The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk stoped for one tail light?

I drive my truck daily year round as an original.One tail light ,no blinkers,glove on the left hand for signaling in winter.Any of you guys ever pulled over for one tail light or waved back to when your signaling? Ron.

Nope, I think we are covered under what thay call the grandfather clause. also covers seat belts etc. I know at least we are in Michigan

Yes they are not mandatory .Only need one stop tail light as thats the way they came from the factory. Sinse i first started driveing my truck in the late 70s to present i have been puled over a few of times for one light but never ticketed.I do get waved to a lot when makeing a right turn

I enjoy the thumbs up that I get with the old truck,, just makes you feel so good, huh? Fred

i had the same problem with my 61...but it has 2 tailights. got pulled over a couple times before i got it figured out. no tickets though. i did get waved at when i was turning right sometimes.

I have been pulled over several times at night, and when the officer walks up to the truck, he/she usually has figured out that due to it's age, it only has one. Did have one rookie in a neighboring town tell me to put a second light on the back, but that never happened.

I got pulled over for speeding in my 64 and the cop tried to give me a warning for not wearing seatbelts. When I RE-informed him that my truck was a 64 and not a 66 and later, I did get the speeding ticket.
Scott

Well, now you know why they say, "keep your big mouth shut!"

That is a fact! There are a whole lot more folks that talk themselves into a ticket than talk themselves out of one. BTW Brian, I see you're from Owasso OK. There's an old buddy of mine who lives there and is a baby doc in Tulsa. darn fine guy and a hell of a doctor from what I hear. Too bad he's not into old Bolts.

On a semi-related subject,I was stopped once in a '61 F**d 2 door sedan I bought from its original owner,and was told I had to have an outside mirror and one inside,or two outside mirrors. This car came from the factory with no outside mirrors,no radio,rubber floor mats,single speed wipers and (if I remember right) single speed heater fan.six cylinder,3 speed. Pure Base model.I argued that one too-there were no mounting holes in the doors for mirrors.The officer finally agreed that if it made it this far without 'em,it was probably "grandfathered in". Until 1981,the car was driven in the San Francisco area,as thats where the PO lived. I never did put mirrors on that car.
Anybody else have experience with mirror laws?

i dont konw abt anywhere else, but i konw in alabama, everything is grandfathered in. and u can register anything. u other alabamanians, help me out here. u see some scarry stuff on the road.my truck has 2 aftermarket taillights, neither of which work, and 2 aftermarket outside mirrors, neither of which have glass. oh well....

All three of my taillights work. (brakes and blinkers).

I think that they have 12v bulbs in them (cause they're not very darn bright) but they do work.

There used to be two brake lights, but someone (and I don't know who) hit something and broke one off. All I've got is a dangly wire.

I have two mirrors (both are outside).

One of my dad's cousins has an early sixties truck (can't remember the brand) and he got pulled over one time. The conversation went something like this.

Cop: "How come you're not wearing any seat belts?"
Jeff: "Ain't got any."
Cop: [stepping back to examine truck] "How old is thing?
Jeff: OLD.

It was grandfathered in, and the cop let him go. This was right after Michigan made it legal for a cop to pull you over for not wearing your seatbelt.

I never got pulled over for seatbelts but I have lap belts that I installed in my 62 1/2 ton chevy truck. I need to update to shoulder belts if anyone knows a good source that will fit my truck? I did get stopped one night because my license plate light was "too dim"- althought my light had the correct bulb and looked bright to me. Got a warning ticket from the state trooper and never did anything to the light as it met requirements. I also have both inside and outside mirrows and sometimes that isn'enough!!

I'm putting a stock left side taillight on the right side of my '46 1/2 ton so i'll have two. I'll wire them with dual elemement bulbs so they'll work as taillights, break lights, and turn signals.

I'm pretty sure I could coast on the single tail light due to the trucks age, but i'm doing it simply for saftey reasons.. and i've seriously considered installing one of those "third" brake light LED deals in the back of the cab just above the rear window.

As i'll be using the truck as a daily driver, I want to make absolutely sure when tooling down a county road at night that the clown behind me doing 75MPH knows theres a rickety old truck in front of him doing 50MPH.

I'll be upgrading the electrical to 12V, and putting some halogen headlights in. I'll also put dual element bulbs in the front parking lights to act as parking lights and front turn signals.

That will give the truck the outward appearance of being generally stock, but be safer in this modern age of inconsiderate and often in a hurry drivers.

edabbs-
i think that Juliano's has what appears to be universial 3 point harness belts. you can buy retractors and excessories from them, too. i'm prob gonna get some myself. thier website is www. julianos.com

I don't think license plate light are required. The 1996 Pontiac Sunfire GT coupe did not even have one from the factory.

Just remember that in many states you must install turn signals, dual taillights and seat belts if there are any modifications to the original specs.

In Texas only 1 mirror is required either door or inside is ok. 2 Tail lights/stop lights/turn signals are required for 1960 and newer. Tail lights/stop lights have to work if mounted reguardless of year, turn signals do not have to work pre 60. SEATBELTS are not required if pre 60 or not a factory option. However if ANYBODY has ever installed them and made mounts for them they are now required to stay reguardless of year.
I was a Texas State vehicle inspector for 10 years and this came out of my DOT book at the time.
Brad

As with most things automotive, the rules change from state to state. Just from talking to folks over the years, it appears most states say if it is stock it is okay. However, I do believe some states will require a vintage or speciality registration to drive without modern lights and safety equipment. Some of these registrations have limits on the use of the vehicle. I have been stopped in my '50 prior to adding turn signals. The cop did let me go without ticket after explanation. I also know in Oregon, if the equipment is there, it has to be used.
(I have a '64 Lemans convert where seatbelts were optional. As I like to say, this car was from the era of "thrown from the car" where it really meant something.)
Steve O

It was my understanding that in most states the only time you have to wear seatbelts in a pre '66 vehicle is if either they were:

a. factory installed
b. installed aftermarket

And the only time you'd have to have a second taillight working in a pre 60 vehicle is if it was either:

a. factory installed
b. installed aftermarket

So if you just added turn signals and tail lights, you wouldn't have to put in seatbelts, or if you put a seatbelt in an old truck, you weren't required to upgrade EVERYTHING to current DOT specs.

If that was the case, then folks would be getting tickes for all sorts of things.. like not having saftey glass installed.

Commercial vehicles, however seem to have to follow a whole different set of rules.

I haven't ever been pulled over in an old truck for only having one taillight.. but i'd guess if it were dark, and a cop were to come up on you and he was having a slow night, he'd probably pull you over not really noticing that the vehicle was expempt from the two taillight rule untill after he had you stopped.

I got pulled over for having a bouncing headlight beam.
Of course that was on my 49 HD panhead but it was stock and back then the headlight was rubber mounted.
so
The head light beam would tend to bounce up/down if the bike hit a bump.
It turns out (this only happened once) the CHP officer was a motor-cop on the golden gate bridge (SF & Bay Area, Calif.) and used to ride a 49 pan. He just wanted to see my bike.
Oh yeah ... He took back the ticket at the next offramp.

another weird thing about lights. If you have turn signals in texas on motorcycles, then they have to work. But if your bike didn't come with them, or you remove them, then that's ok.

What about in Texas you have to have winshield wipers, but you don't have to have a windshield.

But them wipers better work.

We Texans have Strange laws.
My guess is to the posted topic, The policePERSON (gotta be PC) was a ROOKIE!

Drive safe and keep those police guessin!

Cliff59