Interpretation ID: 18163.ztv

Mr. Robert B. Seeber
Vice-President/General Manager
Monarch Specialized Motor Coach Corporation
1510 Progress Drive
Albion, IN 46701

Dear Mr. Seeber:

We are responding to your letter of June 12, 1998, in which you "request that Monarch Specialized Motor Coach Corporation . . . be exempted from the regulation allowing the Chevrolet P12 chassis to be utilized only for motor homes." You would like to introduce a line of vehicles in the near future that has been designed as trolleys.

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 105, Hydraulic Brake Systems, requires vehicles equipped with hydraulic brake systems and with a GVWR above 19,500 lbs., except motor homes, to be equipped on and after March 1, 1999, with a four-sensor antilock brake system (ABS). Vehicles with a GVWR between 10,000 lbs. and 19,500 lbs may continue to be equipped with a three-sensor ABS system with a single wheel speed sensor in the driveline to monitor wheel lockup at the drive axle. The three-sensor ABS system is also permissible until March 1, 2001, on motor homes with a GVWR of 22,500 lbs. or less. The Chevrolet chassis is rated with a GVWR of 22,500 lbs. Because your vehicle is not a "motor home" as defined by Standard No. 105, the delayed effective date does not apply to your trolley and you will be required to conform it to the four-sensor ABS requirement.

We regard your vehicles as being manufactured in two or more stages (49 CFR Part 568), with General Motors (GM) (the manufacturer of the chassis) as the "initial stage manufacturer" and Monarch as the "final stage manufacturer." We assume that GM equips the chassis with the braking system. Your letter implies that GM may intend the P12 chassis primarily, if not exclusively, for use with motor homes and will supply it with a three-sensor ABS until March 1, 2001. You have also told us that Chevrolet personnel have indicated that GM may not provide a chassis in a configuration that can be used by non-motor home manufacturers (four-sensor ABS) until 2000 or possibly 2001.

If GM does not intend to furnish the P12 chassis with four-sensor ABS, you will continue to be able to manufacture trolleys from these incomplete GM vehicles after March 1, 1999, so long as GM certified the incomplete vehicle as manufactured before that date (as the manufacturer of an incomplete vehicle, GM is required to furnish a document to Monarch stating, among other things, the month and year during which GM performed its last manufacturing operations on the incomplete vehicle (Sec. 568.4(a)(2)).

This means that your vehicles need not incorporate a four-sensor ABS in their braking system until GM furnishes your company with a chassis manufactured in March 1999. If GM does not intend to manufacture the P12 chassis with four-sensor ABS before March 1,2001, and Monarch still intends to use it, Monarch may apply for a temporary exemption of up to three years on the basis that compliance would cause substantial economic hardship to a manufacturer that has tried in good faith to comply with Standard No. 105. I enclose a copy of the appropriate regulation (Part 555) for your information.

If you have any questions, you may call Taylor Vinson of this Office (202-355-5263).

Sincerely,
Frank Seales, Jr.
Chief Counsel
Enclosure
ref:105
d.8/3/98