Lowering your car in South Africa

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Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Classic Beetle Fan »

Hey guys, I got pulled over today, for my car being too low... I lowered my car a bit for handling purpose.
the traffic said, he will take my car and scrape the license if my car is low and i dont raise it.

Can they do this? or can I keep my car? :?: :?:
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Tony Z »

http://www.transport.gov.za/library/reg ... egs00.html
part III, Dimensions of vehicles

Overall height of vehicle and load

224. No person shall operate on a public road a motor vehicle together with any load thereon, the overall height of which--

1. in the case of a double-deck bus exceeds four comma six five metres; and
2. in the case of any other motor vehicle exceeds four comma three metres.




It seems nothing is said about minimum height, however, I could be wrong, you better check
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Tony Z »

WC test sheet
http://www.westerncape.gov.za/other/2005/12/rwt_eng.pdf
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by retrovan »

Classic Beetle Fan wrote:Hey guys, I got pulled over today, for my car being too low... I lowered my car a bit for handling purpose.
the traffic said, he will take my car and scrape the license if my car is low and i dont raise it.

Can they do this? or can I keep my car? :?: :?:
Yep, the law has a minimum ground clearance a car MUST have if it is to be used on South African roads, This is a condition of roadworthy.

Not many Traffic cops know this, but they can rip you licence disk if he is so inclined, and resend you for roadworthy.

If you open minded about it, and think how frustrating it is, driving behind a lowered car, they are forever on the brakes, Has to go sideways over speed bumps at 2 Kph, takes 2 and a half hours to turn off into a driveway, man its a pain...... :shock: You just feel like ramming the guy in the back..... :evil:

:rantswitch:

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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Classic Beetle Fan »

The thing is, my car isn't that low, I can go straight over a speed bump, and why should there be speedbumps anyways, they just break your suspension and hurt your car...
and I think this traffic cop is aware that he can send me for roadworthy again.. personally i think it's unfair.. cause alot of these cops have lowered cars themselves ...
I lowered my car for a reason, and not to play how low can you go...
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Classic Beetle Fan »

:lol: How about everyone lower their cars, and we take away the speedbumps, people wont drive fast anymore and the Law will be happy :mrgreen:
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Klaus »

Good Job we dont have any real issues on our roads

Image

Oh, my lowered car is far faster on the road than the one with the highest ground clearance - by far :wink:

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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by JamesD »

post a pic! lets see!
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Classic Beetle Fan »

Image
My car at a show, my car is not that low.
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Dawie »

Think there used to be a rule that minimum height is 125mm. Assume his would also apply to speed humps? If the speed hump was higher than this, you could technically sue for damage to your car. But this was about 2 decades ago...
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by MINCE »

Classic Beetle Fan wrote:Image
My car at a show, my car is not that low.
Picture not showing

EDIT: It does show, but since it is an image off of Facebook, it doesn't show at work.
Last edited by MINCE on Mon Nov 07, 2011 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by beetlefanatic »

If that's too low, I'll also be in :bn: with the cabrio.
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by DR WATSON »

My Rotary Beetle is much lower than that and iv'e had no trouble with the law about it :hangloose: If they do want to give me grief I want to see the Specs in black and white or they can kiss my hairy ass :twisted:
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by splitfan »

Looks similar to mine (I have to "approach" a speed bump) so maybe a little lower and no hassels from Metro yet..........
Image
My biggest fear is that my wife sells my cars for what i told her they cost !!
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Re: Lowering your car in South Africa

Post by Classic Beetle Fan »

beetlefanatic wrote:If that's too low, I'll also be in :bn: with the cabrio.
my car was standing in a pot hole with the one side , and the front wheel sat abit deeper in...
DR WATSON wrote:My Rotary Beetle is much lower than that and iv'e had no trouble with the law about it :hangloose: If they do want to give me grief I want to see the Specs in black and white or they can kiss my hairy ass :twisted:
I think the traffics in Paarl dont understand that a beetle must be low . :D
splitfan wrote:Looks similar to mine (I have to "approach" a speed bump) so maybe a little lower and no hassels from Metro yet..........
Image
:hangloose: Awesome bug :hangloose: and i think my car is abit higher than yours.
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