Yep, some legislator in Michigan want's to ban driving with a trailer hitch (ball) in place when you are not towing. http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billintroduced/House/htm/2012-HIB-5610.htm Well, it's time to install the 3 foot spike then!
Already illegal in a number of states, including MA, VA and PA unless you can show that you are on the way to get a trailer, or have just dropped one off. Balls in bumper hitches tend to block the license plate, and the cops can't read them. For some reason, there's no exception for receiver hitches, even when they don't obscure the plate. Never have seen enforcement, may not be a primary stop reason.
LOL, It's Meeeechigen! We are looking everywhere to find money to fleece the people, I mean keep them in line.. drat, Provide for the officers overtime some how. I'm just gonna put a razor edge on my tailgate and drive with it down.
Probably some stoopid lawmaker walking through a parking lot, skirting between cars smacked his knee. boo hoo. I know the pain of it. I took a trailer hitch in the shin and there is still a divot but it was my own damn fault. Legislation to protect the people from themselves. I think we are trying to legislate darwinism into extinction
Yes...a great example of bureaucratic "thinking"... Obscuring the plate is a violation in every jurisdiction I've lived in that I can remember. So now we need to have a law that forbids something that might obscure it even if it doesn't. Obviously, the only time this violation would be enforced would be when it was not obscuring the plat...since one would think obscuring would be the charge if that was what took place.
I suspect it has more to do with significant damage sustained to tin can cars when they rear end a truck with a trailer hitch instead of hitting a bumper. I also suspect insurance companies are trying to push it to keep down liabilities. A low speed rear end collision against a bumper may keep the value of damage below deductables, but when that blow is focused on a ball which is attached directly to the frame (no shock absorbance) the insurance company has to start paying for some of the repair.
I have a court date coming up for cell phone use while driving - responding to an emergency on a Saturday. I explained the urgency to the cop and asked him if WA law had exceptions. He answered in the negative and later that day, after looking up the law, found that it did exclude cell phone use violations when driving for : "prevention of personal injury or property damage". This is off topic but many officers don't even know the laws that they cite for. I'll win hands down although I just found out that the officer who cited me is my new next door neighbor.
The best way to keep vehicle insurance deductibles down is to do away with vehicles. Ban vehicles. Come on people, sign my petition. Need to protect people from themselves even more these days. When I was a child, not so many years ago, and ate dirt nobody went crazy with concern. Now Timmy's mom / dad / two moms / two dads / guardians / caretaker, freak out like there is no tomorrow. I'm waiting to become a bank robber. The day when brain cells die out for good, I will rob a bank with a dirty kleenex. The world will be mine. Lol.
First I have heard of this nonsense. The only problem I have with my hitch ball is it sets off my audible back-up emergency alarm when I go into reverse. Simple fix - turn that option 'OFF' in the van's computer. Every other vehicle here in Florida sports a hitch ball. It'd be a PITA for old style hitches, not so much for receiver hitches.
Just more government control where there needs to be NONE!! I've thought about using one of these on my truck SUPERBUMPER Hitch Step - Stops Rear End Collision Damage.
Finally the goobermint is gonna protect me from my stupidty! You know how many times I've suffered terrible pain busting my own shins into my own hitch?
How about a sign that obscures the license plate that is held by the hitch receiver in place of a ball? It could advertise that you are compliant with the no-hitch law.
If we stop leaving our receiver hitches in place, then how will people be able to steal them? That's just discriminatory.
Dont these people have something better to do with thier time? IDK, mabey pass a state budget or something? Term limits.....need them bad....
This may be because red light cameras can't catch someone's license plate if the ball is in the way like someone mentioned earlier. Clearly, someone is trying to get the government to make them money on this somehow.
I actually leave the ball on specifically because I want to destroy the front-end of the car of the dumb-ass that rear ends me. Mine may or may not be high enough to hit the radiator but I'd almost wish it was. I've gotten to the point that I don't bark my shins anymore but it took 6 months.
I use the locking reciever pin. If someone steals it, they'll WORK for it! My first car, a 1971 Dodge Polara Brougham (big tank!) trashed the front of a Fiat 128 sedan, when the idiot rammed from behind in broad daylight, at a stop sign - I had brake lights and turn signal on. I think the Fiat knocked some rust off the hitch ball......