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Interpretation ID: 21884.ztv


    Mr. Greg Hayes
    Marketing Director
    Benson International
    I-77 & Route 14 South
    Mineral Wells, WV 26150



    Dear Mr. Hayes:

    This is in reply to your e-mail of June 23, 2000, seeking a clarification of the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 regarding the location of clearance and identification lamps on the front of dump trucks, and asking five related questions. By way of background, you referenced a letter of this Office dated April 25, 1990, to J. Douglas Smith of Duralite Truck Body and Container Corp.

    Your first question is:

    "1. If a final stage manufacturer adds a dump body to a chassis and installs clearance lamps on that body, must the cab mounted clearance lamps be disconnected or removed or can they stay in place and remain operational?"

    Table II of Standard No. 108 requires, in pertinent part, that front clearance lamps be located to indicate the overall width of the vehicle and as near the top as practicable. Assuming that the clearance lamps on the dump body meet this requirement, the cab-mounted clearance lamps are not necessary for compliance with Standard No. 108, and may either be disconnected or removed, or remain in place and be operational, as indicated in our 1990 letter to Mr. Smith.

    "2. If a final stage manufacturer receives a cab equipped chassis that is shipped to it with no top of cab clearance or identification lamps installed and the final stage manufacturer installs a dump body that requires the installation of body mounted clearance lamps, where may the final stage manufacturer install the identification lamps? On the top of the cab, at the top of the body or in whichever is the most practicable location?"

    Table II of Standard No. 108 requires, in pertinent part, that front identification lamps be located as close as practicable to the top of the vehicle and as close as practicable to the vertical centerline. Alternatively, the front identification lamps may be located as close as practicable to the top of the cab. The final stage manufacturer must determine which location is "as close as practicable to the top of the vehicle," whether it is on the body or the cab, and install the identification lamps in the location chosen. However, if the top of the vehicle is on the body and it is not practicable to locate the identification lamps on the body, such as may occur on a cement mixer, the lamps must then be located as close as practicable to the top of the cab.

    "3. [Where a vehicle is equipped with a cab shield and the chassis is equipped with vertical exhaust stacks, and ] clearance lamps would not be visible if mounted on the body bulkhead and would not indicate true over-all width if mounted on the face of the cab shield, where should they be mounted? Would chassis top of cab clearance lamps suffice if spaced wider than would be possible on the cab shield face under these circumstances? Would installing these lamps on the face of the shield, if spaced wider than the top of cab lamps, be acceptable even though they do not indicate the true over-all width of the vehicle?"

    As noted in our response to your first question, Table II of Standard No. 108 requires that front clearance lamps be located to indicate the overall width of the vehicle and as near the top as practicable. In our opinion, locating any clearance lamp so that its center is more than 6 inches from the outermost edge of a vehicle does not indicate its overall width within the meaning of Standard No. 108 (see our letters of June 9, 1997, to Donald W. Vierimaa, and September 4, 1996, to John W. Cook, copies enclosed). Only secondarily must the lamps be located as close as practicable to the top of the vehicle. The need to indicate overall width on wide vehicles is so important to safety that S5.3.1.1.1 of Standard No. 108 permits clearance lamps to be located other than on the front (and rear) if it is " necessary to indicate the overall width of a vehicle. . . ." This allows clearance lamps to be mounted on the fenders or on the left and right mirrors or their brackets if they represent the widest part of a truck body. These alternate locations are possible solutions to the problem you raise.

    Your letter indicates that there is a configuration in which front clearance lamps located on the body bulkhead would be obscured by vertical exhaust stacks directly in front of them. We do agree that it is better to have front clearance lamps that are visible to oncoming traffic but we do not agree that they do not have to indicate the overall width of the vehicle. If a vehicle configuration is such that front clearance lamps cannot be located to indicate the overall width of the vehicle and be as high as practicable, they still must be located to indicate the overall width of the vehicle, i.e., centers not more than 6 inches from the outermost edge of the vehicle.

    "4. . . . In the case of a single vertical stack . . . the shield will be mounted off-center on the dump body. Application of the clearance lamp on the non-stack side would indicate the over-all width on that side, but [not on the other]. . . . [C]an the clearance lamps still be installed on the cab shield face even though they do not (1) indicate the true width on [one] side and (2) would no longer be an equal distance from the centerline of the vehicle."

    The answer to your question is that this is not acceptable for the reasons stated in our reply to your third question. Although clearance lamps need not be located at the same distance from the vertical centerline, they must still be mounted at the same height, and must indicate overall width, in order to comply with Standard No. 108.

    "5. . . . [W]here there is no practicable location to mount any lamps [because of the installation of a tarp storage system], will chassis cab mounted clearance and identification lamps meet the requirements of Standard 108?"

    This appears to be the first time that we have ever been asked this question (though on October 19, 1999, we provided an interpretation regarding tarp storage systems and rear clearance and identification lamps to Mike Spencer of Timpte, Inc., which is not on point). In our view, if a tarp storage system installed as original equipment prevents mounting front identification and clearance lamps at the highest point of the truck, the identification lamps may be located lower, such as on the cab if, in that location, they are mounted as close as practicable to the top of the vehicle. Clearance lamps are intended to indicate the overall width of the vehicle, and must be located in a manner to accomplish that. If the highest location that indicates overall width of the vehicle is on the top of the fender, the lamps should be mounted on the fender, as high as practicable, to meet the secondary requirement that clearance lamps be located "as near the top [of the vehicle] as practicable." In this instance, cab-mounted clearance lamps would not comply because they would not indicate the overall width of the vehicle even though they would be located "as near the top [of the vehicle] as practicable." However, as mentioned above, should the vehicle be equipped with mirrors and/or mirror brackets that are higher than the fenders, and if they are so located that clearance lamps mounted on them can indicate the overall width, then the clearance lamps must be located on the mirrors or mirror brackets.

    If you have any further questions, you may phone Taylor Vinson of this Office (202-366-5263).

    Sincerely,

    Frank Seales, Jr.
    Chief Counsel

    Enclosures
    ref:108
    d.10/24/00