Does anyone know if you are allowed to travel out of the state on temporary plates? I got a new truck 2 weeks ago, and am still on the printed paper dealer plates as the permanent plates haven't arrived yet. We're planning a road trip up through Arkansas, Tennnessee, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Missisippi and Louisiana. Any of those likely to cause problems?
Cheers

Shouldn't do, they're still valid plates, just have to make sure they don't fall apart in the rain, is my experience anyway of driving around New England and seeing other folks with temp plates.

Cheers Bob, I figured that would be the case, but wasn't sure.
EZTag have already managed to ping me for a missed toll (got on the toll road but forgot I hadn't got the tags yet) so I'm already linked to the car in someone's system, but it got me thinking about crossing state lines and the like.

I agree that they are still valid. California does not have external plates. Rather, a special copy of the vehicle fee receipt is taped in the right hand lower corner of the windshield.

If memory serves me correct, the only information on that receipt is the date fees paid and the VIN. It used to be that the annual registration slip had to be on display and visible from the outside of the vehicle! That was abolished a long time ago -- think about an expensive car parked in a parking lot with the vehcile address on display; it was an advertisement that perhaps no one was home!

BTW, the California rules became a topic of discussion last year when Steve Jobs died -- he never displayed license plates. Here is the New York Times article on it. This article confirms my statement about the tag in the windshield.

You really like to test the rules in as many states as possible, don't you?!

In CA it seems no actual license need be displayed if you're waiting for plates. When I got mine the dealer gave me plastic plates which just had the dealer logo on, nothing else. Fortunately it finally disintegrated on the way to the dealer to pick up the real plates! I've seen several other cars with just the anonymous plates too.

The dealer did do that for me, though I thought he said it was unnecessary but useful if I ever got pulled over. I defer to your knowledge and experience on this though!

You may get pulled over though. I've had this happen to me several times (funnily enough in hire cars) when I've had out of state temporary plates. Nothing a quick conversation won't fix though.
It's happened to me 3 times in Louisiana.

I once picked up TX temp plates in East Texas, to pick up a new-to-me car in New Orleans, which I then drove all the way home, going from NOLA to Shreveport and crossed the state line there, so most of the trip was done in Louisiana. Didn't seem to be an issue.

My wife and I drove from Georgia through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska and back to Atlanta, so crossing a total of 15 state lines with temporary Georgia tags which at the time were simply hand written date tags from the dealer with a 30 day expiration without any issues.

It used to be a frequent sight to see hand written TAG APPLIED FOR 'notes' in the rear windows or where the official tag should be, driving around Atlanta not sure how those folks get away with it. I personally saw a car with such a tag for over 4 months as I was returning from work every night.

Georgia has only recently (December 2011) started to require dealers to print off a computerised a temporary tag which have a hologram sticker this tag is now traceable by law enforcement versus the old hand written ones which simply carried an expiration date which was probably fraudulently extended a few times by certain people trying to not pay registration taxes

OK - thanks all. Concensus seems to be there won't be a problem.

And this evening I got a call to tell me the permanent plates are ready to be collected, so will definitely be OK.

Cheers

Daughter once purchased a car in New Jersey; had temp plates; once registered car in NY; got permanent plates.