Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

danwilkerson.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 409 posts

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#291

Post by subsistence234 »

o1y32 wrote: post #199
joecool1029 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A kei truck is still safer than taking a bicycle or motorcycle on public roads. Do you propose banning those? How about the giant trucks with huge blindspots known to roll over kids in driveways, where's the outrage there? > But there's no good reason we need to allow people to import old, unsafe vehicles like this. Sure there is, there's a gap in the market for small efficient light trucks/vans for around town and i…

Nah, this is some terrible whataboutism. Stick to the topic.

no it's not, it addresses the core of the idiotic argument.

"we should ban participating in traffic without the safety features of a new car." No we shouldn't for the same reason we don't ban bicycles, motorbikes, scooters,... which are at least as dangerous to drive as an old tiny car.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#292

Post by Dalewyn »

smcl wrote: post #286
Dalewyn wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. My dad always told me that, in a hypothetical situation where I'm going to crash and I have a choice in the kind of car I'm driving, to always pick the bigger car than the other guy. Bigger cars are safer, for better or worse. Those Ford F-350s will, in general, survive crashes and protect the occupants better than something like a Toyota Camry.

Hasn't this caused an arms race of sorts where these trucks get bigger and bigger to the point where now some models have worse visibility than enormous M1 Abrams tanks: https://carbuzz.com/news/the-abrams-m1-tank-has-better-visib...

It's definitely one of the reasons cars in general have gotten bigger, you can't deny that better survivability in crashes is good marketing material. Trucks are just among the larger of them.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#293

Post by midoridensha »

kirse wrote: post #149
woodruffw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pure speculation on my part, but from having ridden in one of these Kei trucks (and lots of US trucks): I wouldn't be surprised if American-style trucks get in and cause more accidents per mile, both because of their lesser visibility and weaker cultural norms around speeding and rules of the road ("biggest car wins"). (This doesn't make Kei trucks safer, but it might have the same paradoxical effect as helmets on cy…

American-style trucks get in and cause more accidents per mile They don't. I used to own an F-350 for a race team and when I sold it for a Corolla I had a long argument with my insurance agent as to why the Corolla was going to cost me more to insure. Despite their outrageous cost to own (which you would think would primarily be the driver of insurance fees), apparently large trucks are both stolen much less and get…

>I switched providers anyway and still saved on the Corolla, in case you were wondering.

This is the correct solution with auto insurance in America. You should never stay with the same company more than 3-5 years, just like you should never stay at the same job longer than that. Loyalty is penalized in America, and you can get a better deal by jumping ship. Always shop around for better rates when your auto insurance policy is due for renewal.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#294

Post by nine_k »

Dalewyn wrote: post #279
nine_k wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of the kei form factor is different parking rules in dense, sometimes cramped Japanese cities. Due to the small footprint, they are allowed to park in more places. These are urban vehicles, not intended for highways, except in a pinch.

Close but no cigar. The real reason is because everything is small in Japan due to a lack of absolute space. Remember, the place is a god damn island nation with mountains for its interior. Roads are narrow, particularly in the countryside and especially if we're talking about roads crisscrossing between farms and rice paddies. Normal sized cars quite literally don't fit, much less normal sized trucks. Consequently,…

Who needs a cigar when one could read Wikipedia first?

> In most rural areas they are also exempted from the requirement to certify that adequate parking is available for the vehicle

Kei cars have a number of prescribed limitations (yes, because space is at a premium, but so is / was fuel, metal, etc), and even have special number plates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car

Also, there are designated parking spots for them where other cars won't fit:

> Some places in the parking lots are smaller than others and usually painted with the character “軽自動車” or just “軽”. These spaces are reserved for the small “kei” cars

https://japantravelplanning.com/car-parking-in-japan/

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#295

Post by tinus_hn »

danuker wrote: post #290
fragmede wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates already did, for his Porsche 959, which was made illegal by the 1988 Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act. His lobbying resulted in the 1999 Show or Display law, which allows such vehicles, though they are limited to 2,500 miles per year.

> Show or Display law Dammit. Even with his money he barely managed to scratch his own itch.

These people follow different rules. Famously, Steve Jobs used a rule that allows a car to be driven without a license plate if it is newer than 6 months, and he just got a new one every 6 months to never have license plates.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#296

Post by doom2 »

EvanWinget wrote: post #100

There’s an SF-based startup working on an electric truck for urban audiences, called Telo. Might be interesting to those who find kei trucks appealing but want a proper fully street legal alternative. https://www.motortrend.com/news/telo-electric-mini-truck-fir...

What if part of the appeal of kei trucks is the price? I think the niche these vehicles are filling for some is that they're small _and_ cheap. Maybe a fully street legal version can't match kei truck pricing, but $50k also isn't it.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#297

Post by projektfu »

Dalewyn wrote: post #280
rootusrootus wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Different US states' very unique interpretation of laws on certain things is something I have seen that needs explanation Definitely! Especially here on HN. A lot of the questions & criticisms I see from people outside the US likely stem from ignorance about how the government of US is constructed. The states really are very powerful, even ~250 years into the experiment.

>The states really are very powerful, even ~250 years into the experiment. And in fact, the states hold absolute power over the federal government because the Constitution can be amended by a two-thirds majority of the states. Absolutely noone in the federal government, including Congress and the Supreme Court, can get in their way because the federal government derives their power from the states. The only entity th…

2/3 of states required to call a convention, 3/4 of the convention (which includes the states that show up, not just the callers) to amend the constitution.

Or 2/3 majority of both houses to propose and 3/4 of state legislatures to ratify amendments.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#298

Post by hprotagonist »

arethuza wrote: post #275
hprotagonist wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://nonasuch.tumblr.com/post/616921709864468480/do-non-a... “Do non-americans realize that the United States is literally just a bunch of countries in a trench coat that agreed to be semi-nice to each other in order to sneak into the Big Boy Club? Because let’s be honest that’s just what the USA is”

"a bunch of countries in a trench coat that agreed to be semi-nice to each other in order to sneak into the Big Boy Club" Well the US was hardly the first to take that approach! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_of_the_United_Kingdo... However, I would point that here in the UK I suspect most people are actually completely unaware of the fact that there are multiple legal and education systems in our "country o…

one wonders who we learned it from!

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#299

Post by maxerickson »

walrus01 wrote: post #79
rootusrootus wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason given is that they are not manufactured for US highways. Which may be a roundabout way of saying they aren't capable of going highway speeds.

This seems like a weird way of US states attempting to enforce their own local interpretation of federal laws and not laws that actually exist as state code. Anything that's over 25 years old is specifically exempt from federal FMVSS. If it's under 25 years old you can't legally import it anyways for use on US roads (with title, etc). People do import https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Motor_Vehicle_Safety_S... go…

Road legal is entirely a state thing. The federal law is all about what is legal to import or offer for sale.

A different example would be emissions testing. Good ol' Michigan doesn't do it, so if you are moving to another state that does do it, it pays to think about whether your vehicle is going to pass.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#300

Post by rhaway84773 »

thebigjewbowski wrote: post #163
willcipriano wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the anger and disdain from people about others potentially hurting themselves. The only thing I can think of is they are jealous of someone who doesn't have these sort of intrusive thoughts about safety all the time and how they get to do something cool like the OP every now and then.

I was thinking about something similar the other day — why does anyone besides my family really care if I wear a seatbelt or not? You know what vehicle I see all the time that doesn’t require a license or minimum age, doesn’t have any safety features and can go 15-20 mph alongside traffic and often on a city sidewalk amongst pedestrians? A bicycle ;)

If you opt out of ER visits and are ok with being left to die if you’re in a car accident, sure, don’t wear a seatbelt.

Also, you know who dies in much greater numbers than pedestrians due to vehicle crashes? The pedestrians walking by the bicyclists.

So should pedestrians be forced to wear massive armors of steel when they walk around?

Oh wait, that’s how so many awful American cities are designed. With absolutely no space for pedestrians who have to drive everywhere.

In reality there’s only 1 source of danger on streets. Massive 2 ton vehicles that endanger their own occupants and everyone around them. Take away the 2 tons of metal usually carrying 1 person and everyone is safe.

Post reply on HN