Shipping A Four-Wheel-Drive Truck or SUV to Germany? Make Sure It's LEGAL!

I consider myself someone that does a lot of research about the area we are moving to.  I am not usually surprised by anything.  When we found out we were moving to Germany we searched everything we could about what is allowed or not with our vehicle. Was it too wide for the roads? Gas will be expensive.  Tinted windows were fine, roof racks were fine, we don't have a lift kit or other modifications on our vehicle, and we just purchased new tires to get us through any snow storm Germany wants to throw at us, so we figured we were golden!



Snow tires is one thing Germany is big on. You need snow tires for winter. In some areas you will actually need chains as well.  The tread on our tires was good enough to probably last us a year before we had to get new ones. But, we didn't know what tires would be available here and we didn't want any problems getting the right ones so we ordered in new ones the month before we shipped our Hummer over.  Everything was going to be perfect once our POV actually arrives in March! Heck we even have the first aid kit, reflective vest and triangle already purchased.  That is until yesterday, at the drivers license testing center,when one of the questions was about regulations on how far if any that your tires can extend from your wheel wells.  I think I must have turned pale at that question. I had never heard any regulations about tires anywhere!

I think it needs to be out there and given to service members if they are shipping a vehicle, at government expense, to Germany.  Someone needs to let service members know that if your tires extend beyond the top of the wheel well then it is not legal to drive and won't pass the inspection!  Hopefully this information will get to some of you prior to shipping your 4WD with beastly tires on it.

So, if you live in Texas, Colorado, Kansas or any other western state and have big tires on your truck you will have to either buy smaller tires, or get some wheel well extenders for your vehicle. How I wish I would have known this in the states when you can easily find accessories for four-wheel-drives. Not so much here in Germany.  I will update this post when I find a place that will sell and install extenders.

If your vehicle is modified in any way try to contact the Grafenwoehr inspection station and see if it will pass or not. Then you can make an informed decision on whether or not to ship your vehicle. When I walk back over I will try and get someones business card with an email address on it and post it.  When we talked with the inspectors and showed them pictures of our Hummer and were informed it would not pass they said if that was the only thing wrong then we will get a 30-day temporary pass for it to get it fixed. That was good to know, hopefully we will have extenders lined up before it gets here.

• Grafenwoehr POV Inspection Station. 

Good luck on shipping your 4WD POV!