Billski and Heavy Pants Big Adventure!

(This is the "short" version BELIEVE IT OR NOT!) After numerous messages back and forth. I want to sell my wheels and tires and Heavy Pants wants to buy them. He's in Toronto, Canada and I'm an hour from Detroit, Michigan - about 5 hours apart. I agree to meet him in Windsor, Canada to save him some time. I check with Border Services and they say you can bring wheels and tires across but you have to pay tax. I can deal with that. After getting the third degree from the border guard I FINALLY get to Customs to pay the tax only to find out you can't bring in "used" tires - no exception. I call Heavy Pants who is minutes from meeting up with me. I get sent back to the US while he and I work on options. Jump ahead two hours. I find a place to break down the wheels and tires and an ready to return to Canada. In the meantime, Heavy Pants accidentally gets in the wrong lane at the border and crosses into the US. He crosses back into Canada and gets the third degree because of his short trip to the US and they end up searching his vehicle. Once again I FINALLY get to customs, brief vehicle search, pay the tax and go to meet Heavy. He's at McDonald's, waiting inside, with the keys locked in his vehicle. We, with no damage done, break into his vehicle, make the exchange, talk for a little while, and head off to our respective homes. Now I have to cross the border AGAIN and once again get the third degree because of my short trip to Canada. I make my way back to the tire store (had to leave my tires there while I went across the border) and pick up my tires. (By the way, I thinks that tire store must also sell medical marijuana cuz I got a contact buzz just spending time there.) So this trip that I figured should have been about 2 1/2 hours ended up being about 5 hours for me and many more for Heavy. So now I'm home with a set of tires and Heavy is home with a set of wheels. Mission Somewhat Accomplished. What a day. And by the way...Heavy seems like a great guy and I told him all about Baker's in June so some of you other Canadians should convince him to come with you guys. And they all lived hapily ever after! THE END!

Glad to know our Border folks are hard at work.Y'alls luck sounds about like mine,I'd never make it as a smuggler either.Haaaa!
Shame one of ya did'nt have a junk set of wheels/tires and do a four wheel swap in a parking lot somewhere.

Great story and sounds like quite the adventure, and a lesson to us all about the ins and outs of the Canada/US border. Thanks for shareing.
Kakster

Oh man, I feel your pain! Those border guys can be a PAIN!

I travelled from Canada to Carlisle with a van full of Mopar parts. The US guard almost didn't let me in, saying I wasn't allowed to bring all that across. He suggested I return with none of it. So at Carlisle I had a $1.00 sign near the end of the day and sold everything........BUT......my friends here in Ottawa ended up buying half my stuff so I had to bring it back for them in my van!

I got the third degree at the border but managed to weasle my way out of it, phew!

Spare parts right, just in case?

With the number trips you two made across the border you could have left a spare each time. Think they would catch on?

Believe me, Heavy and I were trying to think of anything possible to solve our problem. Last thing I wanted was another border crossing and the possibility of a "cavity search"! The only cavities I want checked are in the dentist chair! The next time I go to Canada will be for the "Windsor Ballet"! LOL!

My brother was taking electronic stuff accross he border for a Canadian customer. They wanted to charge him some excessive tax on commercial electronics. Anyway, he explained to him that was no problem because it was a cost plus contract and the tax would be marked up to the Candadian customer, a gov't contractor, and in effect Canada would pay it's own tax plus the markup plus the 2 hours of time inspection/negotiation at the border. Hence, Canadian citizens, including the Border Guard would be paying for everything. The guard came back with a much smaller tax rate. This was years ago yet I guess even taxes are negotiable at the border. Sounds more like Mexico to me. Discovering Canada, like most gov'ts, are just shake down artists, about $5,000. Finding a "clerk" who could negotiate, priceless.

Glad it all got resloved! Reminds me of a border crossing. I had an old core 318 in the back of my truck for months. Worth 50 bucks at most.
I drove down into Mexico, and the border guys wanted to charge me to bring it across! After going back and forth, with me explaining that I would rather push it out the back and leave it there rather than pay a penny to keep it in the truck, they finally relented and let me cross with my "valuable" cargo.

I had to send a set of bumpers JKR of this site. Well I thought it would be easier to send them from Canada, so, (I live on the US/CA border in East China Mi.) So I put them under a big box in the back of my truck. I get to the Ca. side on the ferry and pull up to customs. At first she didn't see the bumpers but eventually saw them. She asked me: what are these? I said "bumpers for my truck". She walked around the 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee and said: You don't need bumpers on this truck! I stumbled around about how I lived near the ferry and just "forgot" to take them out of the Jeep before I was going to work on my boat. (We store it in Ca. for the winter) She had a few trucks backing things up so she just scolded me about taking stuff into her country. But alls well that ends well. I shipped them in Ca. to C. with a lot less cost and hassle!

Glad to see you guys made out of all that mess and everything's ok. Yeah... the Canadian/US border for customs can be a pain sometimes when I'd bring some parts for my old van or car. Years ago, I brought a '69 Charger car as a rolling shell (no engine) from Washington State. With my old car towing it and when i arrived to Canadian border. The customs officer saw me towing that car, he told me to go into custom office to fill out some forms. So I did.

In the office, I told the desk clerk that I'm towing only a rolling car body with no engine or interior - I brought it for parts. He wanted to see the car outside and we went out to look in it. Took only 5 mins for him to notice the car and said to me , " is that the car?" then he looked inside and said that's it done. Back to the office and said I didn't have to pay any duty fees! He stamped the forms to delcare I'm clear to go with the car.

Another time, I brought a '66 A100 van from the same state. I took a bus south and paid the guy for the van. As it's in good running and the guy toss in his license plate still good for another month! He signed the resignation papers over to my name. I'm good for temporary insurance as long i go striaght to my home to change plates there.

At the border, as I drove in my van. I explained to customs that I brought this van. Again I was told to go to the office. The desk officer did the same thing - went out to see the van and inspect around and inside. I ended up paid $50 on duty fees then I was clear to go.

These were all over many years ago ... now I don't know what it's like but I'm still game to bring more parts!

nice to meet other vanners in these trades but for that distance and a customs interuption, i think i would just paid the shipping costs.....Still, nothing like a good road trip story.