Buying a Travel Trailer in Texas When You Live in Another State

Since July 1, 2025, Texas dealers hand out metal plates at the sale instead of paper temporary tags. For a buyer from another state, TxDMV’s House Bill 718 page lists an Out-of-State Buyer Plate: issued by Texas dealers when they sell to non-Texas buyers, valid for 60 days, and displayed on the rear of the vehicle.

Buying from a private seller works differently, because the seller can take their plates with them:

• The Vehicle Transit Permit does not cover a trailer. TxDMV limits it to passenger vehicles of 6,000 pounds or less and light trucks of 10,000 pounds gross or less.
• A One-Trip Temporary Registration License Plate does. TxDMV’s temporary registration page lists a travel trailer (a house trailer-type vehicle of 400 square feet or less) as eligible. It is good for one trip, valid 15 calendar days, the trip has to start or end in Texas, and you get it at a county tax office or a TxDMV Regional Service Center. It cannot be issued to a junk, salvage or nonrepairable vehicle.

TxDMV adds that a temporary permit or plate may only authorize driving in Texas, so check with your home state and any state you cross before you leave.

The Texas Comptroller says a person who buys a motor vehicle in Texas owes motor vehicle sales tax, and its FAQ shows trailers are taxed under it unless they qualify for the farm exemption. A buyer taking the trailer home has an exemption to claim instead:

• Form 14-312, the Texas Motor Vehicle Sales Tax Exemption Certificate for Vehicles Taken Out of State. You claim it because the vehicle is being taken out of Texas before any use here other than the trip out, for use only outside Texas.
• You give the signed certificate to the seller, who keeps it. It is not sent to the Comptroller.
• If you register the vehicle in Texas, the exemption is presumed invalid, and you can owe the tax.
• By signing, you let the Comptroller share a copy with the state where the vehicle will be titled and registered.

The form also warns that signing it while knowing the vehicle will be used another way is a criminal offense. If you are moving to Texas or keeping the trailer here, this exemption is not for you.

Title, registration and any tax your state charges happen at home, by your state’s rules. We do not state those rules here. Ask your own motor vehicle agency what it needs from a Texas seller before you drive down:

• Oklahoma: Service Oklahoma
• Louisiana: Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles
• Arkansas: Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Motor Vehicle

Two Texas details are worth taking to that conversation. A Texas trailer of 4,000 pounds gross weight or less may never have been titled; for a used one, TxDMV’s trailers page lists a bill of sale plus the registration receipt as proof of ownership. And on a private sale, TxDMV suggests running the VIN through Title Check, which draws on title records from states across the country, before any money changes hands.

Sales tax, title and registration depend on where you register the RV, so tell us where that is when you call. Out-of-state buyers usually handle tax and registration with their home state, and we handle the Texas paperwork that makes that work.

Call before you drive so we can confirm the unit is still here. Bring your driver’s license or state ID and the truck you are towing with, and we will get you hitched, lights checked, and pointed home. Drive times from Oklahoma City, Shreveport, Little Rock and Amarillo are on the out-of-state buyers page, the day itself is in how buying an RV works, and the Texas side of the paperwork is in Texas title and registration.

Checked October 9, 2026. If this page and the state ever disagree, the state is right.

• TxDMV: House Bill 718 Implementation (metal plates, including the Out-of-State Buyer Plate)
• TxDMV: Temporary Registration (One-Trip and 30-Day plates, Vehicle Transit Permit)
• TxDMV: Buying or Selling a Vehicle
• TxDMV: Trailers
• TxDMV: Title Check, Look Before You Buy
• Texas Comptroller: Motor Vehicle Sales and Use Tax
• Texas Comptroller: Motor Vehicle Taxes FAQs
• Texas Comptroller: Form 14-312, Motor Vehicle Sales Tax Exemption Certificate for Vehicles Taken Out of State (PDF)