I was stopped by a policeman today and gave two warnings for expired inspection sticker and not displaying license plate on boat trailer. I told him that I do not have to have a tag on trailer because the boat/motor/trailer is registered in OK. The reason I haven't registered the boat/motor/trailer yet is because everything is still good till June 2010. I bought the boat from my Dad in OK. He said "wrong"! If the boat is being operated in the state of Texas w/o a proper display of trailer registration, you are breaking the law. So, I asked him so if a fellow is from OK hauling his boat through TX, he could still get a ticket? He said yes. That is not true IMO. I had the OK trailer registration paperwork in glove box (good till June 2010) but he didn't even want to see it and asked me that if I wanted to argue about it he would write me two tickets and we could argue in court.
I just shut up and thankfully got my warnings and got the heck outta there. I got my truck inspection later this afternoon and was wondering if anyone on here could shed light on what the law really states. Thanks in advance for your input.

Okie

My opion is that if you a resident of Texas with a TDL, you do not have a foot to stand on. It is like moving to the state and having 30 days or so to register your vehicles. Just my $.02 cents worth.

Hawg Dawg is correct...

30 days is correct. Back in the early 80s when we had all of the immigrants from up north the Plano police use to drive through apartment complexes and write tickets. They would look for vehicles with out of state plates and record the date. Then they would come back in 30 days. It was easy money. If you have a TX DL then you need to register it in TX.

Yep, you got 30 days to title the boat/motor/trailer in your name. Boat & motor at TPWD and the trailer at TxDot.

TP&W allows 90 days.

Link

Sounds like a Pilot Point Cop. They don't miss a thing.