to do it myself with a recent vehicle purchase but didn’t want to deal with the hassle it could potentially come with.

 

check out puddin's fab shop on youtube. he 'built'(threw things at it that happened to work) an older corolla with some beefy tires and a moderate lift. goes places even he's surprised about.

i'm all for weird builds. but you're likely probably better off searching out local information on hand-built custom vehicle permitting.

what i'm seeing while googling is that arizona is looking for "vehicles originally manufactured for travel over unimproved terrain"
this is at least what the OHV sticker form says
https://apps.azdot.gov/files/mvd/mvd-forms-lib/96-0572.pdf

the good news is that is a wildly vague term. the bad news is that most reasonable people wouldn't consider the corolla to be within that class. but arguments could be easily made that the corolla is a wildly popular vehicle in developing countries with poorly-implemented roadway systems that are in many cases in far worse conditions than american 'unimproved roads'.


overall, i think it's extremely risky, as it seems subject to interpretation by the person reviewing the annual permit application. more than likely, once the vehicle passes the initial round of permitting, it will get rubber-stamped from then on, but there also appears to be a not-so-insignificant risk that it would fail any scrutinization by a new-and-looking-to-prove-something government employee

 

My understanding is that the OHV plates can be ANY vehicle, but then you are limited to not driving it on the road except for crossings and the like. I could be totally wrong though.