im about to move from Tampa, FL to Seattle WA and wondering if there is a mudflap law for lifted vehicles. I currently have a Cherokee with 6.5' lift and dodge ram 2500 with 4' lift and a tundra with a leveling kit. I plan to keep FL tags as long as i can since Iam military. Can anyone help me out how they are about lifted trucks please? thanks

 

Heres the best link I know of,
http://www.wsp.wa.gov/traveler/passequip.htm

Technically yes you must be legal but most cops around the Tacoma/Parkland/Lakewood have a soft spot for Jeeps and military in general. However there is always that one hardass out there...

 

http://www.liftlaws.com/

 

Legally you will need them. But in 22 years of driving lifted rigs I've only ever gotten one warning for not having them, and I was stopped for speeding. Don't drive like a douche and if you get stopped make their job as easy as you can and you'll find "most" police in the area can be pretty lenient.

 

have driven mine with no flaps along most of the i5 corridor for months now, with my entire tire visible from the rear.. haven't had a single cop say a thing about it, nor have they said anything about me driving around doorless. have gotten more than a few waves and thumbs up from them tho

 

I suggest going by the letter of the law if you want to be sure. However, having lived 40 of my 45 years in various parts of Washington state and having been active duty military for 24 of it, There is only one area I know of where the cops are **** Stormtroopers about lifted rigs. As the guys have said the police in this state will turn a blind eye toward lifted rigs that aren't 100% legal and aren't a grossly obvious safety hazard by the law if you are driving safely and not drawing attention to your rig by driving like a DB. The one area is Whidbey Island where the cops are DHs about lifted rigs. If your rig is lifted more than say a leveling kit, they will be on you like stink on...well, you know, about mud flaps and fender flares. It's very frustrating when I go wheeling with guys from all over the state of Washington who have their XJs wheel wells cut out, no flares and tires sticking out waaaay past the fender and drive them in their local areas on the street like that all the time. Now, I'm not saying I promote unsafe non street legal rigs on the road. If its really obvious that your very aggressive tread off road tires are sticking waaaay out and you drive said rig daily on the road then I believe it should have correct fender flares and mud flaps. Right now I don't plan on putting fender flares on the XJ I am building. it will have removeable mud flaps because I like to drive my Jeep to the trail unless it's a long haul to where I'm going wheeling. As a child I was in a vehicle following a log truck once that threw a huge rock out of its duals and shattered the windshield in my moms car. Very Scarey!!! Welcome to Washington BTW and sorry for my rant...LOL. It just frstrates me when they write a law and the police in each local area can decide how strongly or not to enforce it. Again, though, the short answer to your question is you can get away with driving a lifted rig with big tires that are stick out 1-1.5" past the flares without getting hasseled. I do suggest having mud flaps on all of your lifted rigs being that you are headed for the Seattle area. I look forward to wheeling with you, too. ODGreen and myself BuckB91XJ (Brian) are the local area CF Moderators. If you have a question about wheeling the local area or lift laws we will get the answer for you.

 

Long story short.... Anything center of the axle and up needs to be covered.... As soon as it's exposed, mud flaps! Mudflaps only need to drop down to the center of your axle tho, but beware sometimes a cop will pull out a tape measure and check. Secondly, Washington has a fair weather law. Sunny skies, dry roads, no mud flaps neccessary ( this applies to fender flares too ). This allows people with hobby vehicles and rat rods to cruise around legally. Even if its against the law, as with any state, it's always at the discretion of the officer in that area.

 

I got pulled over for no flaps twice in the period of about six months in Tacoma...by the same cop. Both times I was the only one on the road late at night (I get off work a little after midnight) and he was going the opposite way, so I'm guessing he did his u-turns to get me for DUI checks or whatever, because there's no way in hell he could see that I had no flaps in the dark going the other direction, but that's the only thing he mentioned as soon as he walked up. I already had Bushwacker flat fenders installed, so tire coverage isn't an issue. I've had plenty of state patrol cars behind me at lights, on long single lane roads, taking on and off ramps...never an issue with them. They seem to view most equipment stuff only as a secondary infraction (unless it's blatantly unsafe,) so if you don't give them a reason to pull you over in the first place, chances are they'll ignore you. City cops tend to be bored though and will look for any reason they can to pull you over and then put everything else from there under a microscope.

Even with my cut-and-folded quarter panels, there's not that much tire exposure compared to all of the Wranglers with wheel spacers/no flaps/no flares and bro-dozers I see around here. Anyway, I decided to save myself any future headaches and just installed some removable flaps. The mounts stay on the frame and the mudflaps stay in the back until they are needed. Oops, must have forgot to put them back on after that last wheeling trip! Oh, and you only need flaps for the rear tires, so don't worry about the fronts.

It is frustrating to need all of these flap and flare laws when other states don't even require them. If it were really that much of a safety issue, they would be federally mandated, and not on a state-by-state basis (in my opinion.) And if you're eating people's road wash and catching rocks in your windshield, you're probably following too closely to begin with (also in my opinion.)

 

ya thats what i thought and that was the argument i used in court. they said to bad 189. fine. it was sunny paved road in a 30mph. not speeding or any thing it was pure harassment. the guy thought he was gonna get the next drug runnin skinhead. he couldnt get me for anything and he stammers out your tires are illegal,, he didnt like what i said to that.

 

Tires can launch road trash pretty far. So someone doesn't need to be riding your tail to get hit by rock. Be courteous to fellow drivers and just run flaps.

 

Here is the RCW to set the facts straight. The fair weather clause won't work for an xj for quite some time.

RCW 46.37.500
Fenders or splash aprons.

(1) Except as authorized under subsection (2) of this section, no person may operate any motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer that is not equipped with fenders, covers, flaps, or splash aprons adequate for minimizing the spray or splash of water or mud from the roadway to the rear of the vehicle. All such devices shall be as wide as the tires behind which they are mounted and extend downward at least to the center of the axle.

**** (2) A motor vehicle that is not less than forty years old or a street rod vehicle that is owned and operated primarily as a collector's item need not be equipped with fenders when the vehicle is used and driven during fair weather on well-maintained, hard-surfaced roads

 

almost no one has flaps in the Vancouver area.....Most run around with big tires and no flares and they don't get looked at. Unless your tires are sticking out more than three inches, I wouldn't worry about it. It is mainly used for an extra add on to the ticket that you were going to get anyway.

 

When did they add that?

 

been there for a long time, at least as long as I've been driving