Selling my snow cat across International border

[teamster]

I just got back from selling my 1344 Tucker to 1965 Logger in Bonners Idaho. I'm from Canada
I pulled up to the border crossing between BC and Idaho, with the cat loaded on my own truck.
I spoke nothing but the truth.
When asked about guns, fruits etc, we had 4 peeled oranges and some snap peas to munch on.
When asked where, when and what we were doing, explained going to Bonners to deliver sno cat to the gentlemen that's buying it.
Asked how's he's paying for it, He's paying cash on inspection of cat.
Was then told to park and come in.
Went inside and 4 guys went and inspected truck, trailer and cat.
We were told you can't bring citrus into the US, even tho they came from Florida.
They found some jerky in the truck, when asked about that, It's deer. Can you prove the deer wasn't poached? Nope
The wife stood there and ate as much of the oranges she could, they took the rest.
Then another officer came with his chest all puffed out and told me that what I was doing with my Sno Cat was illegal.
Because I was receiving payment in the US, I was taking away the livelihood of US citizens. I'm a foreigner selling stuff in the US. I bought it in Idaho, 3 years ago.
If my buyer would have send payment to me, in Canada, techniclly I sold it in Canada. That's fine.
I was asked if the buyer could come to the border, walk into Canada, pay me, walk back and take his cat.
I said possibly, but unsure.
The officer left, came back and told me I'm lucky he has a good supervisor, or I'd be going home. GET OUT OF HERE.
When we got in the truck, the wife asked what the hell just happened.
I tried to explain, that it's like we hauled a HOT DOG stand to the US and started selling hot dogs. This would deprive some US citizen from selling his hot dogs.
BUT if we could get the people to send there money up to Canada, for the HOT DOGS, that's alright.
Do your home work before you head across the borders boys, or maybe just TRY not to be honest about things.

 

[Melensdad]

Re: Selling my snow cat across Internatianol border

I bought my Snow Trac from a guy in England. Sold it to a Canadian.

No issues.

But I went walleye fishing in Canada and one of the guys I was driving with was almost not allowed to return to the US despite the fact that he is a US citizen and had a US Passport.

Apparently the US Border Patrol has a couple idiots working along the Canadian border.

 

[pixie]

More than a couple….

I think they think up things to try and set you off.
Canadian custom guy has stood there looking at my New Hampshire liscence plate and holding my US passport and continued to ask me guestions as if I was from New Brunswick.

Glad you escaped

 

[J5 Bombardier]

I have never had an issue when going into the states, but have run into some pretty ignorant Canada customs guards coming back. Sometimes it goes good, their pleasant , you pay your tax on the goods and your on your way. The next time your into a cell phone and car search , then your keys are thrown on the counter and told to go .
Just wonderful, J5 Bombardier

 

[jp11]

Had one guy ask.. How come there's two of you, and three snowmobiles. We said.. Guess you don't snowmobile. it's a SPARE!

 

[topwelder44]

there was a nice pb on here for sale from Canada ----that's funny ----I asked about getting it to the usa -----never got a reply---I did sell my sv252 to a guy in Canada ---- I did get a call from boader control checking all paper work and they let him go home----- lol was it ok to post a pic.

 

[Logger1965]

it's a good thing they let you through or I would have been flat broke at the casino in Bonners Ferry, tried to convince my girlfriend that I could double the money at the table games. Hell by now I would have been hauling the garbage out to pay my bar bill!!!!! Thanks again it's going to have a good life here in the states.

 

[redsqwrl]

Teamster congratulations rehoming your cat.

the Canada/US border is frustrating for sure. I have two recent dealings with cross border cat endeavors to share or commiserate.

I strive to understand the intent or the rule and then merely comply with their rules.
Fruit I feel the intent is to prohibit bugs and parasites from creating a natural disaster.
Border agent do you have any fruit? What they really are asking, do you have and Canada produced fruit. You said yep I have an orange or four.

It took me many years to answer their questions with-in the rules. that silly rule makes sense but the border agents don't ask it right.
I bought in Canada and returned some US created machinery back home.
My funny insight was a bag of mixed trail mix, it had nuts yogurt bits, cran berries, dried fruit and nuts in it. I bought in Canada (along with some cigars and beer and some crazy old amish dried beef that a general store was taunting me with and Grapes) When asked what i was bringing back to the US I said " I have a case of good Canadian beer and road food"
I got the *Whats that* in reference to the cat on the trailer, I gave the *Oh that? surprised look answer* Its a snow cat. where are you going with that? "home". What do you do with that? "Ice fish" then there was this long pause and some radio chatter, I feel that having shut the truck off, removed my sun glasses and sat straight up in the seat with the keys in my hand making a pronounced effort to look him in the eye when I spoke helped me. I was expecting the same pull over there declaration, but the massive amount of cars backing up across the bridge at the Soo must have got them nervous. he asked again in the presence of another agent that came to stare at it, I answered "Ice fish with my father, at 6 MPH...." He handed my receipt back and forgot all about the meat, fruit, and said OK, Have fun with that.......


On another trip, I was asked my the Canadian port agent, purpose of your travel? "*your in the way*" was the wrong thing to say.
I had ferried across to MI,
Drove across the LP of MI.
was crossing into Canada enroute to NY.
On the return trip I was towing a car on a dolly.
the agents remembered me and there I sat (pull over there) trying to explain that I had the tow dolly inside the van when I went into and trough Canada, bought the car in NY, and was returning home, Yes Canada, you were in the WAY,!
I hate chicago, and will do anything to avoid that nightmare of a city.

 

[JimVT]

it's a good thing they let you through or I would have been flat broke at the casino in Bonners Ferry, tried to convince my girlfriend that I could double the money at the table games. Hell by now I would have been hauling the garbage out to pay my bar bill!!!!! Thanks again it's going to have a good life here in the states.

my guess is that they screwed up and made an excuse to let you go ahead.
jim

 

[DAVENET]

I KNEW Pixie, JP or Track Addict would have comments.

We were crossing on sleds ~15 years ago north of Pittsburg, NH. The US side is unmanned, but has a teleconference box so you can talk to the border agent in Beecher Falls. The Canadian side has agents there from 8am - midnight. After a long night of drinking & playing cards we get up and head to Chartierville for lunch. (This was pre-9/11, so not sure how it would go down now)

We go past the US customs house, wrap around a bend in the road and come up to the Canadian house. It's on the R/H side, but the trail crosses the road & goes off to the left. Well, being good & hung over, the leader of the pack proceeds to forget check-in instead focusing on the road crossing & hitting the trail to get to lunch! The other 10-12 of us pull up and the Canadian agents come out asking if 'that guy' was with us (Um, yes sir, he is.) and proceed to flip their shit on us, even though we stopped! Then they start insisting that one or two of US go get him & bring him back! We politely decline and explain that we aren't going to make a bad situation worse by having more people over the boarder w/o checking thru! We assure them that he will realize we aren't behind him any more and will return. We start chatting, they calm down and he finally comes back once he realizes he's riding solo. They jokingly give him the verbal beat down and we are thru in less than 5 minutes.

Coming back to the US side was ALWAYS a show though. The US side was at that time unmanned, so you got to teleconference with an agent in Beecher Falls, VT. Look at the camera, hold your ID up to the camera, smile at the camera, state where you've been and what you did to the camera, offer your first born to the camera. All for an agent sitting in an office 30 miles away. Seriously? The dude smuggling stuff back into the US is walking thru the woods behind this building, not looking at you on a TV monitor.

 

[sleddogracer]

before I brought my 1344 across the border, I was urged to get an agent to help - even though there is no import duty on things made in North America, and even though it had been owned in Canada previously before going back to the US, there were still hoops to jump through - in the end I'm glad I hired the agent - money well spent - the biggest hassle I had getting across the border that day was that I had too much cheese with me - lol

 

[TommyGunn65]

I cross the boarder at Pembina ND on US75 a couple of times a year (usually 4 of us in the pickup) to go waterfowl hunting in the fall or walleye fishing in the summer. We have never had at any time where we we not treated with respect.

On the up,we have to come inside the Canadian customs to register our shotguns and on return to ND to register our birds (not fish). It usually takes less than 10 minutes. Once we had to pull our 12' trailer into a building and it was X-rayed, still that was pretty quick. In fact, I'm going up to lake Winnipeg on Friday for a last shot at ice fishing.

At customs. take off the sunglasses, have your passports and driver licenses ready, roll down the back window in order for the agent to see who is in the back seat, and answer their questions honestly and without hesitation (without sarcasm). It works for us. Maybe we look like harmless grey haired"old farts"

Regards, TOM

 

[Track Addict]

This is the Pittsburg nh border this year. 9/11 changed a lot. Such a pain in the ass now to cross the sled trail wasn't even broken.

Their loss!

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

It's really sad how difficult crossing the US-Canada border has become. It seems rather than a presumption of innocence, they assume you are a terrorist, a drug dealer or are up to some nefarious scheme. (And to be fair, I've found the hassle factor going into Canada to be pretty ridiculous as well.)

I bought my "Keeper" Tucker from forum member BrianF via ebay several years ago. The transaction with Brian was painless, and I was concerned about hours long delays at the border reentering the US. Brian very kindly agreed to meet me at 8 AM on a Saturday morning not far from Vancouver, BC. I loaded the Tucker and when I got to the border I had photocopies of the ebay sale, a signed original bill of sale from Brian and a copy of the wire transfer to Brian. I didn't have any food that I can recall.

It was springtime and there was some mud on the Tucker's tracks. I was asked specifically where I had been in Canada, as they were concerned about the mud and the possibility of bringing in Golden Nemotoads (which are a pest the USDA is trying to keep out). I had been in Canada maybe a total of 90 minutes (which I assume they could confirm via computer). I was completely truthful throughout, and it took no more than ten minutes. I would describe the process as "relatively painless".

I do remember that the Tucker being a US manufactured product being returned to the US made for much simpler paperwork than say a Canadian built Bombardier being imported into the US. In that case there may have been various types of "fees" involved.

 

[jp11]

Being that I fly private jets for a living.. answering their questions truthfully often yields funny looks.

How long were you in Canada? An hour.

They usually will look funny at the passport itself. If they look in the computer, they can see the massive amount of travel, and realize that there's no pattern.

I have a friend who would answer honestly.. and it drove them Nuts.

Where do you work? Columbus OH
Where is your residence? Florida
Where are you going? To my house. In Maine

 

[brianf]

I'm surprised You were allowed to cross if it's less than 21 years old they want epa tags or a bond, even to transport it to buyer you need USA customs clearance, my advise is use broker have all paperwork done so it will be easy at border, clean machine so no mud or debris on it, if it's made in USA or Canada it is no problem going south or north but do your homework Will make day go a lot easier and go to commercial truck crossing they are way more knowledgeable

 

[sleddogracer]

I'm surprised You were allowed to cross if it's less than 21 years old they want epa tags or a bond, even to transport it to buyer you need USA customs clearance, my advise is use broker have all paperwork done so it will be easy at border, clean machine so no mud or debris on it, if it's made in USA or Canada it is no problem going south or north but do your homework Will make day go a lot easier and go to commercial truck crossing they are way more knowledgeable

I had the broker in place when I got mine - that was a big help - I also had it hauled across the border by a trucker who made part of his living transporting vehicles etc across the border - that was also a big help - I pretty much sat back, described what I wanted to happen, and let the experts do their thing

 

[sno-drifter]

When we came back into the US with a Tucker in parts in an enclosed trailer, there was a 6'3" tall lady with a Glock on her hip to greet us. Of course I was in the wrong lane but she was so excited about the orange GMC Carryall that there was no static. Of course she wanted to look in the trailer and thought that the machine was fantastic. Old trucks and grey hair worked. We had to take two ferries each way out of Vancouver BC.

 

[redsqwrl]

I sense a growing theme of *use a broker* I agree that if you want a low to no hassle exchange at the border that is a great way to go $$

I have only bought one machine in Canada.
I have only sold one machine to Canada.
I have hauled 4 items through Canada
But I found the border web site very confusing at first glance, but also very helpful and concise after spending a little time reading it. like a muddy puddle the water cleared when I quit kicking it.

I would encourage the resourceful folks here on this forum to empower your self with knowledge, and follow the rules as they are intended. Don't let the silly-ness of our stories scare you out of the experience.

personal use differs from professional or commercial use. if the border personnel think you are a commercial endeavor, they will treat you accordingly.

This machine was over width and went through Canada, as well as a 80 mile car ferry and two State patrol weigh stations. Like JP said, where you headed, "home" purpose of your travel " your in the way"
BTW
(intoxicated snowmobile operators just makes me smile, what?! who would drink while operating a snow-machine )
$.02

 

[undy]

like a muddy puddle the water cleared when I quit kicking it.

Good one!

 

[teamster]

I would not hesitate to buy or sell another cat for one second, across the border, either way. But I would make a phone call to the border, I was going to cross and when I got there I would have my little binder full of every piece of paper they required, and I'm sure it wouldn't take many minutes to get across. Information direct from the true source is really worth the time, do your homework it makes things much simpler.

 

[redsqwrl]

I stumbled across the photos of my trip.

these forums are better with photos. right?


the load

the stop for the amish beef and fruit

the path home

the gate to the U.P of MI.

the photos of the spun bearing and the effort to repair the spindle is worthy of its own thread.......