Canadian Nissan Truck Club

With the new dot safety guidelines coming this summer, it seems that there is more safety blitzes every weekend.

The new guidelines give police hard measurements, where in many cases it was up to the officers judgement.

The key is to not give them an excuse to pull you over in the first place.

In my case, it's no mud flaps, with tires that stick out farther then the fenders.

Im thinking of trying to fab something like the metalcloak fenders.



Not sure on how to mount them tho...

I've thought about doing something similar for years. But the mounting is tough. I was thinking about welding in tabs. But where to find the flares is almost impossible. Nothing like this fits for our trucks.


Sent from my iThingy.

Those don't look too bad. Just a matter of figuring out the mounting. Most likely have to worry about this myself soon with the new BS

I've watched a few you tube how-to videos, and they seem to bolt onto the outside fender sheet metal, but then they use sleeves behind the sheet metal as stand-off's to provide the support. Ie: hit a tree.

I'll have to fab from scratch, but it will give me an excuse to use the tube bender I bought a few years ago that is still in its box...

I've seen trucks with that garden edging stuff for flares. Looks like poop, but keeps you legal, and flexible I guess. Glad my truck already has flares. Hopefully they cover it enough.

Conveyor belt?

If my tires are inside the width of my fenders, but the tires are too far below the fenders for them to do anything is that okay?

Morpheus, as a MTO certified facility do you get an advanced copy of the new regs?

A guy on 519 trucks made this mudflap. A good starting point for ideas.

Yes, I have all the reg's

16. Fender / Mudguard
Item and Method of Inspection:

A mudguard is required surrounding every wheel, where the full width of the tire is not enclosed by a body element, such as a fender.
Reject if:
- fender or mudguard is broken, has insecure mounting, is loose or missing
- fender or mudguard has a hole, tear or opening larger than 100 mm across the longest dimension
- top of the mudguard does not reach up to the top of the tires or a body element
- where the full width of a tire is not enclosed by a body element, such as a fender the mudguard does not extend down at least as far as the wheel’s horizontal centre line
- mudguard does not cover the full width of a tire surrounding the portion of the tire which is not enclosed by a body element or fender
Passenger

English:
If your tires are contained within the coverage of the fender, then no mud flap required

If you tires are not contained within the coverage of the fender, then there must be a mudflap that is securely mounted to the body, and extends down lower than the centre line of the tire.

Solution:
When your tires stick out from your fenders, you have two options that I can see

Option 1) Make a mudflap that conforms to the regulations,
ie: above picture, of there's a guy in OF4WD that made a part that installs in his trailer hitch, and has a rod that has 2 large mudflaps attached to it that he can remove when he gets to the trail

Option 2) Extend your fender out to conform to the rules.

Since both my front and rear tires stick out by about 3" or so, I think the only solution I have is to do a fender extension.

There is another option...get smaller tires...I know, not gonna happen :p

I thought that most of this was going to be enforced during safeties rather than by cops. We are doomed

How are you going to extend your fenders 3" to cover the tire? I might have to do something with the X too, maybe not as drastic but may have to do something.

It is funny that this law is still vague.

...full width of the tire is not enclosed by a body element

Being a devil's advocate or just a pedantic S.O.B., the leading and rear edges of the tire on almost every single vehicle out there are "not enclosed by a body element". So technically, all vehicles are illegal. If they say that it comes down to common sense or the intent of the law then the common sense or the intent should be written into the law.

Then there is the question 'how much is enclosed?'. How far away from the tire is considered 'enclosed'? With jeeps there is a fair gap between the tire and the fender. So can other vehicles follow the same distance as an example?

I think the intent is to minimise spray and debris flying off the tires and hitting other vehicles. Hopefully, if you meet this intent johnny-law is going to leave you alone.

Smaller tires? Don't understand what you are trying to say


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This part is a problem.

- where the full width of a tire is not enclosed by a body element, such as a fender the mudguard does not extend down at least as far as the wheel’s horizontal centre line

So if you don't extend the fender your mudgaurd not only has to be full width, it must be full length.

Snafu wrote:
I thought that most of this was going to be enforced during safeties rather than by cops. We are doomed

As was my understanding too.

The issue is there is still vague terms in the HTA that the roadside officers use, so they will likely fall back on these regulations.

Because if they pull you over, and force you to go to a roadside inspection in one of these safety blitzes, these new rules is what they will be using.

Again, just my opinion.

Yeah I can see that happening. The blitz to get the stats up to brag about how good they are rather truly making things safe.

A little bonkers.

If I get pulled over for an inspection, I am fuggered. There are so many things that they could get me for, mud flaps is the least of my worries. No parking brake, cracked windshield, frame welded together, done well, but not buy a certified welder, trailer ball mount in the hitch while not towing a trailer...

Adam wrote: No parking brake

I drive a jeep... What is this parking brake apparatus you speak of? Ours come broken from the factory. Seriously, I adjust mine every spring for the may24 weekend . It's useless by June.

Adam wrote:trailer ball mount in the hitch while not towing a trailer...

I hear about this being an infraction all the time but have never found anyone who can point me to the HTA section that covers this. Now, if it is blocking/obstructing the view of the license plate, fair enough.

Anyone have an actual HTA section for this??


As an aside I never heard of this being enforced.... kinda like towing mirrors when there's no trailer.

I thought your tires can stick out 2 inches past the fender and be alright.

That was never a written rule.

My buddy here in Qc has garden edging. I'm not at all a fan.

I thought 1" was the unwritten rule...urban myth.

Personally, I wish they would focus more on the HID conversion-idiots than tires sticking out an inch or two unless they are purposely flinging crap...it is amazing how many people do this in their cars...stay in the tracks of the car ahead of you and a lot less crap is flung about unless you are trying to get that tailgater off your @ss.

Garden edging is an option. Not a great one but at least it will get you past the cops and MTO.

Now in this scenario...a truck is pulled over and told to visit MTO for safety due to tires that are not 'enclosed' by a 'body element'. {I am not sure if you have to head straight there or if you have to make an appointment and/or if you are given a ticket} If the owner has time they add garden edging before the MTO visit. MTO says the truck is fine and it is on its way. Or the owner has to head straight to MTO who tells the owner to get it fixed, the edging is added and MTO says the truck is ok. Dollars to doughnuts the edging is coming off soon enough and the process is repeated.

So how effective was the use of time and effort on the part of the cops and MTO? Is it really worth it? What is the deterrent?

It may just come down to how much of an @ss you are driving around to get pulled over and attitude towards the cop.

As Mike noted the new MTO rules may be enforced during the so-called 'safety blitzes'...yes, some of the stops/fines are truly safety related but there are some stops made to pad the results so they can say we made 500 stops and 90% were due to speeding (i.e., even 1 kmph over is speeding and included in the numbers). Something to think about the next time you hear the results on the news

Now to find a tube bender to make a body hugging tube for some rubber fender flares...lol

BTW Mike what are you thinking of doing?