Interpretation ID: nht74-4.17

DATE: 07/17/74

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Richard B. Dyson; NHTSA

TO: Distributors Association

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of May 30, 1974, asking whether a final-stage manufacturer or vehicle alterer may use the incomplete vehicle's gross vehicle weight rating on the certification label when he adds a third axle. You point out that the manufacturer thereby increases the vehicle's actual capacity and could increase the vehicle's gross vehicle weight rating if he so desired, but he does not do so because the vehicle may not conform to applicable standards (mentioning specifically Standard No. 121) at the higher weight rating. It does conform, however, at the weight rating of the incomplete vehicle.

Although, as you point out, gross vehicle weight rating is established by the manufacturer, it must be based on a good faith attempt on the part of the manufacturer to conform to its definition. Gross vehicle weight rating is defined as " . . . the value specified by the manufacturer as the loaded weight of a single vehicle." A manufacturer is generally free to rate his vehicle at less than full loaded weight, and we would support such a policy where the purpose is to provide a reasonable safety margin. However, we would not consider as made in good faith a gross vehicle or axle weight rating that is so unrelated to vehicle capacity that it suggests a motive such as avoidance of an applicable standard. If it could be shown that this was the manufacturer's intent, he could be subject to civil penalties and other sanctions provided in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act for the issuance of a false and misleading certification, and to the responsibilities incident to a finding of a safety-related defect.