Registration of Manitoba snowmobiles with metal licence plates started in 1970 with pairs of 6 x 12" plates expiring on 3-year cycles at 9-30-73 and 9-30-76. In 1976, the Manitoba Snowmobile Act was amended to require application of two large red on white number decals (one on each side of cowling) and a single 5 x 8" non-reflective metal licence plate for 76-79, 79-82 and 82-85. The latter plate was renewed with a black on yellow "85-88" sticker expiring 9-30-88. Number decals were to remain on the sled when sold and owner was to remove and return the plate or transfer to another machine.

Snowmobile dealers had their own plate series (SD prefix) which always appeared on a full-sized plate with the same 3-year renewal cycles as above from 1970-88.

With the growing number of unregulated recreational off road vehicles in the 1980s, the government legislated mandatory registration and liability insurance for ATVs and their dealers through "S.M. 1987-88, c. 64" Off Road Vehicles Act" by October 1988. Snowmobiles and their dealers were required to change their registrations to the new "ORV" system at the same time, ending the era of distinctive snowmobile plates for the time being.

The new Manitoba 5 x 8" black on yellow Off Road Vehicle (ORV) licence plate emerged in 1988 with debossed "91" expiry date lower left, renewed with 3-year "91-94" sticker, a distinctive 1-year sticker in 1995 and finally regular date stickers from 1996-2021.

91	91-94	95	Hi-Signs	Waldale	Reflective	Last refl	Small dies	No boxes	Large dies	2024 suffix

• The initial batch of ORV plates was made by Western Tools in 1987 in the 1A1 to 999K9 range. No letters were omitted; even the letter I was used. Stocks of these plates were finally depleted in 2002.
• The second batch of plates was made in 1988 by Hi-Signs in the ranges 1L1 to 999L9, 1N1 to 999N9 and 1P1 to 999P7. These did not start appearing in use until 1998.
• The third and several subsequent batches were made by Waldale in 1997, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006; the first ones appeared in use in 2000. These painted plates can be found in ranges 1M1 to 999M9, 1R1 to 999R9, 1S1 to 999S9, 1T1 to 999T9, 1U1 to 999U9, 1V1 to 999V9, 1W1 to 999W9 and 1X1 to 999X8.
• The first reflective ORV plates were manufactured in 2007, 2008 and 2009 using ranges 1X9 to 999X9, 1Y1 to 999Y9, 1Z1 to 999Z9 and 1A001 to 6C999. The first ones appeared in 2008 and inventory started running low in 2011. Subsequent orders used letters D, E, F, G, H and up to mid-7J & were generally issued between 2012-17.
• ORV plates had been issued up to high-H series when the new orange Snoman plate debuted in late-2015.
• Things got crazy after late-2017 when a new style yellow ORV plate emerged with smaller Snoman dies and screened "Friendly Manitoba." These plates have been observed in many series including high-7J, all K, 1-6L, 6N, 6P, 6R, 6U and 6W. Yellow ORV plates in the 6U and 6W-series used letters otherwise part of the orange Snoman series, meaning both 6U and 6W-series were omitted from the Snoman plates.
• One variation of the yellow small-die plates emerged with no sticker boxes, screened border and 3M High Definition (HD) sheeting in range 7L through 2M.
• The familiar large Waldale trailer/ORV-sized number/letter dies re-appeared in the early-2020s using most but not all numbers with letters M, N, P and R.
• All M-series plus 1-3N used traditional mounting slots while plates from 4-9N along with all P and R-series (except for 6N/6P/6R) made with new narrower mounting slots.
• After nearly 20 years in second position, the letter was moved to suffix position on new 0123A format plates appearing in 2024.
• Manitoba registers around 35,000 ORVs annually so these plates move quickly.

Snoman pre-2015	Snoman 2015+	Snoman 2021+

Manitoba snowmobilers gain access to the Snoman trail system upon payment of an annual fee. This was denoted by a small annual Snoman trail pass sticker affixed to some yellow ORV plates used on snowmobiles starting in the 1990s. That changed with the new Snoman licence plate which replaced trail pass licence plate stickers effective December 1, 2015. Date stickers were eliminated for all Manitoba licence plate types shortly afterwards in March 2016.

All Snoman plates are highly-visible black on orange to assist law enforcement. Snoman trails are maintained by fees paid from nearly 19,000 sleds annually. Initial plates featured screened "Friendly Manitoba", embossed border with sticker boxes and numbering started at 1S001. Plates have advanced quickly, using S, T and reaching U series by end of riding season in March 2016. The U and V series, with empty sticker boxes were issued in the years that followed. The 6U and 6W series were not used on Snoman plates. Embossed border and sticker boxes were dropped and sheeting changed to HD type starting with 9V series in 2020.

Snowmobile dealers switched to the new ORV dealer series in 1988. Their legacy SD-prefix continued until plate inventory started running out in the late-1990s. Both snowmobile and ORV dealers continued to share the plate series, moving to OR and DL prefixes plus D suffix until 2015. At that time, snowmobile dealers replated out of the white or yellow ORV dealer licence plate series back into their own special series on the new orange Snoman base. The design of these scarce plates is the same as regular Snoman except for the small "DLR" caption and DS-prefix.

ORV dealer #1	ORV dealer #2	ORV dealer #3	ORV dealer #4	ORV dealer #5	ORV dealer #6	ORV dealer #7	Snoman DLR

• The first ORV dealer plates were made by Western Tools in 1987. These plates were unreflective painted black on yellow and produced in the SD101 to SD600 range. Supplies of this 600-plate order lasted until last ones were issued in the mid-1990s.
• The second batch of 399 plates was painted black on white, made by Hi-Signs with numbers SD601-999 in 1993. These poor quality plates first appeared in 1994 and started to run out in 1996.
• The third 500-plate batch was made in 1995 using numbers OR101 through OR500. These were the last Manitoba ORV dealer plates to be made by Hi-Signs
• Batch #4 reverted to the familiar black on yellow ORV colour scheme. Waldale made 499 of these in 1997 using numbers OR501 to OR999.
• The fifth batch of 999 ORV dealer plates was made in 2000 using numbers DL001 through DL999. They were the last ones to feature unreflective background and "ORV" caption.
• The 6th batch of ORV dealer plates was produced in 2009 using numbers 1001D to 2000D. They were the first "DLR"-captioned and reflective ORV dealer plates but the last to include sticker boxes and be fully-embossed. High observations were 1206D in 2019 and 1573D in 2024.
• The 7th version featured screen border and "Friendly Manitoba" on HD sheeting, narrow bolt slots and no sticker boxes. First-spotting 2017D above was poorly photographed by me in March 2024.
• ALL ORV and Snoman dealer bases issued since 1988 remain valid to this day.

This page was prepared by Manny Jacob with most data courtesy Andrew Osborne.

© updated 8-15-25

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