Woodstock Whacker
- Thread starter TheZach
- Start date
I wouldn't really call him a whacker. He is a contractor and does home improvement work, its just a work vehicle. Not like he is driving around using the lights because he thinks it is cool.
I know someone who bought an old ambulance to use as his work truck. He removed all the emergency lights and gave them to a volunteer rescue squad. I think keeping the lights on such a vehicle qualifies as whacker material.
Who cares? It's his ride, if he doesn't want to spend money to change lenses on the lights, and he isn't using them to speed to the lumber yard, why the need to pin a label on him?
TheZach said:
Well then look it up in your state's motor vehicle code, particularly if your main goal is to ridicule the guy for having them. In my state he'd be fine, the law regulates use, not possession.
We use retired medic rigs for prisoner transports and don't switch out the red lenses for blue, why spend the money? If it's a work truck he probably has other concerns than spending cash to change lenses on lights he may never be using.
Oddly enough, I seem to recall something in the Ohio Revised Code that requires that deadlined school busses be stripped of their markings and signals before resale, so the school bus whackers and impersonators are out of business and anyone who wants to go all hippie or Partridge family won't be able to swing that little STOP sign out and keep people from passing them.
Now if he's a contractor, and drives a retired meatwagon, and saws one of his fingers off, or power-nails himself to a shingle, and doesn't have a first aid kit in it, that'd be hilarious. Those lights could come in handy then, along with a cooler and some ice for the finger.
That's what my city did when it retired an older E-series ambulance.TCO said:
...But when they retire their newer ambulances with LEDs I think it would be a lot cheaper to take the lights completely out, than to change the red LEDs for amber ones.
I have seen that truck when running errands in Kalamazoo/Portage. I see it a lot on the westside, Texas Twp/Oshtemo area. Always wondered about it!
He can't under the Motor Vehicle Code... Read on....TheZach said:
257.698 (5) The use or possession of flashing, oscillating, or rotating lights of any color is prohibited except as
otherwise provided by law, or under the following circumstances....
It goes on to list police, fire, Ems, tow/service vehicles, contructions, etc.... as well as the respective colors they are allowed to use. Unfortunately for him, Michigan doesn't have a Whacker exemption... :lol:
If the front ones were changed to amber and both hooked to the turn signals, I would think that would probably be legal. I see some European made cars with front turn signal lights on the front fenders behind the wheel. Other than being higher, I don't see this as being any different.
You do not see to many of those ambulances anymore, It would be nice if someone bought it and restored it to the orginal condition Who knows maybe he is in the process of doing that. really do not see much difference with a old ambulance or than someone having a old Fire truck .As long as he is not using the lights/siren who cares and if he was I would have thought the Local Law Enforcement would have taken care of the issue.