are any of these illegal to have..

[my97mitsGSX]

Are any of these mods illegal to drive on the street with? (Meaning having to worry about cops)

Aftermarket seats w/ 4pt harness
Fuel Cell instead of stock fuel tank

 

[dsm dominator]

i could be mistaken,(i dont know much about us laws, but in canada)
but cops can search your car if they have reason two,

the best thing you could do is ask a cop before you start throwin that stuff in,

a 2 minute phone call, is much better than a 100 dollar inpound fee while they get their "warrant"

and if it does turn out that it is illegal,

paint that shit son!

(o and by the by, hakcenter sorry if the post sounds like a smart ass remark towards you, it wasnt ment to be)

 

[Defiant]

Cops can't investigate your vehicle without a warrant.

Don't look now, but in California all they need is Probable Cause. Which they can decide they have because your car's been "modified". Such as, new tires. If you refuse, you may well get an evening in jail for yourself and your car.

Harnesses are illegal, they're not certified for street use by USDOT. Same for a fuel cell.

It's why they say "For Off-Road Use Only".

But they think it's fine to be forced to have a rocket motor in your face, and another one to mash the baby with.

 

[my97mitsGSX]

only reason why I ask is because I might get stereotyped as a young adult. I see to many rice cars and shit getting pulled over. I on the other hand, like to have my car looking "tuned" but obey laws on the street. I don't street race either. The thing is, i'm building my car and a lot of it is not street legal and I guess its a chance I have to take or just not take that chance

 

[Bjeezy01]

Acualy you can get money for having after market seats with 4pnt harness, and a discount on insurrance. The more safety features a car has, the cheaper insurance has to be, and the government will re-imburs some money that goes towrds safety features, including after market, the only problem my roomate found was they "had to be prof. installed, and had to be an item off there(ok)list" but just for installing seats and the harness he was going to get a check for 233.00 bucks, not including telling his insurance company, which got him $7 bucks off a payment, not much, but it is somthing, but no, there is not 1 single state with a law against aftermarket seats or harnesses(that I know off). I don't know what all is on there list, I know the main ones are Sparco, Racarro, etc. you might wana check on that

 

[frigginlazer]

um.... All I need is for you to be driving your car on a PUBLIC road. If I ask you if I can look through your vehicle and you say no, that is probable cause. You are trying to prevent me from finding something.

as far as seats and harnesses. shouldnt have a problem. heck with my insurance company I actually would get a discount as it is a better type of restraint device.

Fuel cell you might have problems with. Per DOT regs, you cannot have any hazardous material like that in your cabin. if you had it mounted in a trunk, it wouldnt be much of a problem. but in a hatch back.... No go. I cant find my DOT manual that has that little regulaton in it. Baically none of your cars hazardous material may be introduced into the cabin. Any one running a mechanical oil pressure gauge? that is technically not allowed.



Mike

 

[2gdsm_nc]

you have to have a firewall between you and the fuel cell. You cant run fuel lines through the cabin. and if using a fuel cell it has to be mounted to the frame securely. and since it is a uni-body it will have to have a mounting bracket welded up and permanitly installed.

 

[kobykris]

Don't do stuipd shit on the street in the first place, and if you're in a tough situation with a cop be honest and have respect. Their job is picking out liars, cheats, ect... they are very good at it.

 

[frigginlazer]

So I should quit stopping the street racers and go after the real criminals? I hope that is not what you are trying to say. if so that is sad.... So I should go after someone else and not the little punk kids that want to try to be fast and the furious posers by racing on the streets, even though last week I saw what happens after a kid in a WRX slams into a minivan with a family in it after the WRX blew through a red light. Those arent the type of people I should stop?

If I stop you, adn you start givin me an attitude, saying shit like "why are you harrassing me. Why not go after a real criminal". then you are going to get out of your car, and I will ask if I can look through it. Just a routine inspection. You hassle me, Ill hassle you. I am on shift for 12 hours, this gives me something to do. I hav found all sorts of things during these inspections... weed, crack, weapons, Kiddie porn.... All sorts of stuff. If you are still being a jerk I can and will have you pop your hood. Looking for basic things, Nawws being a major one. I cant prove you are using it on the street, but you cant have it installed on a street car.

Probable cause is there to protect me, fellow officers, and John Q. Public. It is not a guick fix for a warrant. It is there so I can ID the John Blackabys in the neighbor hood. JKohn is a guy that I had probable cause to search, but diddnt as he was being a nice guy to me. once I let him return to his car, he pulled a gun and took two shots at me before I could stop him. turns out he had just shot and killed his girlfriend an hour before and thought I was o to him.... If I had execrised a search under probable cause he wouldnt have shot at me, and things would have turned out a LOT better for him.

Basic rule of thumb is DONT BE STUPID ON THE ROADS!! If you dont speed, or drive erraticly, or do something to get pulled over you wont have to worry about anything now will you? If I stop you I am expecting you to try to hurt me. I expect you to have a gun or a knife. I assume you want to kill me for pulling you over. give me lip adn it just gets worse for ou. I will not lose.

Oh and if you tell me no, I will simply tow your car, search it anyway, then make you pay the towing fee as well as the storage fee. adn it wont be for just one day. Go ahead, give me an atttitude.

Jesus, you mad me sound like my dad....

Mike

 

[bhop]

I've never street raced and don't condone it. I think it's stupid. Since I drive a lowered 'quote-unquote' "import car" I do worry sometimes about being profiled, especially because i'm older I really hate being lumped into a group with a negative image.

I'm older than most of the members here, so maybe it's wisdom or something, but I personally have no problem with cops and am glad they're around to take the morons off the streets, and also especially glad if I need them for something. (like when I was the victim of a hit and run recently) For the most part all the times i've been pulled over, the cops have been pretty nice about it. There was this one ticket I got that was obvious profiling BS in which I did nothing wrong, but i'm not going to get into it.. All of the others were just me being dumb and probably deserved, if still unwelcome.

.. hmm.. I guess that was a little off topic... my bad..

 

[TDX]

I work for an angency here in my area and the only thing the police complain about is the fact that the kids driving crazy in heavy traffic. A bunch of them even said they like and appreciate a well modified car that is "done right". What ticks them off is the cars who seem to have just been pulled out of a junk yard all rusty and has a nice shiney exhaust and spinners trying to race up and down the road. Just don't be stupid and attract attention to yourself. If you want to see how fast your car is there are tracks and dyno things for that. Other than that just keep it cool on the road and play need for speed underground

- Patrick :laugh:

 

[MrBentley]

um.... All I need is for you to be driving your car on a PUBLIC road. If I ask you if I can look through your vehicle and you say no, that is probable cause. You are trying to prevent me from finding something.

Wow.. thats all you need? So basically we don't have the right to refuse evethough you say we do. Thats the worst thing iv'e heard ever. Isn't that un-constitutional by way of search and seizures or something?

Its a shame that we have the choice to say no but then you just claim its prbable cause and go threw our stuff anyways. The justice system sucks. Stick to harrassing the people who break the law and stop pulling over someone cuse their car looks modded.

This whole thing seems biased against the non muscle car tuners cuse ls1s, stangs, and bascially all muscle cars can do crap under the hood, leave it sleeper and they wont get pulled yet a Eclipse that has only a fmic will get pulled cuse of the shiny aluminum in the front looks mean. Thats bogus- i say if you pull over cars that look mooded, then start pulling all cars that have the potential to be modded illeagally.... btw good luck with that.

 

[EPSYCHOBOB]

i live in bellflower,ca and right here cops aint worth a sh*t because a couple of incidents happen and we called the cops and it took them 20-25 minutes to get here(wtf),but when im driving and dont need a cop i get pulled over twice ,get my car impounded,and the damn chp tells me to walk home at night in a ghetto part of long beach with my cars indash tv in my hand, so what is up with cops,if you need them there never around,if you dont they pull you over.

p.s. dont take this personal friginlazer, im sure you do a good job(i am not trying to be a dick)

 

[turbotsi92]

Sounds like the police is pretty rough everywhere. The cops around here will pull you over and give you a hard for a modded car just because they are board, but I don't remember anyone going to jail, and 1 out of 50 maybe a ticket. Maybe WV is behind everyone else, but that is one of the advantages of it.

 

[EPSYCHOBOB]

some incident happened where the sheriff had to come to my house about 25min ago http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147665 and asked him about sparcos with 4 point harness and said that they are legal and safer.

hope that helps(in bellflower,ca)

aint that some sh*t exactly 3 hours ago i jynxed myself,read 2 posts up

 

[TDX]

Honestly cops have better stuff to worry about than our modified vehicles. The only thing that gets their attention is if you are acting silly on the road way and you car seems to be a version of frankenstein on the road. Cops will be cops and like they say there wouldn't be no law against something if someone didn't f**** it up.

 

[my97mitsGSX]

I'm probably going to run a nitrous setup, but i'm not going to be driving around with the bottle unless i'm going straight for the track in which i will carry a pass saying what event i'm going to incase i get pulled over for something. If I do run a fuel cell, as much as I would like it in the hatch to make it showy, I probably will end up just leaving it under my car. Or if it is in my hatch, I will make an enclosure that can't be easily removed and will look natural so cops wouldn't notice anything suspicous.

I'm not the person that does 100mph, i'm not the person to swerve in traffic, i'm not the person that runs red lights or races off of them. So I don't think i'll have much of a problem getting pulled over. If I do get pulled over, I instantly turn all the lights on if its dark out, i roll my window down, and keep both hands visible on the door. When he asks for my stuff, I tell him where it is at, and SLOWLY grab my DL/Reg/Ins cards.

The time I got pulled over driving my parents car, I did this because I missed a hidden stop sign, and got pulled over. The cop asked me why I had my hands out the window and I told him, the more comfortable I can make it for you, the more comfortable I am. He then took my stuff and said, I noticed the stop sign was blocked by the trees and i will try to get the town to fix it.. have a nice day.

 

[ryu]

I'm probably going to run a nitrous setup, but i'm not going to be driving around with the bottle unless i'm going straight for the track in which i will carry a pass saying what event i'm going to incase i get pulled over for something. If I do run a fuel cell, as much as I would like it in the hatch to make it showy, I probably will end up just leaving it under my car. Or if it is in my hatch, I will make an enclosure that can't be easily removed and will look natural so cops wouldn't notice anything suspicous.

I'm not the person that does 100mph, i'm not the person to swerve in traffic, i'm not the person that runs red lights or races off of them. So I don't think i'll have much of a problem getting pulled over. If I do get pulled over, I instantly turn all the lights on if its dark out, i roll my window down, and keep both hands visible on the door. When he asks for my stuff, I tell him where it is at, and SLOWLY grab my DL/Reg/Ins cards.

The time I got pulled over driving my parents car, I did this because I missed a hidden stop sign, and got pulled over. The cop asked me why I had my hands out the window and I told him, the more comfortable I can make it for you, the more comfortable I am. He then took my stuff and said, I noticed the stop sign was blocked by the trees and i will try to get the town to fix it.. have a nice day.

... dude your post sounds like it was made by a cop who signed on w/ a diff screen name. i think your freakin paranoid man!
when i lived in arlington, va (i was like 15-16 so give me a break) i was in a car full of drunk people (including the driver)long story short, we ended up racing some other car and took a turn at around 80 mph. we slid sideways and jumped up on to that peice of "island curb?" that separates the two way traffic. well since we were going sideways our front wheels were on the right side of the island and our back was on the left side. basicly it was like we were on a oneway traintrack to a lightpoll (the big ones) we probebly were going like 50 when we hit the pole. so we smashed into it and the car folded in half.i was sitting in behind the driver and after the accident i looked to my left i could see the driver looking at me. car was like this "V" so anyways... we told the girls to run like shet. and the guys stuck together.....anyways.... only the driver was takin to jail. next day i see him, he was all beat to hell!!!! his face was cut up and looked like he had a mango on the side of his face and his ribs were black and blue!!! turns out after he was put in the car, he herd the cops talking about how much of an idiot he was and he told one of the ladies that she was a b*tch or something and the lady pulled him out of the window :laugh: and 4 or 5 cops beat the shit out of him!!!.... they slammed his face into the ground (ofcoarse while handcuffed) and kicked and stompped his ass! not very funny....but still a little funny.... oops....got sooo off topic.... somebody said rough cops so i thought about my story... not saying that this is close to getting pulled over and hassled for nothing..
oh yeah but thats happened to me to tho. one time when i was driving in dc with my friends we got pulled over by the cops and i asked him (because i didnt break any laws) why he pulled me over and he was a total dick. he was like you kids look like your trying to find drugs.... (besides the fact that we were going to my friends house to get a little of the green) i was like what are you talking about i didnt break any laws. he was like dont give me attitude and was like what are you doing here and q'ing my friends while we blocked traffic. he said let me see your l & r so when i opened the glove i had a pack of ciggs inside and when i showed him my id he was like your 17 years old. you shouldnt have those ciggs. :thumbdown anyways he used that as a reason to search my car, and called like 3 other cop cars for back up!! wtf?? then they searched my friends...and anyways... my friends and i ended up w/ 2 cigg charges, "parafanalia"? (pipe) and brass nuckles.
like that cop said above, he was like i work for 12 hours. your giving me something to do. you seem like your just board and want to bust somebody. now i dont know you or the type of work you really do but once when i was walking my friends dog. it got away from me and bit a white guy in the had and (this is no lie) he called the cops and you know who came for this "ragging rich white man"? for a little dog bite. a fire truck, 3 cop cars, 1 cop suv, and a animal containment truck... this is sooo i can understand that you need to bust the real street racers that run red lights (as if thats a race, and it doesnt take a moddifed car to run a red light or run over a person) but i wonder if you do some of what you do, because you feel like it. not because its so dangerous... (i do it so i wouldnt like it but) why dont you ticket jwalkers?? that is really dangerous!! i see people running across busy streets and almost getting ran over! or the "power in numbers" trick. a thick group of people taking their sweet time crossing the street while the light is green for the cars. now im not saying that all cops pull people over for no reason.but.... ok this post has gotten to long, and i dont think it will ever stop so im going for a drive.

 

[ryu]

oh but i would like to say that i am thankfull for cops. they keep the streets "reasonably" (well depends of what part of the city) safe. but my friends and i have had some bad experiances with the law fair or unfair and sometimes i q your intentions or the quality of some of these cops. i guess i should now get ready to be flammed by the cops and "adults" now...

 

[nutshot]

So I should quit stopping the street racers and go after the real criminals? I hope that is not what you are trying to say. if so that is sad.... So I should go after someone else and not the little punk kids that want to try to be fast and the furious posers by racing on the streets, even though last week I saw what happens after a kid in a WRX slams into a minivan with a family in it after the WRX blew through a red light. Those arent the type of people I should stop?

Yes. Please, stop and cite every violator of the law. That is your job, and I will gladly commend you for doing so.

If I stop you, adn you start givin me an attitude, saying shit like "why are you harrassing me. Why not go after a real criminal". then you are going to get out of your car, and I will ask if I can look through it. Just a routine inspection. You hassle me, Ill hassle you. I am on shift for 12 hours, this gives me something to do. I hav found all sorts of things during these inspections... weed, crack, weapons, Kiddie porn.... All sorts of stuff. If you are still being a jerk I can and will have you pop your hood. Looking for basic things, Nawws being a major one. I cant prove you are using it on the street, but you cant have it installed on a street car.

That is NOT your job. I, as a citizen, am not required to "Yassah" and offer handjobs to prevent being harrassed by someone on the end of a 12 hour shift that pulled me over for doing 61 in a 60. You do NOT have probable cause when I throw you some grief for pulling me over.

Probable cause is there to protect me, fellow officers, and John Q. Public. It is not a guick fix for a warrant. It is there so I can ID the John Blackabys in the neighbor hood. JKohn is a guy that I had probable cause to search, but diddnt as he was being a nice guy to me. once I let him return to his car, he pulled a gun and took two shots at me before I could stop him. turns out he had just shot and killed his girlfriend an hour before and thought I was o to him.... If I had execrised a search under probable cause he wouldnt have shot at me, and things would have turned out a LOT better for him.

What reason did he give you to use your right of probable cause? Did you smell blood, gunpowder or drugs? Was he splattered in blood, gunpowder or drugs? Did he comment on having recently killed a loved one?

Basic rule of thumb is DONT BE STUPID ON THE ROADS!! If you dont speed, or drive erraticly, or do something to get pulled over you wont have to worry about anything now will you? If I stop you I am expecting you to try to hurt me. I expect you to have a gun or a knife. I assume you want to kill me for pulling you over. give me lip adn it just gets worse for ou. I will not lose.

I can give you as much lip as I please. You lost when you applied to become a cop. Police officers have the tough job of correcting American's. As our rights stand (citizens), I am free to speak my mind (with limitations on endangering or harming people). If I broke the law, then you are obliged to write the ticket, no matter how well I kiss yer ass.

Oh and if you tell me no, I will simply tow your car, search it anyway, then make you pay the towing fee as well as the storage fee. adn it wont be for just one day. Go ahead, give me an atttitude.

This is why I hate cops. #### you for abusing your power because I don't bow before you!

Jesus, you mad me sound like my dad....

Mike

No, you sound like an asshole.

 

[bigemrich]

I say more power to the police. Grant it, I have never had one be an @$$ to me, but still. They have a dangerous job, more dangerous than anything I will probably ever do. Grant it they signed up for that, but why make it more difficult? The way I look at it is be polite, and the cop probably won't want to stay and mess around. The attitude of either party won't help the situation either way, good or bad. When it boils down to it, the law is a law, and idiot cop or attituded driver, the law still reigns supreme.

--Kyle

 

[ShadowWulf]

I asked a LA County judge in my family, Profiling in California is illegal and in his court anyways, if it was ever brought that far, he would toss the case out the window because proable cause on modded cars in NOT evidence of wrongdoing, nor is it actually technically illegal. Very few mods are actually 100% illegal as defined by the state (nitro being one for obvious reasons).

 

[AmpleEclipse]

I have found that if you dont act stupid then you dont get pulled over. I got a ticket for doing 80 in a 55 (very stupid), and I havent done that since, and remarkably, I havent had a ticket since! Oh, and that was 4 years ago...

 

[NeoStreamGSX]

having bucket seats are not illegal. its the harness that are illegal. they are not retractable like the stock seatbelts. i have 5 point harnesses in my car, and when you're straped in, u cant really see who is next to you cuz ur stuck to your seat... u only have your mirrors for changing lanes and such...about the cop issue...if u have a flashy car, your easy to spot. basically it. I only have high end racing products on my car, but its still considered a rice rocket...

 

[Ethanthegod9]

Ok first to address the post. The seats are fine you can sit on whatever you want. 99% of harnesses are illegal in calli. The deal for the legal ones is you can have up to 4 point. For 5 point and above you MUST have a roll cage. If the car flips you will not be able to move and get your head crushed.

Here is a good place to start for a legal harness

http://www.roadraceengineering.com/eclsafety.htm


Part 2 - COPS
I have had so many tickets, it's not even funny. I have to say that 70% of the time it was my fault. But the other 30% is complete bullsh*t. I have had the most blatant hassling for no reason other then I have a nice car. I have many police friends and I must say most cops are super cool and reasonable people. But that is not who is pulling me over for no good reason, so it gives the appearance that all cops are a-holes. Please don't let these a-holes get away with it. Call their supervisor, desk sergeant, or station manager; tell them to file a complaint, they have to by law. Take them to court, judges don't like a-hole cops any more then we do. If you have to get a lawyer, I would always rather pay $300 to a scum bag lawyer then $250 for the wrongful ticket.

Someone said it and I will say it again - F*ck the Police, coming straight from the underground.