OHTA.ca

I own two Trucks both lifted and Moded one more then the other, since this is my first post it might be a little longer to let you guys know me a little as well..

I live in Northern Ontario where modified trucks are commonly more accepted while all the ricers get harassed by local enforcement. Sorry but that's the way life is

I have been doing allot of research over the past year or so on the various laws and possible offences I COULD be violating in the HTA with my trucks. My concern is with my F150 it has typical engine mods all within legal limit except my muffler does not have a tailpipe after the muffler, but ventilation is more than adequate and not even close to excessive noise IMO, as long as I don't throw it into passing gear within city limits, it has a noticeable rumble that is fairly quiet at low RPM's. I don't like bothering locals and neighbors because I live in a small city where youre likely to run into the same person every day, and a cop lives a couple doors down from my place Anyways I figure worst thing I could get is maybe a fix it ticket on the no tail pipe thing since I'm always nice while talking to police.

So my main concern is that the F150 has a 6" Suspension Lift and 3" Body Lift, with 35" mud tires, that put's me about 10-11inches higher than stock height. My truck is well maintained and all parts have been professionally installed and considered stronger than stock components, it rides very well. I have searched high and low for bumper height regulations; lift limitations, possible fines I could receive...bla,bla I typically stay in Northern Ontario with this truck with the occasional T.O. trip, the other truck (F250) is my hwy pig.

Just to add more info I don't have any mud flaps or fender flares and my tires stick out of the fender wells less than an inch, my Projector headlights are well aimed and never had a complaint or been flashed by oncoming vehicles at night. I have only been pull over once in this truck before the lift for a minor speeding ticket, I have had the truck for 4 years now and it has been lifted for two.

Any advice things to watch out for would be helpful maybe some insight from a law enforcements point of view. My main concern is any height violations I should be aware of though.

P.S. I try to be a nice guy and obey the law, I'm not the guy you see flying down the roads, squealing tires reving the engines and stuff, I save that for off roading in appropriate places. Up here I would say 95% of land is crown and vast so I try to save my childish fun where I won't bother anyone. I just appreciate a nice looking truck and it keeps me out trouble or from wasting my money on worst things then a truck.

I have searched before about height and did not find anything, ironically trailers (transports) must have a rear crash bar......so why nothing that I have found is for a pickup is beyond me.....still will take another drivers head off if they go underneat.

there are offences for the mudguards, the speedometer quite possibly is way out and the weight listed on the vehicle permit also will not be proper.

just off the top of my head.....my bible (HTA) is not in front of me

Thanks for the reply.

I do have a speedo recalibration device and I double check and fine tune with my GPS so I know my stock speedo is as dead on as possible. I recalabrate twice a year beacause my summer tires are 1/2" bigger than my winter tires.

Never even tought of gross weight I will check that out next time I drive by the scale, might need to get comercial stickers like the F250. I'm also going to add clreance lights on the roof once it warms up enough to work outside this will let oncoming traffic get a better perspective of the truck.

Never thought of a stop bar before but one could be easily made to attach to the receiver hitch, even if it's not the law wouldn't be a bad idea.

We get allot of road side checks up hear they randomly stop vehicles for an afternoon a couple times a year and give a quick walk around to make sure the vehicle looks safe and up to standard. They end up pulling a few plates every time.

Would be very cautious as to use of a GPS for this. We have had this discussion on the forum.

Weights: Ensure your empty weight is accurate on the permit, then make sure your gross weight is accurate to what you might be loading in (including persons). I have seen the re-adjusted empty weight say of 2900kgs, gross of 3000kgs not touched....so then allowed only 100kgs (220lbs) of weight, 2 people and vehicle is now in violation.

If you have your gross over 4500kgs you now enter another ball game and I can advise if you do so.

Every black lettered vehicle is commercial. Blue lettered plates (excluding personal plates) are for passenger carrying vehicles.

Every black lettered vehicle is commercial

How come pick up without personalized plates has black????

You confused me now...lol Both my trucks have black plates but I pay for personal passenger plates on the F150 and comercial plates on the F250. Then I got custom plates for the F150 and they gave me blue ones.

As for the GPS thing I don't think I have to worry much, I work for exploration company and we don't use the little 200$-500$ canadian tire GPS's, still not pin point accurate but in clear view I can get 1-2m accuracy, in the basment of a house it will go to maybe 4-7m off, I even compared them a few times with some surveyers GPS system at work. I don't use it to drive I just use it to make sure my stock speedo is reading correctly. 1 or 2 km's out at 100km/h don't bother me much.

I aslo read somewhere that Ford calibrates their speedo's to be off 2km at 100km/h so when you are doing 100km it's really 102km. Can't remeber where I read that it was on the net somewhere. I don't know why they would do that though.

Reflections wrote:

Every black lettered vehicle is commercial

How come pick up without personalized plates has black????

b/c every pickup is a commercial vehicle.

"commercial motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle having permanently attached thereto a truck or delivery body and includes ambulances, hearses, casket wagons, fire apparatus, buses and tractors used for hauling purposes on the highways

However, for the purposes of being charged as a commercial motor vehicle (higher fines) the RGW (registered gross weight) has to be OVER 4500kgs.

Just found something about this..

Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

Technical Standards 108

Headlights can not be higher than 1.372m (54inches) and tail lights 1.830m (72inches) from the surface of the road.

Rear Reflectors not higher than 530mm (60 inches) from the surface of the road.

Sorry bear quick question.

Would an Ice Cream truck or a Van of a plumbing vehicle or a trailer qualify as a commercial vehicle?

Do coach buses qualify as commercial vehicles? Or just transports.