Failed NC safety inspection due to beadlocks

kcarroll

kcarroll

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Willow Spring
Getting my YJ back on the road ..... Tags, insurance and inspection.
Got the first two taken care of and was taking the Jeep down to the dealer to get the parking brake recall done and inspection while I am already there. Their tech said DMV has been all over them lately and explicitly instructed not to pass beadlocked wheels. I was real nice and explained the way the law is written and was told "we'll call ya tomorrow after we call DMV in the morning." I can take it somewhere else and get it inspected I am sure, or swap the other set of wheels I have that are regular steel wheels. I asked them to damn well have it in writting tomorrow as to why they don't pass. Anybody else had a problem getting a beadlocked wheel and vehicle to pass inspection? I am running bobby long rings on AR 767s.

Kevin
 
I might be wrong here, but they're probably applying the "rule" that those wheels were modified from "stock" and no longer meet the specs that were submitted to the USDOT for "recognition." As I understand the regulation, the USDOT doesn't "approve" wheels, they just "recognize" them as meeting certain approved minimum engineering, materials, manufacturing, and duty standards. With the beadlock modification, the wheel is no longer the wheel that was submitted for "recognition," and as such, cannot be "accepted" at inspection time.

If the modifier of the wheel were to spend the ridiculous time and humongous money to submit the required documentation and samples of his work to be inspected, have his facilities inspected, and could be seen to meet or exceed the engineering, materials, manufacturing, and duty "standards' for that class of wheel, then there wouldn't be a problem. In other words, it's more like an ISO 9000 kind of thing than it is an actual sample testing thing. It's the liability insurance companies who are driving this "set a standard" thing and we're paying for it, and it's the slack-assed hack jobbers that are creating the problems for the regular guy. It's no longer good enough to have pride and skill in your work.
 
idea

OK, so put some regular wheels & tires on and get it inspected....then go home & change...
 
yeah, no kidding. the dealer?

I did a SOA on a 94 wrangler and removed the rear trac bar and brackets and such and got it ready for the trail. The owner took it in for an inspection and they failed it because it didn't have the factory trac bar on the leaf sprung jeep.

I questioned one of my friends that owns a shop and also does NC inspections and he said that the inspector can fail the vehicle if he/she feels that the vehicle is modified and not "road worthy" or "safe" in the inspectors opinion, regardless if it meets all other required criteria. CJs come with no trac bar in them and pass all the time, why not a wrangler??? I've had no problems with CJs from the same inspector. So, for now on I don't go there anymore and take it to my buddy's shop for now on. Pass everytime...

Rob
 
my buddy does inspections and he said if he wants to get technical... anything that is done to a vehicle opposed from stock is illegal... even if it is just some bling bling chrome wheels... a cop told me the same thing... bs but its the "law"..
 
You can almost always find some back woods service center that will inspect dang near anything. Not always a good thing as far as letting some of those vehicles on the highway, but for technicalities that get us off-roaders in trouble, they're a blessing.
 
Well I didn't go to the dealer specifically to get it inspected, I went to get them to replace the parking brake pedal assembly due to the recall. I figured I would ask about getting it inspected. I knew I needed to get it done. I was asking about my foglights that need new bulbs and to whether or not they would fail it b/c of that. The guy replied they won't be a problem but the beadlocks would fail it. I will take it somewhere else to get it inspected, that's no big deal. Just thought some of you might be interested. I read all the posts on pirate, searched the NCGS and am generally interested in this topic. Anybody gotten a ticket for beadlocks? I am certainly not here crying about failing a freaking inspection.

Kevin
 
I'm with Rich on the subject. I say it's really nothing more than the manufacturer saying they're picking a market segment and using traceable and documented engineering standards, manufacturing processes, etc., and selling a product aimed at the requirements set by the market, and then the USDOT saying that they recognize the processes and the documentation supplied by the manufacturer.

Basically, if I were the inspector, the DOT stamp just tells me that the wheel meets accepted manufacturing and intended duty guidelines under the motor vehicle statutes of the particular state, and if you or someone else has modified the wheel, I have no way as an inspector to say that the wheel is better or worse. According to the inspections regulations, policies, and protocols in that case, I'd have to fail it. If I don't fail it, my inspection license says I take the responsibility for approving something with no traceable documentation to back it, and that opens a big can of worms.

With all that being said, I go along with putting a set of unmodified wheels on it and having it inspected.
 
but, whos to say that the inspection took place with those wheels on there??? I've had tail lights out and gotten the vehicle passes if I promised to get it fixed soon, which I promply did.

Whos to say that my vehicle didn't have lights working when it was inspected except the inspector?? My lights could have gone bad the day after the inspection and your wheels could have been added afterwards...

I think its up to the inspector to pass or fail a vehicle based on his opinion as to whether its "safe" or not regardless if it meets all printed regulations...


It sux, but thats how it is.

The best thing is to get a good relationship with an inspector and you usually won't have much of a problem in the future...
 
Well I got it inspected this afternoon without "knowing" the folks and they just wanted to talk about how "good it looked with those wheels and tires!" Stopped back by the dealer and they said that the DMV folks would like to see them in person inorder to certify. Then the tech went on to explain about how they will write an exception/pass alot of things that the rules say should fail. I think in a week or two I am gonna take my beadlocked spare up there in the back of another vehicle and see what they would say. I will post back up what I find out. It would be nice to have that piece of paper and know 100% I am legal. I don't think most people know the difference with beadlock/streetlocks and if I had lied to the dealer tech, I think none of this would have happened. :flipoff2:
 
I have owned five 5.0's over the last 15 years. I never ran cats or any kind of emissions and they were all basically street driven race cars. I always managed to keep them inspected. Just try not to stand out and most of the time if you don't tell them they won't ask, and if they do ask just BS them. Yeah, it's emissions legal, ect... I've even sent the pregnant wife once to have one inspected. No hassle even with window tint. Now on the other hand, my '72 rig has one more inspection and in 14 months I can scrape the sticker off for good. :smokin: It's not required to have a safety inspection after 35yrs form the build date.
 
Re: Emissions, at least next year it'll be easier to pass w/ the new laws in effect.
 
Next year anything '96 and up gets hooked up to computer, '95 and back is safety inspection only for the "sniffing" counties. Find a friend to hook you up or pay the extra "$20" dollar tip for the sticker, or, register it in SC like I did mine-no inspections in SC-. I've only been pulled twice in 20ys of wheeling, SHP thought my headlights were to high but let me go after a brief chit chat, the other SHP for slinging mud on the road coming out of High Rock lake back in the good ole days, told me to clean my side windows and then let me go.
 
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