Minimum vehical height?

[Flyinfool]

Does anyone know of a document that gives a minimum vehicle ground clearance that the manufacturers must meet.

 

There are some local speed bumps that a lot of people (including me) drag bottom on, they claim that the speed bumps are less than the minimum legal vehicle height, I would like to find out what that dimension is. Preferably a document to reference.

[Gary N.]

I don't know what the law is but for the National Street Rod Association safety inspection, Nothing on the chassis can hang below a line drawn from the bottom edge of a wheel rim to the opposite side wheel rim. The idea is that if you get a flat tire nothing on the chassis will drag the ground.

[SteveP]

You'll have to check the vehicle regulations in your state. In most states, the legislature passes the laws that says a vehicle must comply with certain requirements and sets forth the penalty for failure to comply. There is then a regulatory agency created by statute to draft the actual requirements (the Dept of Transportation in PA). The regulations are generally required to be published. I would think that a quick conversation with a local mechanic would point you in the right direction.

 

Also, here in southeastern PA most local townships & boroughs have ordinances governing the height of speed bumps and the required road markings and signage that must accompany the bump.

[LilBeaver]

Check the current Wisconsin vehicle codes manual. These are available at your local library, probably online, or you could stop at your neighborhood police station and ask them. They are written down, it is just a matter of looking them up.

 

If you have trouble finding it, let me know - I am still pretty good friends with some of Wisconsin's finest, I could put a call in and see for you.

[Flyinfool]

After several hours of digging through the WI vehicle codes and a call to the inspectors that would be inspecting any "homemade" car, the only height requirement in WI is that if you took all of the rubber off of the rims and set the vehicle down on the rims, no part of the vehicle other than the rims would touch the ground.

Their reasoning is that if you have a blowout and the tire disintegrates, a dragging chassis part would force a spin.

What they do during an inspection is to sight across the bottoms of the rims to look for anything hanging down.

 

So there is no magic number.

 

Last night I found out that a bran new 2010 Honda car with dealer plates, tore the front air dam off on this speed bump. Speed was irrelevant since the air dam would be past the bump before the tires encountered the bump. $500+ in damages. Even though the bump is below the legal maximum height, I think it will be getting lowered now.

 

My venture just scrapes on this speed bump, fortunately there is just enough room to squeeze around the edge of it. My truck could care less about any speed bump that a car can climb over.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, it got me pointed in enough of the right direction to find what I needed.

[hig4s]

yeah, I'm pretty sure in most states the max height of speed bumps is higher then the min federal required ground clearance on new cars, and that most states have little or no min required on modified vehicles.

We have pretty much given up on cars, my wife drives a Honda Element 4x4 with larger than stock tires, and I have a 4 door Jeep Wrangler with 32s. Speed bumps are no problem, actually both of us can drive over curbs with no problem and I can drive over thing considerably higher than curbs.