[n2dabluebbq]

hey guys and gals, can someone here please help a Quer out? i need a good definition of what constitutes a trailer. if you answer please show a reference to your answer. i know we all have opinions on what we "think" are trailers. but i need a legal description. my wife's military career and our housing is riding on this. please if someone here knows we would definitely appreciate your help.
 i researched(online) the NM MVD site without any success. so any help is greatly appreciated.

[VisionQuest220]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trailer

Main Entry: trail.er
Pronunciation: \ˈtrā-lər\
Function: noun
Date: 1590
1 : one that trails
2 : a trailing plant
3 : a nonautomotive vehicle designed to be hauled by road: as a : a vehicle for transporting something <a boat trailer>; especially : semitrailer 1 b : a vehicle designed to serve wherever parked as a temporary dwelling or place of business c : mobile home
4 a : preview 3 b : a short blank strip of film attached to the end of a reel

[AZWildcat]

I work in the "field" that would know. I'll make a note of it and post it in the am, if nobody has helped by then.

[PAT YOUNG]

GLEN, type in legal dictionary then trailer and see if that helps! Good luck!

[jmcrig]

See if this helps buddy;

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trailer

[n2dabluebbq]

thanks for the help guys. it is so ungodly crazy here right now. i have a guy that is the manager of the housing here trying to evict us because after having prior approval and having the smoker in my fenced in back yard for ten months, he now says it is a trailer. keep in mind that while this smoker is towable, it has no lights,storage,suspension(springs), or a license plate. i had offered to take the coupler off and the tires too. even with that offer, we were told that it would still be considered in his opinion a trailer.
 so after having her commander involved(he says its not a trailer), we are still having this process going forward. the end result would be to move off base which we can't afford, or have her leave the military before we had planned.

[AZSmoke]

Worst case, you could always locate it offbase, storage or with a friend, and bring it in when you plan on using it then take it back off.

If you were to talk to the DMV in NM, I know they would have a definition/requirements as to whether or not it would need to be register, which will more then likely be based off of the weight, length and width.  As an example, there are towable cement mixers that are not required to be registered, it might fit into that category.  If it did require registration, I'm positive it would be a permenant one time registration (I know this is not what you're looking for), but at any rate, they would be able to tell you.  Registration in NM is based on the size and weight of the vehicle/trailer (or at least it was for the 30 years I grew up there), so if it has no percievable impact to the roads they may not require anything.

Sounds like you're up in Alb.?  Down at WSMR they had a pretty large department that handled the on base registration and I thought they had access/link to the NM DMV, I would think that Kirtland would have something similar. 

Hope you're able to figure out a good resolution.

[AzJohnnyC]

My little Brinkmann offset has wheels and a handle to maneuver it around, my Lang is quite a bit heavier, so it has large wheels and a hitch to move it around. Why not cook up some que for them so they can see that it is, in fact, a barbeque. It just needs proportionate wheels and handle to move it around. So you have to move it with a vehicle, so what?

[AZWildcat]

In mind you this is the AZ Statute ONLY, ARS 28-101.54.

"Trailer" means a vehicle that is with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, that is designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and that is constructed so that no part of its weight rests on the towing vehicle. A semitrailer equipped with an auxiliary front axle commonly known as a dolly is deemed to be a trailer. For the purposes of this paragraph, "pole trailer" has the same meaning prescribed in section 28-601.

Just FYI, 28-601 is:

"Pole trailer" means a vehicle that is all of the following:

(a) Without motive power.

(b) Designed to be drawn by another vehicle and attached to the towing vehicle by means of a reach or pole or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing vehicle.

(c) Used ordinarily for transporting long or irregularly shaped loads such as poles, pipes or structural members capable generally of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections.

The bottom line is....your situation is open to interpretation, depending on what the management wants to believe. The way I see it, this may or may not help. The term "designed" may not help, as it probably doesn't matter if it has wheels.

Hope this helps....sorry if it doesn't!

[n2dabluebbq]

Dan,
 thanks for the reply. while most agree that it is a hair splitting issue, we seem to have gotten the thicker part of the hair  . lol
after today's correspondence, things seem to be swaying more in our favor, but time will tell and of course we will keep you and others informed as well. again thank you very much for your assistance.

[toys4dlr]

First off, thanks to your wife for her service to this great country, I truly do appreciate it.  Second, man I love the resolve to keep the smoker, but there has to be options.  Keep the larger one somewhere else and use a smaller "approved" smoker.  I am sure we can find something, but I do wish you the best in this match. 

Keep us posted, but I think a rack of ribs and some pulled pork might be the best defense. 

[sabo]

I am curious just how big this smoker is..and do we have pics. Good Luck

[PAT YOUNG]

Glen, not to make light of your situation but i just love the fact that your last post talks about moving and your spouse quiting job early but nothing about getting rid of the smoker!! Your are an inspiration bro!!

[n2dabluebbq]

well thanks guys we appreciate the thanks for svc(we both serve(d)). she just hit her 22yr mark. as far as moving the smoker or getting rid of it, she would have my butt. the civilian we are dealing with is a real butthead and has been bullying folks for awhile. the way we figure it, we have to stand up to this and make things right or at least give it our best shot.
 we have weighed the options and for us to move offbase would not be feasible(read money or lack thereof). so the only way to afford a move would be for her to retire and have the gov move us back to Texas. i did offer to cut the coupler off and remove the wheels. he said that it would still be a trailer if i did that. he wants us to cut the tongue and axle off, set the smoker on a stand and when we need to move it for comps, we can reassemble it in our garage, and then when we bring it back, we have to cut the tongue and axle back off.
 please note that when we moved onbase last july, the housing office approved this as a smoker and not a trailer. also the smoker is thirteen feet from coupler to firebox door.there is no storage. no suspension, no lights or license plates. to the folks involved(her commander) it is more like bbq equipment.kind of like a log splitter would be. anyway, we will see what happens.

[PAT YOUNG]

No license plates or taillights sounds like a smoker to me! Where does this jerk live?