Interpretation ID: nht72-4.44

DATE: 08/24/72

FROM: LAWRENCE R. SCHNEIDER FOR RICHARD B. DYSON

TO: Safety Products Inc.

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of July 17, 1972, in which you ask whether a person who installs on new vehicles a device you manufacture called the Safti-Stabilizer is required to recertify the vehicle.

A person will be required to recertify a new, completed vehicle if he modifies it in such a manner that he becomes a "manufacturer" under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. A person will be considered a manufacturer if the modifications he performs produce significant changes in the vehicle's configuration or purpose. While this determination is generally made on a case by case basis examples of modifications which the NHTSA has considered to be "manufacturing" include the addition of new axles, or the changing of a completed truck van into a motor home.

The NHTSA has taken the position, in close cases, that it will accept a good-faith determination of a person modifying new vehicles as to whether the modification is of such a nature so as to make that person a manufacturer. Based on the information you have provided to us, it appears that the installation of the Safti-Stabilizer does not significantly change the vehicle's configuration or purpose. Consequently, we would accept a determination that the installation of the Safti-Stablizer does not constitute remanufacturing, and a person who installs the device on new vehicles need not recertify them.