# Rod/Cooler racks and VA State Police!!



## clpoudnine23 (Dec 21, 2005)

A couple of weeks ago I was returning from Hatteras and was traveling north on I-95 close to Kings Dominion around 1 AM. Next thing I know I have a "Blue Light" special behind me and I get pulled over by a VA state trooper. He told me he was going to give me a ticket because my rod/cooler rack was blocking the "FULL" view of my license plate. My rack is big enough to hold a 94qt marine cooler and a 40 qt. icet-tek. I use an 18'' extension bar off the hitch so I can put down my tailgate. Has anybody else ever been ticketed for this? Can you take the license plate off of the truck and mount it on the back of the rack for the drive down there? Any ideas would be helpful. By the way, ticket is $80!:--|


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## Hat80 (Sep 22, 2002)

*In most states your tag must be in clear view.*

Yes, you can mount the tag on the rack, front or back. However, if you mount it on the back at night you will also need a tag light. If you don't have the light you'll get a ticket for no tag light.

You can get a trailer tag light kit at the auto parts store. Just mount it on your rack and plug in the pigtail, your good to go!


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## cygnus-x1 (Oct 12, 2005)

That sucks and I know you are not intending to hide your plates but I can see their point. You _should_ be able to put it on the back of your rack. I would call your MVA / State Police and try and get a definitive answer (good luck with that).


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## lil red jeep (Aug 17, 2007)

clpoudnine23 said:


> A couple of weeks ago I was returning from Hatteras and was traveling north on I-95 close to Kings Dominion around 1 AM. Next thing I know I have a "Blue Light" special behind me and I get pulled over by a VA state trooper. He told me he was going to give me a ticket because my rod/cooler rack was blocking the "FULL" view of my license plate. My rack is big enough to hold a 94qt marine cooler and a 40 qt. icet-tek. I use an 18'' extension bar off the hitch so I can put down my tailgate. Has anybody else ever been ticketed for this? Can you take the license plate off of the truck and mount it on the back of the rack for the drive down there? Any ideas would be helpful. By the way, ticket is $80!:--|


VSP just graduated a big class recently and you may have run into an overly zealous one! Personally, I would have gone as far as a warning and then tried to talk you out of your honey hole spots for my next trip down! If you show the judge a picture of the corrected situation in court, you may get lucky and get it dismissed. Like Hat80 said, moving the tag and putting a light over it before court would be a good idea, that way if it does get dismissed, you won't get any points against your driving record. Just my .02 cents worth! 

Remember, Va. now has those insane fines for residents that just keep pulling money out of your wallet for years and years.


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## RuddeDogg (Mar 20, 2004)

*Yep*



Hat80 said:


> Yes, you can mount the tag on the rack, front or back. However, if you mount it on the back at night you will also need a tag light. If you don't have the light you'll get a ticket for no tag light.
> 
> You can get a trailer tag light kit at the auto parts store. Just mount it on your rack and plug in the pigtail, your good to go!



What Hat said.


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## jhmorgan (May 16, 2007)

Definately correct it before court. Judges almost always throw out tthose types of tickets as long as you have a (relatively) clean record and show them that you are striving to comply with the regulations


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## basstardo (Jun 5, 2006)

That is true. I got a ticket for a brush guard with the smaller bars over the headlights. Stupid ticket, but it is actually the law in VA, just not heavily enforced. A Williamsburg cop was bored one night I guess. Anyway, I removed the bars and took pictures as proof and the judge threw it out.


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## ffemtreed (Mar 29, 2007)

Well this is just another reason for me to stay out of that state. 

If you mount it to the rack next thing you will be getting a ticket because its not permanently mounted to your vehicle or some other dumb technicality like that.


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## WURK2FISH (Jun 9, 2007)

zipties


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## basstardo (Jun 5, 2006)

I just thought about this some more. What if you're towing a boat using the bumper hitch? The ball blocks the plate because of it's location, and the boat is dang sure going to block the view. I wonder if they would ticket you for that. Seems like a stupid ticket altogether. Just depends on the officer I guess.


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## AbuMike (Sep 3, 2007)

basstardo said:


> I just thought about this some more. What if you're towing a boat using the bumper hitch? The ball blocks the plate because of it's location, and the boat is dang sure going to block the view. I wonder if they would ticket you for that. Seems like a stupid ticket altogether. Just depends on the officer I guess.


 If towing a boat, you have an identifying plate on the trailor. Which will give the info needed to the officer.


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## basstardo (Jun 5, 2006)

AirDown said:


> If towing a boat, you have an identifying plate on the trailor. Which will give the info needed to the officer.


What if you're towing someone else's boat, which I've done before?


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## AbuMike (Sep 3, 2007)

You will not get a ticket for blocking the vehicle plate with a trailor......Getting a little off topic here...


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## basstardo (Jun 5, 2006)

AirDown said:


> You will not get a ticket for blocking the vehicle plate with a trailor......Getting a little off topic here...


I don't think it's off topic. It's an argument he could use in court. Maybe not a very strong one, but an argument nonetheless. You could very easily argue that it's the same thing.


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## saltandsand (Nov 29, 2007)

Be prepared to point out that you were not speeding nor was there any other lawful purpose for being pulled over. Apologize and show that you have come up with another way to ensure the display of a lighted tag. 

IMO the officer pulled you over because he/she was fishing to find someone under the influence or otherwise. This was used as an excuse to pull you over and since nothing was found the officer wrote the ticket to justify having come off his/her position with surviellance of the highway.


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## NTKG (Aug 16, 2003)

saltandsand said:


> Be prepared to point out that you were not speeding nor was there any other lawful purpose for being pulled over. Apologize and show that you have come up with another way to ensure the display of a lighted tag.
> 
> IMO the officer pulled you over because he/she was fishing to find someone under the influence or otherwise. This was used as an excuse to pull you over and since nothing was found the officer wrote the ticket to justify having come off his/her position with surviellance of the highway.



you are correct there! bottom line is equipment failure in va is very rarely enforced for folks who take care of the problem and show the judge. bottom line is that there are various and a chitload of vehicular laws, some of which(proper aiming of headlights) that i wish they enforced much more!


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## basstardo (Jun 5, 2006)

NTKG said:


> some of which(proper aiming of headlights) that i wish they enforced much more!


Dam skippy! I hate when some clown in a Honda has one headlight all cockeyed and glaring brighter than normal.


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## notso (Jul 18, 2005)

I've often wondered about the legality of some of the rod/cooler racks that we run on our trucks too. For instance, folks who have their racks pretty high up in the air for ground clearence. These are almost certainly above the maximum bumper height regulations that were put into effect 20+- years ago when lifting trucks & jeeps was all the rage(at least around here). 
In Va, I think the cop could also give you grief for front racks that cover your plate since we have to display both plates (& I have been ticketed for not having the front plate installed).


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## Shooter (Nov 14, 2004)

Guess I just been lucky, I been running my rack on my front for a few years straight now and haven't gotten any grief or a ticket YET. Does it cover my front plate? all depends if you look under the rack :redface:

I knew a traffic cop that told me "If I want to give you a ticket I can find a reason, may not be a good reason but you still have to spend your time and money to beat it"

Half the time I put the slide in camper on my truck I forget to put the tag on the camper and have been known to forget to take it off the camper and put it back on the truck :redface:

Most cops ain't gonna sweat the small stuff but always remember *They can if they want to*


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## clpoudnine23 (Dec 21, 2005)

*license plate charge thrown out of court...*

Just a little follow up on this post; this charge was thrown out by the judge today. Thanks to the advise of HAT80 I mounted the plate on the back and installed a light kit and took some pictures to show I fixed the problem. I almost laughed when the trooper told the judge "I saw this truck going down 95 with a cooler strapped to the back of his truck!" Then the judge asked why I would have a cooler "strapped" to the back of my truck. I had to explain what a rod/cooler rack was for and in return I got a puzzled look from the judge like "whatever floats your boat". Anyway, all over with now, thanks again Hat and P&S!


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## basstardo (Jun 5, 2006)

Good deal! :beer:

Nice description by the cop.  Should have given the judge a Pier and Surf sticker.  Then he'd understand.


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## Fishhook (Sep 18, 2007)

*Good deal.....*

Glad you got it thrown out. 

Officers are very different. 

Last trip down in Dec. I was in a hurry when I loaded my back rack on, and forgot to move the plate to the back. (I never move the plate on the front) I was speeding down 460 E near Wakefield, and "forgot" to kick my cruise off. A county cop slides around and pulls me over. I'm thinking, how many tickets is he going to write me ? Anyway, I do the same thing anytime I get pulled over, I stop, put it in park, and put both hands out my window untill the cop gets up to me. I am always respectful, and normally ready for whatever I get. The scary thing is, the cop gets right out of his car, and walks up to me. He couldn't see my plate at all, front or back.(Not SOP, he should have run my tag before getting out) Anyway, he explained how fast I was going, and I explained I had my head up my @#$. He went to his car, ran my lic. and let me go with a warning, never said a word about the tag. Sometimes your the winsheild, sometimes your the bug. 

Fishhook


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## ffemtreed (Mar 29, 2007)

What kind of shell are these people living in that never seen a cooler rack on a vehicle?


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## Hannibal (Aug 10, 2007)

I actually got nabbed for speeding one day down at PLO (southern Maryland). It was a DNR police apparently working OT for the county. He gave me a speeding ticket (which is fine as I was speeding - accidently and just not paying attention - but guilty none the less) and then told me that he COULD have given me another ticket as my cooler/rod rack was covering up my back license plate. 

I said "well, the plate is pretty well locked down on the truck because I work in DC and plates have a tendancy to walk off. Rigging something up to easily remove it and locate would be pretty difficult."

He explained that they needed to see the plate for safety (obviously) and due to these new cameras (red light/speeding, etc). I said "Would a satisfactory solution be to take the one off the front and temporarly move it to the back when traveling with my rack?" 

He said it would be as the police typically don't care about the front so much (though it is law). And if I explained the situation (only owning 2 plates, not wanting to move the rear one, etc), that I shouldn't have a problem.

Two weeks later - rod rack on my truck, I was coming through PG County and went through a speed trap and got pulled over. Thought it was for speeding (I have a problem - lol) but it wasn't. He noticed I had no front tag. I showed him that I had two on the back - and showed him the ticket from DNR and repeated my conversation with them concerning the plate.

He gave me a ticket for $25. I can't win. LOL.


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## fyremanjef (Feb 17, 2005)

clpoudnine23 said:


> A couple of weeks ago I was returning from Hatteras and was traveling north on I-95 close to Kings Dominion around 1 AM. Next thing I know I have a "Blue Light" special behind me and I get pulled over by a VA state trooper. He told me he was going to give me a ticket because my rod/cooler rack was blocking the "FULL" view of my license plate. My rack is big enough to hold a 94qt marine cooler and a 40 qt. icet-tek. I use an 18'' extension bar off the hitch so I can put down my tailgate. Has anybody else ever been ticketed for this? Can you take the license plate off of the truck and mount it on the back of the rack for the drive down there? Any ideas would be helpful. By the way, ticket is $80!:--|


What time were you pulled over?

I know that early hours is prime time for drunk drivers. Between 2am and 4 am, you are either leaving a bar/party or going to make donuts. Or in this case, I guess, headed home from fishing. 

During this time the cops have pretty good odds of nabbing someone under the influence, so any reason to pull you over and they will. Obstructing the rear license plate is intersting. If it is legal in your state say MD, are you grandfathered in other states. For example, in DE you can go with out a front plate, but its illegal in MD. If a cop pulls you over for missing a front plate, is it a "good" traffic stop.

I'm thinking of contacting the MD state police for a ruling on this. I have a front rod rack, as I like to the hatch back of my Yukon. Bur realisticly, I only use my rod rack to show off my fishing plates. 

A solution may be to switch to a goose neck type hitch adapter. I had a straight one at first on my front rod rack. It was above the 8" clearance requried for AI but all i did was plow through the sand. I replaced it with one that has a bend in it that lifts my rack over 6". Putting one of those on the back, may just be enough to lift your rack above the plate.


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