valid registration needed through Central/South America?

[2foilheads]

We have been reading that in some countries of Central and South America, that 'valid registration' is required to enter. We just bought our Ural used and, due to paper nonsense (long story), we weren't going to re-new our registration before we leave. We have the title, but the registration expired a few months ago. By the way, it's a Nevada registered bike.
Would they really care if a vehicle from overseas had current registration???
We've also read that, among other documents, we would need to bring along our ORIGINAL title. Is that also the case? Of course we'll be making about 20 copies, but we don't really like the idea of bringing along the original.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[markharf]

If (i.e., when) they notice, yes it matters. They rarely notice, in part because your papers are in English and the folks in uniform are often marginally literate even in their own language. If they ask, tell them that's the starting date, the manufacturing date, the date of birth of the issuing officer, or whatever else you can think of.

But....sooner or later, someone will notice, at which time you'll have the opportunity to practice your negotiating skills. As an alternative, there's always the Photoshop option.

The above obviously does not apply if you get popped before crossing the border. In the USA, expired registration can cause you some genuine problems. I'd renew it if I were you. In fact, I did renew, and in 50 or more border crossings it turned out to have been necessary once or twice.

Hope that helps.

Mark

[Mervifwdc]

How does this apply to European vehicles? We (In Ireland) have a tax book (like they have a V5 in the uk) which shows you are the owner, your address, etc. Seperate we have a tax disk which is an annual motor tax fee we pay that gives us a disk the size of a mat (funny that!) to stick on the windscreen.

The tax disk is for 1 year, and in order to renew it, we have to put the vehicles through an inspection. so: once we're abroad for a year after our last inspection, we cannot get a new tax disk without shipping the truck home to be inspected.

Our number plates are different too, once a vehicle is registered in Ireland, it gets a number, and that is it's number for life, even when the vehicle changes hands. So in that way, the number is always valid, even when the tax is out of date.

Any Irish / Europeans have hastle with a registration document request while in North / Central / South America?

Merv.