Is it illegal to lower the 4x4?

MrGame · Mar 18, 2007

Somebody at my job was telling me about an accident and was saying that it's against the law to lower your car below stock ride height, but almost everyone under 30 in my town has a car that's lowered at least a little bit. Is it really illegal?

DBMSTNG · Mar 18, 2007

no. i'm sure there is probably some minimum ground clearance law, but dropping your car an inch or two isn't going to be illegal.

mustangkid05 · Mar 18, 2007

yea if it is to low. because when i was with my buddy at the street races the cops would bust the ricers for illegal stuff, and i seen a few cops out with tape measurers

BennyBlown2v · Mar 18, 2007

Depends on the state/local law! Go to your local police station or court house or something and ask a clerk for some info.

Mustang5L5 · Mar 18, 2007

It's the bumper heights that define the legality. For cars, they want the front and rear bumpers to be at the same height so that in an accident the bumpers will strike each other and take the impact.

This way the damage is absorbed and minimized.

Now take a car that is slammed and hit it head on with a car at normal height. The slammed car will go under the normal car since it's bumper is lower.

Now imagine that car getting hit head on by a pickup truck. The truck would go right over the hood and enter the passenger cabin.

It's the same reason why lifting trucks is illegal as well.

So yeah, there are legit reasons why certain things are illegal.

MrGame · Mar 18, 2007

Mustang5L5 said:
It's the bumper heights that define the legality. For cars, they want the front and rear bumpers to be at the same height so that in an accident the bumpers will strike each other and take the impact.

This way the damage is absorbed and minimized.

Now take a car that is slammed and hit it head on with a car at normal height. The slammed car will go under the normal car since it's bumper is lower.

Now imagine that car getting hit head on by a pickup truck. The truck would go right over the hood and enter the passenger cabin.

It's the same reason why lifting trucks is illegal as well.

So yeah, there are legit reasons why certain things are illegal.

so what about a 3/4 inch drop from some B-springs? that's all i wanted to do

XxMustang281xX · Mar 18, 2007

yea its technically illegal (in PA anyways), but everyone does it and nobody gets in trouble for it around here.

MrGame · Mar 18, 2007

XxMustang281xX said:
yea its technically illegal (in PA anyways), but everyone does it and nobody gets in trouble for it around here.

will your insurance company give you a hard time if you're in an accident or anything liek that? or do you just fail inspection

tomustang · Mar 18, 2007

XxMustang281xX said:
yea its technically illegal (in PA anyways), but everyone does it and nobody gets in trouble for it around here.

(1) A bumper shall be of at least equivalent
strength and mounting as the original
equipment.
(2) No portion of a bumper may be broken,
torn or protruding to create a hazard.
(3) A bumper may not extend beyond
body line or be longer than original
equipment, whichever is greater.
(4) A wood plank bumper is permitted on
road service truck or wrecker, if
firmly attached to a regular bumper
equivalent steel backing.
(5) Some part of the horizontal bumper
on passenger vehicles shall fall within
16-20 inches above ground level.

You just have to follow the guidelines Ray http://www.dot10.state.pa.us/pdotforms/pub_45/section_e.pdf

tomustang · Mar 18, 2007

MrGame said:
will your insurance company give you a hard time if you're in an accident or anything liek that? or do you just fail inspection

What state are you in? you can't just ask other people in other states and apply the same rules, you can also check your state's inspection guidelines and it should tell you what the requirements are, even though they don't always check ride heights in inspections it could still be illegal

Mustang5L5 · Mar 18, 2007

MrGame said:
so what about a 3/4 inch drop from some B-springs? that's all i wanted to do

Should be fine.

DCjuggalo · Mar 18, 2007

wow i never heard of that. i hope its not illegal in NC. thought we had it bad with the 35% tint law

1FunRide4Jr · Mar 18, 2007

You're talking about lowering a 4x4? That's against man-law 4x4's go up, 4x2's go down.

bigcat · Mar 18, 2007

i had a buddy that lived in washington. he claimed that it is illegal to alter ride height there, but his car was extremely lowered. like others said, check with your local law enforcement.

just remember, what is written in the books is not always enforced. even so, there may be that one time the cop wants to find something to get you for, and this could be the reason.

SaleenGT2001 · Mar 18, 2007

its a load of crap!!

it is also illegal to ride an elephant down main street after 4 pm.

XxMustang281xX · Mar 18, 2007

lmfao^^

Mustang5L5 · Mar 18, 2007

It's also illegal to drive with yout fog/driving lights on during a clear night, but everyone does it.

MrGame · Mar 18, 2007

1FunRide4Jr said:
You're talking about lowering a 4x4? That's against man-law 4x4's go up, 4x2's go down.

the expression on stangnet for lowering a mustang is "lower the 4x4!" look at any pic thread of one that's not lowered and its there

Mustang5L5 · Mar 18, 2007

You'll be fine with the springs you mentioned. Only way i could see it being an issue is if you were driving around scraping your H-pipe and with so much negative camber on your front wheels you could drive on your side. Only then will you grab the attention of inspection personell and/or cops who will ticket you.

I've never seen insurance people go to an accident and measure the ride hight of a car only lowered 1"-2" at most.

The key is subtleness, and a small drop like that won't make a huge impact on the vehicle in an accident or enough to notice. Besides, the Ford springs have Ford part numbers on them anyway, so it would be hard to tell.

Now if you want to spraypaint your taillights black or drive around with blinding HID headlights and get into an accident, you could be found partially responsible.

1FunRide4Jr · Mar 18, 2007

MrGame said:
the expression on stangnet for lowering a mustang is "lower the 4x4!" look at any pic thread of one that's not lowered and its there

Oops Sorry for the n00b-ness. I guess I spent too much time on the F150 forums...

Wait a minute... SWEEET! This means I have 2 4x4's! :SNSign:

Is it illegal to lower the 4x4?

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