Jerry,
After putting me through quite a run around, the NY Department of Motor
Vehicles arrived at the following conclusion: Because the smoker is
permanently attached (as in welded) to the frame of the trailer, the
smoker is not a trailer; it is a piece of agricultural equipment. New
York puts it in the same class of thing as a corn roaster. New York
does not require agricultural equipment to have either registration,
inspection or plates. I can load it up with wood and charcoal and a
tool box, as these things are required for the operation of the smoker,
but I can't carry meat in it or anything like suitcases or coolers since
this would be using it as a trailer. I was concerned about taking it
outside the state, but was told that only New Jersey and Connecticut (of
the states in our area) require tags on agricultural equipment, but that
I would be OK even in those states because the law that applies to the
smoker is the law of the state where the towing vehicle is registered.
So, keeping our fingers crossed, a couple of friends and I loaded up the
truck, hitched up the smoker and headed off for a contest in
Pennsylvania. We had no problems, even passing through the bridge and
tunnel plazas around NYC, where anything looking even remotely
suspicious is subject to scrutiny these days.
I hope you'll find this information useful in dealing with anyone else
from the NY area who is interested in one of your smokers. By the way,
if you were to secure the smoker to the trailer with bolts, a person
could register the trailer separately (with minimal bother) although
they would have to remove the tank when the trailer was weighed. With
bolts, the smoker's not agricultural equipment anymore. The law is a
wonderful thing.
Incidentally, we took fifth in chicken and 7th overall in Pennsylvania.
As this was our third competition, we felt fairly pleased. On our way
back from the contest, one of the smoker's bearings started making some
noise, so I'll be taking the wheel off to have a look at replacing it
before our next competition on July 15th, locally. I'll try to get some
pictures of the event.
Yours,
Brian