Public Land and Width Limits

Two questions, and answering one is not answering the other

Before a tracked quad goes on federal ground there are two separate things to settle, and an owner who has settled one often believes they have settled both:

• Is this route or area designated for the class of vehicle I am operating, today? On federal land this is answered by a map or an order, not by a statute, and the answer is specific to one unit and one date.
• Is my machine, as it is fitted right now, inside the published width? This is answered by a number in inches and a tape measure. The number is published. The measurement is yours to take.

Federal land managers publish a great deal on the first. On the second they publish the limit and nothing about how it is taken on a machine whose wheels have come off. The agency is the authority on its own land: where this page and a unit’s current map or order disagree, the map or order is right.1

On federal land the rule is designation, not permission

The Forest Service’s travel-management rule does not publish a list of vehicles that may be ridden. It requires the unit to designate, and it names the two axes the designation runs on.

Motor vehicle use on National Forest System roads, on National Forest System trails, and in areas on National Forest System lands shall be designated by vehicle class and, if appropriate, by time of year by the responsible official.36 CFR § 212.51(a), read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26

Vehicle class and time of year. Those two phrases do most of the work: the first is why a width matters, the second is why the date matters. Both are set by the unit, not nationally.

Once a unit has designated and published, the prohibition attaches to the map rather than to a list of machines.

After National Forest System roads, National Forest System trails, and areas on National Forest System lands have been designated pursuant to 36 CFR 212.51 on an administrative unit or a Ranger District of the National Forest System, and these designations have been identified on a motor vehicle use map, it is prohibited to possess or operate a motor vehicle on National Forest System lands in that administrative unit or Ranger District other than in accordance with those designations…36 CFR § 261.13, opening text, read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26. The section continues with nine exempted vehicles and uses, among them aircraft, watercraft, over-snow vehicles and emergency use.

The map that carries those designations is itself a defined term.

Motor vehicle use map: A map reflecting designated roads, trails, and areas on an administrative unit or a Ranger District of the National Forest System.36 CFR § 212.1, read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26

And the Forest Service states the default plainly, in one sentence that is worth more to a rider than any amount of general guidance:

Routes not shown on the MVUM are not open to public motor vehicle travel.US Forest Service, Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) Information and Frequently Asked Questions, read 2026-09-26

So on a unit with a published map, start from the position that a line not on the map is not open to you, and work forwards from there. That is the opposite of how groomed snowmobile trailswork, where a state agency’s published rule is what permits or excludes a machine.

Fifty inches, twice, meaning two different things

The first thing a tracked-quad owner learns about public land is that fifty inches is the number everybody uses. The second thing — which almost nothing published says out loud — is that the same figure appears in the federal regulations describing two different objects.

Here it describes the ground:

Trail: A route 50 inches or less in width or a route over 50 inches wide that is identified and managed as a trail.
Road: A motor vehicle route over 50 inches wide, unless identified and managed as a trail.36 CFR § 212.1, read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26

And here it describes the machine:

The MVUM also displays allowed uses by vehicle class (ex. highway-legal vehicles, vehicles less than 50 inches wide and motorcycles)US Forest Service, Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) Information and Frequently Asked Questions, read 2026-09-26

Two fifties. One is the width of the route and it is what separates a trail from a road in the regulation’s own vocabulary. The other is an example of a width class a map may use for vehicles. An owner who has learned that a given line is “a fifty-inch trail” has learned something about the route’s classification and has not yet learned what vehicle class that particular line is designated for. The two figures coincide often enough that the distinction is easy to lose, and losing it is how a rider ends up confident about a permission nobody published.

One unit’s published classes are written around wheels

MVUM legends are made per unit, so here is one named unit in snow country — the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, which publishes its trail classes as text rather than only inside the map. They read:

Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles 50" or less in Width
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles 65" or less in WidthChequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Motor Vehicle Use Maps, read 2026-09-26

Read that class label with a track system in front of you. It carries two conditions, not one: a width, and the word wheeled. A quad that left the factory on four wheels and is standing on four track assemblies satisfies neither condition automatically — the width is a figure nobody has taken, and whether the machine is a wheeled vehicle as fitted is a question the page does not reach.

The same forest publishes this about the other category a tracked machine might fall into:

Over Snow Vehicles are not authorized to operate off designated routes or operate cross country on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Motor Vehicle Use Maps, read 2026-09-26

And nationally, the Forest Service says which uses its maps leave out — which matters, because the map is the document a rider is told to rely on:

Motor Vehicle Use Maps do not currently show mechanized, non-motorized and over-snow vehicle use.US Forest Service, Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) Information and Frequently Asked Questions, read 2026-09-26

So a tracked quad sits between two published categories. The wheeled-vehicle classes on the map are stated of wheeled vehicles. The over-snow category is governed separately and is not shown on that map at all. No page read on 2026-09-26 says which one an all-terrain vehicle fitted with an aftermarket track system falls into.

That is a question to put to the district office in writing before the trip, not to a ranger at a trailhead afterwards. Ask it narrowly and it gets answered: name the route or area number off the MVUM, say the machine is a registered ATV fitted with an aftermarket rubber-track system, give your measured overall width, and ask which designated class it may be operated under and whether that changes once there is snow on the ground. Keep the reply.

Over-snow vehicle: one definition, two elements

The over-snow category is worth its own section, because the definition is the closest thing in anything read here to a federal statement about tracks — and it is not an answer.

Over-snow vehicle: A motor vehicle that is designed for use over snow and that runs on a track or tracks and/or a ski or skis, while in use over snow.36 CFR § 212.1, read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26

The definition has two elements joined by and. One is about how the machine is built: designed for use over snow. The other is about what it is standing on and what it is standing on it for: runs on a track or tracks and/or a ski or skis, while in use over snow. A quad carrying a track kit over snow plainly meets the second. Whether a machine originally built as a wheeled all-terrain vehicle meets the first — designed for use over snow — is the entire question, and nothing read on this date answers it.

The consequence of the answer is not small, which is why the silence matters. Over-snow vehicles are one of the categories § 212.51(a) exempts from designation under the travel-management subpart, and over-snow use is designated separately:

Over-snow vehicle use on National Forest System roads, on National Forest System trails, and in areas on National Forest System lands shall be designated by the Responsible Official on administrative units or Ranger Districts, or parts of administrative units or Ranger Districts, of the National Forest System where snowfall is adequate for that use to occur, and, if appropriate, shall be designated by class of vehicle and time of year, provided that the following uses are exempted from these decisions:36 CFR § 212.81(a), read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26

Two different designation regimes, two different sets of maps and orders, and the door between them is a definition whose first element nobody has applied in public to an aftermarket track kit. The practical consequence: whichever regime you assume, you are assuming, and the assumption decides which map you should have been reading. Ask the unit which one it puts you under before you plan a route on either.

BLM publishes categories, not widths

The Bureau of Land Management’s structure is different in shape and the same in consequence: the operative decision is made per unit, and the categories are published in the regulations.

Open area — "an area where all types of vehicle use is permitted at all times, anywhere in the area subject to the operating regulations…"
Limited area — "an area restricted at certain times, in certain areas, and/or to certain vehicular use."
Closed area — "an area where off-road vehicle use is prohibited."43 CFR § 8340.0-5, definitions, read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26. Quoted as fragments of the defined terms; the full text of each is at the section.

Limitedis the category that decides most of this. Its definition names three axes of restriction — certain times, certain areas, certain vehicular use — and a width limit or a vehicle-type limit lives inside the third of those, in the unit’s own travel-management decision or a posted order rather than in the regulation. The operating rule itself is short:

The operation of off-road vehicles is permitted on those areas and trails designated as open to off-road vehicle use.
The operation of off-road vehicles is prohibited on those areas and trails closed to off-road vehicle use.43 CFR § 8341.1(a) and (c), read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26

The bureau’s own recreation page adds the instruction a tracked-machine owner should read twice, because it hands the question back to a second layer of rules, state by state:

All off-highway vehicles must comply with State regulations and restrictions. Please make sure to check your State's laws before enjoying OHV routes on public lands.Bureau of Land Management, Off-Highway Vehicle recreation, read 2026-09-26

No width figure appears in any of the BLM sections read. Where a width limit exists on BLM ground it lives in the unit’s travel-management plan or on a posted sign or order — so on BLM land the document to chase is the local plan or the sign at the trailhead, not the regulation.

The published figures, and what each is measured from

Every row is a published figure and the basis its own source gives for it. Read the two columns together: a width with no stated basis cannot be checked against a machine, and the two bases below that are stated precisely both measure from a wheel rim — the part a track system takes off.

Minnesota: rim to rim

Minnesota splits all-terrain vehicles into two classes by width, and publishes the measurement basis in the same breath as the figure — the clearest basis statement of any quoted here.

Class 1 ATVs have a total width 50 inches or less from outside of tire rim to outside of tire rim.
Class 2 ATVs have a total width greater than 50 inches but not more than 65 inches from outside of tire rim to outside of tire rim.Minnesota DNR, OHV definitions, read 2026-09-26

The outer bound of the class as a whole is published the same way:

ATVs have at least three, but no more than six, low-pressure or non-pneumatic tires… with a total dry weight less than 2,000 pounds and a total width from outside of tire rim to outside of tire rim that is 65 inches or less.Minnesota DNR, OHV definitions, read 2026-09-26. The ellipsis is ours and marks text omitted from the middle of the definition; the figures and the basis are unaltered.

The class a machine is in decides which state trails it may use. The thing to carry away here is the basis: outside of tire rim to outside of tire rim. That is a measurement between two specific parts, and on a machine standing on track assemblies those parts are in a box in the garage — so if you are asked for a Class 1 or Class 2 figure, be ready to say which measurement you are quoting.

Wisconsin: rim to rim, exclusive of tires, as originally manufactured

Wisconsin’s statutory definition is the most precisely drawn width quoted here, and the precision is exactly what makes it hard to apply to a converted machine.

a commercially designed and manufactured motor-driven device that has a weight, without fluids, of 900 pounds or less, has a width of not more than 50 inches as measured laterally between the outermost wheel rim on each side of the vehicle, exclusive of tires, mirrors, and accessories that are not essential to the vehicle's basic operation, is equipped with a seat designed to be straddled by the operator, a headlight, and a tail lamp, and travels on 3 or more tires.Wis. Stat. § 340.01(2g), read at the Wisconsin Legislature, 2026-09-26

The agency that registers the machine states the same figure with a different emphasis:

a commercially designed and manufactured motor-driven device which has a net weight of 900 pounds or less, was originally manufactured with a width of 50 inches or lessWisconsin DNR, ATV and UTV registration, read 2026-09-26

Three things in those two quotations are worth separating, and none of them is a conclusion about a tracked machine.

• The basis is between the outermost wheel rim on each side, exclusive of tires. A statutory width can therefore be narrower than the machine physically is, by design, because the part that touches the ground is excluded from the measurement.
• The registration page’s phrase is was originally manufactured with — an origin test, asking what the machine was when it was built rather than what it is now. Neither page says how a conversion interacts with it. Origin tests of the same shape turn up on groomed trails and on registration and permits, so it is worth knowing the phrase when you meet it.
• Neither passage states how the measurement is taken when the wheel rim it measures between is not on the machine. That is the gap, and it is stated as a gap.2

Put the two states beside the two federal figures and the shape of the problem is visible. A registration width defined rim-to-rim exclusive of tires, a class width defined rim-to-rim, a route width that separates trail from road, and a vehicle-class width on a map — four numbers, three measured from things a track system replaces or does not have, all of them published in inches, and several of them fifty.

Measure your own machine, and write down what you measured

The published limit is a hard number. The machine is a physical object. Nobody hands you the second figure: the fitment catalogue carries 0 fields naming a width or an overall dimension across 1389 application rows, so a published application for your machine tells you nothing about how wide it ends up.3 Take the measurement yourself, before you need it, and keep it with the machine.

Same discipline as measuring your own bolt pattern: take it off the hardware, take it twice, and write down what you measured as well as what you got.

What to measure here, given what the sources above actually ask for:

• Overall width across the front pair, outside face to outside face, at the widest point of the assemblies rather than at the track belt. On a track unit the widest point is not necessarily the belt: a frame rail, an idler, a sprocket guard or an anti-rotation arm can stand outboard of it.
• Overall width across the rear pair, separately. Front and rear are not the same assembly and there is no reason to assume one figure covers both. Two numbers, both written down.
• The single widest point on the machine, wherever it turns out to be, and a note of what part it is. That is the figure a physical limit on a trail is about.
• The same measurements on wheels, taken before the swap while you still can. You then hold both figures, which matters because the sources above define width from the wheel rim and a trail limit is about the machine as ridden.
• Rim to rim, if your state defines it that way — and a note of the fact that the rims are off, since that is the honest state of the measurement rather than a number you have estimated.

Take them on level ground with the machine’s weight on the tracks and in the attitude it will be ridden in. Track assemblies pivot, and a figure taken with a wheel in the air is a figure about a machine on a jack. Write the date beside every number, and keep the sheet with the registration rather than in the shed — the moment you need the figure is the moment somebody else is asking for it.

Counted from the published applications, read 2026-09-26. Both manufacturers revise their lists, so re-check a figure before you order against it.

Why the date changes the answer

A tracked quad is a seasonal machine, which puts it on public land in exactly the window when published permissions are most likely to differ from the summer ones. Three mechanisms in the sources above do that work, and they are worth knowing separately because they fail differently.

One: the designation itself can be seasonal. Look again at the phrase in § 212.51(a) quoted at the top — if appropriate, by time of year. The Forest Service states what that looks like in practice:

Some routes or areas may be open only during certain times of the year for various reasons such as to reduce wildlife disturbanceUS Forest Service, Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) Information and Frequently Asked Questions, read 2026-09-26

Those dates are on the map itself rather than in guidance. The Chequamegon-Nicolet pages point readers to a Seasonal and Special Designation Table in the MVUM for the specifics — so the table you need is inside the current map for your unit, and a guidance page will not have it.

Two: a closure can appear after you planned the trip. On BLM land the authority is published and the notice requirements come with it:4

The authorized officer may issue an order to temporarily close or restrict the use of designated public lands, including roads, trails, and waterways, to protect persons, property, public lands, or resources; avoid conflict among public land users; or ensure the privacy of Tribal activities for traditional or cultural use.43 CFR § 8364.1(a), read at the Legal Information Institute, 2026-09-26. The section continues with what each order must contain, including the lands affected, the uses restricted, and the dates the order takes effect and ends.

An order issued under that authority is current and anything written earlier is not, so check for one against the trip date rather than the planning date.

Three: the category itself is written with a use condition in it. The over-snow definition quoted above ends while in use over snow. Whatever the first element of that definition turns out to mean for a converted quad, the second element is expressly about the condition the machine is being used in rather than about the hardware bolted to it. Designation under § 212.81(a) is likewise for units where snowfall is adequate for that use to occur. Read the published text closely and the seasonal question stops being administrative: the words themselves turn on snow being present.

The practical consequence, flatly: the same machine, with the same hardware on it, riding the same line on the ground, may fall under a different published regime in February than in August. The document that decides is the current map or order for that unit, not a national rule. Check the date the map was issued as carefully as you check the line on it.

Where that leaves you

Of the 13 sources read on 2026-09-26, none stated how a published width limit is taken on an all-terrain vehicle fitted with an aftermarket track system, and none stated whether such a machine is treated as an over-snow vehicle, a wheeled vehicle, or neither. Every width figure found was published either as a property of the route or as a property of a vehicle measured from a wheel rim. Two things do follow, and both are actionable:

• On a Forest Service unit with a published map, the map is the operative document and a route not on it is not open to public motor vehicle travel — in the agency’s own words, quoted above. Get the current MVUM for the unit, by name and by date, before anything else.
• Width limits are published as numbers and the basis only sometimes. An owner who can state their own machine’s widest dimension, as fitted, with a date on it, is in a far better position than one holding a manufacturer figure for a kit — which is not published anyway.

What each state publishes about public land

Everything above is federal, and federal land managers are only one of the authorities on any given acre. The state side of the question has been read once per state, on that state’s own page. Below is what each of those 50records holds for public land, in the state’s own terms, with the date it was read.

25 of them published a width figure of some kind. 25 did not, and those say so rather than borrowing a figure from a neighbour or from the federal numbers quoted above — an absence of a published limit is not a limit of zero and it is not permission either. Several of the entries that do publish one publish more than one, because a statutory definition and a named trail are different documents with different numbers, and both are reproduced rather than reduced to a single figure.

Each line is one state’s reading on the date beside it and links the page that quotes and cites it. None of them was derived from another and none of them is a national figure. The two identical figures further up this page are the standing demonstration of why they cannot be: the same digits, measured from different things, are not the same limit.

Other layers of rules on the same ground

Federal designation is one layer. These others govern the same mileage, are not quoted above, and each one can close a route the map shows as open — so check the ones that apply to where you actually ride:

• Your own unit and district.MVUM legends and designations are made per unit; the classes quoted above are the Chequamegon-Nicolet’s and are not a national legend. Read your unit’s own legend and its seasonal and special designation table.
• BLM unit-level documents. Travel-management plans, resource management plans, posted signs and closure orders — where a width limit or a seasonal restriction exists on BLM ground, that is where it is.
• National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife refuges, which govern the same kind of ground under their own rules.
• State park, state forest and state trail rules, including in Minnesota and Wisconsin — the definitions quoted above are registration-class definitions, not trail access.
• County, municipal, borough and tribal rules, any of which can govern mileage that also appears on a federal map.
• Wilderness and other congressional designations, which close ground by designation rather than by an order you could look up as a closure.

Every source, with the date it was read

Follow any of these and check the current text against the quotation above. Regulation text moves slowly; a unit’s map, legend and seasonal table move whenever the unit revises them, and a closure order can appear in a week.

Before you ride: five things in order

1. Measure the machine and write the figures down. Front pair, rear pair, single widest point and what part it is, each dated. Keep the sheet with the registration.
2. Name the unit and the districtthe ground belongs to, then get that unit’s current MVUM and note the date it was issued.
3. Find the route on the map and read its class — and read the seasonal and special designation table on the same map, not a guidance page about it.
4. Ask the district office, in writing, which class a tracked ATV rides under on that route, and whether the answer changes with snow on the ground. Keep the reply.
5. Check for a current closure or restriction order against your trip date, and check the other layers above for the ground you are actually crossing.

Groomed snowmobile trails are a different question with a different answer — their own page — and so is registration class, which is another. Roads and shoulders, ice access and insurance are not covered here at all.