need advise

after months of building my jeep up after a wreck(and about $5000), i just got it back on the road. no more than 50 miles later, i've been given me fist ticket for "altered suspension". my bumpers are sitting at 30" and 31" front to back. the officer said that i am not permitted to have my bumper at more than 22"(basically stock) because my jeep is a passenger vehicle and not a truck. WTF, is see people driving jeeps WAY bigger than mine all the time, not to mention trucks and other suv's. a friend of mine even has an excursion with 44's on it.....now i know his truck is WELL above 22".

my jeep is my daily driver...my livelyhood depends on it. not to mention how much time, money, sweat, and swearing went into building it. and i love it.

does anyone have any experience with this? any legal advise? was this cop just being a dick or am i royaly screwed?

p.s. i know i'm not a member yet, but ALL of my money has been going to school and getting my jeep back on the road. my check will be going out to asap. thanks for you help then, and now.

I dont know about your state but here in the Peoples Republic of Illinois, you can lisence your Jeep ether way as a truck or a passenger vehcle, look in to it their.

yeah, a buddy said something along those lines last night. does anyone know the laws concerning this in virginia?

Check the MidAtlantic jeepers web site.Look for the posts" The Man keeping me down".
Pete,xxxj-va was ticketed for the same thing several weeks ago,and he has been doing some research on the problem.
www.MidAtlanticJeepers.com
Wayne

The 22" in va applies to passenger cars which your cherokee is labeled as, trucks have a higher limit. As Wayne said, check out the Mid-Atlantic Jeepers site, I believe Pete is going to go to court and challenge it.

thanks guys, theres definitely some good info there. but the thread stops on aug. 31 i believe his court date was a few days ago.....i'm very curious about the outcome.

This is interesting...... I wonder if they do inspections of how good of a lift it is or is it only height to the bumper.... I can bet money that there are some tall trucks out there that may be heightwise legal, but.......

Anyways.... glad to be living in the republic of CA

Kejtar

That's interesting. I always thought Cherokees were considered light trucks.

RR3

The laws of every state regarding lifts are different, but I'm pretty sure just about every state has some kind of laws that apply. In most states, they aren't technically "laws," they are administrative regulations adopted pursuant to a law allowing or directing the depatrtment of motor vehicles to adopt rules and regulations.

Some time ago I believe Skorpyo began to research this, but he found it tough going. For example, wherever he got his info on Connecticut, it was wrong. This stuff isn't always easy to find. I got the correct info for Connecticut by writing my state representative, and her office researched it for me.

Our regulation is a maximum lift of 4" above stock (body and suspension combined, which of course doesn't apply to the XJ). I see trucks on the road every day that exceed that. In general, the regs are "enforced" only if you happen to blunder into a random D.O.T./D.M.V. roadside safety check, or of you are involved in an accident, or if you get stopped for speeding and give the arresting officer an excuse to open up the rule book.

However, the fact that a regulation is not widely and uniformly enforced doesn't give you license to violate it, and won't get you very far as a defense in court. But your first step is to get the actual regulation and find out if you were properly cited.

FWIW, there is some reason for these regs. Your bumpers at 30" and 31" are above the height range for the side-impact guard beams in doors. That's a safety issue, whether or not you choose to acknowledge it as such.

Ralph said:

That's interesting. I always thought Cherokees were considered light trucks.

RR3

Click to expand...

whats funny is its actually considered a "station wagon" here in pa only because of the rear hatch. fig that one out

As if the classifications weren't confusing enough already, both of my Cherokees are listed as "SW" under body type on the titles. SW being Station Wagon. But...my insurance company classifies them as SUVs.
The best advice I can give you is to research your state's Motor Vehicle Code as to what's legal and where the Cherokee falls in their classifications.
In Texas, about all we have to deal with is bumper height, headlight, and taillight height minimum and maximum.
Good luck.
JB

In Illinois, again it may be different where you are, An XJ can be either, alon with Blazers, Ramchargers, Broncos, etc. If you can haul people in the back seat you can license it as a car. If it is above a certain GVW it can be licensed as a truck. I even have seen full size extended cab pick ups licensed as cars because of the little back doors, I think that is a push though. I know some roads and streets that say 'no trucks' even applie to pick ups, it mus be a way around that.