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

311–320 of 409 posts

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#311

Post by willcipriano »

woodruffw wrote: post #230
thebigjewbowski wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ;)

> why does anyone besides my family really care if I wear a seatbelt or not? I care for a basic and selfish reason beyond the "human missile" one: if I'm in a car crash with you and there's only one bed available in the ER, I don't want your lack of a seatbelt to be the source of a hard choice by the doctors operating on us.

Don't worry that bed will be occupied by a opioid addict anyway.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#312

Post by bowsamic »

willcipriano wrote: post #159
kelnos wrote: post #158

I went back and forth on the idea of sharing such a negative take here, but... here goes. > You'll need to find a truck that is at least 25 years old. In the US, cars more youthful than that must comply with FMVSS (safety standards). > No air bags, [...] power steering, or crumple zones. I feel like this sort of thing is a fantastic illustration of the irresponsible level which most drivers (in the US at least; can't…

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'm sorry to be blunt, but do you really not understand that you are not the only one hurt when you crash a car? I often see this with regards to car crashes, people often say "the only one you hurt is yourself", and I feel like I must be on drugs or something, because I am pretty damn sure that this is not true

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#313

Post by manuelabeledo »

avar wrote: post #135
manuelabeledo wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cars are in fact larger partially due to advanced safety features, in particular doors, pillars etc. have gotten a lot thicker over the last 25 years. I would like to see a citation on this. Car doors have gotten larger partly because there is so much more stuff going on there than 20-30 years ago, mostly a bunch of new electronics. They are also larger because, well, the cars are larger. > ... you're probably bett…

> I would like to see a citation on this. E.g. [1] has a decent overview of the side impact saga for the Euro NCAP since 1997. I'm less familiar with how the American version has kept up. In any case most mass market American cars target the Euro NCAP's safety tests, so it affects car design across the pond too. > [...]mostly a bunch of new electronics. I can't think of any electronics in doors than weren't there in…

> I can't think of any electronics in doors than weren't there in 1995.

Electronic locks, speakers, electronic bits of heated mirrors, airbags, etc. were absolutely not that common in the average 90s car.

Also, car dimensions are generally larger because we ourselves have become larger and taller. This becomes exceedingly obvious when comparing European cars in the past 40 years. If we look at the last 15 years, the trend is to make larger, more spacious cars, to the point where most firms are betting on SUVs over sedans.

> What I was referring to is that crash safety tests don't account for crashes between differently sized vehicles.

They do, though. What would be the point of testing a car safety measures only against cars of its size? In fact, there are plenty of videos out there of crash tests between sedans and trucks.

> That's probably intentional, as regulators don't want to cause an arms race towards ever bigger cars.

Uh? Manufacturers have been steadily increasing the size of cars in the past 20 years. Each Camry generation is larger than the previous one, and has nothing to do with regulators, it’s just that buyers want spacious cars.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#314

Post by danwilkerson »

chasemiller wrote: post #99

@danwilkerson, were you driving around the north hills ~1 hour ago? Just passed one of these and thought to myself, huh, that's pretty neat, only to come home to see this post.

Not me - I've seen a few others bopping around tahn. There are dozens of us!

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#315

Post by Toutouxc »

Auracle wrote: post #182
jdietrich wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US restrictions on vehicle imports seem very odd from a British perspective. Over here, we can freely import pretty much anything. If it's more than 10 years old, you just register it. If it's less than 10 years old, you can still bring it in as a personal import, but it'll need to pass a slightly enhanced version of the normal annual inspection. It's a point of principle that any vehicle that passes inspection shoul…

A quick Google shows that only 15 states have vehicle inspections. The concept seems completely foreign (and a waste of time?) to me.

Not having vehicle inspections is a concept that's completely foreign to European me. It's literally letting people very lightly educated in how to operate heavy machinery operate heavy machinery that at one (long gone) point probably worked as it should.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#316

Post by oblio »

thevinmeister wrote: post #310
oblio wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm slightly confused. In Europe Volkswagen Passat, which is a regular sedan, can tow up to 2000kg braked (I think that's 4400 pounds) and 750 kg unbraked (1600 pounds): https://www.carsguide.com.au/volkswagen/passat/towing-capaci... Unless these sites use different measurement systems for towing (could be, I have no idea about these things), wouldn't a much smaller but more powerful car do? In Europe people regularl…

Having looked into RV trailers in both the US and EU, I can say that the US trailers are by and large MUCH bigger than in the EU. A quick Google search showed a trailer[0] on sale in the UK, weighing in at 3289 lb. This is a typical size that I would see being towed around where I live in southern Germany. In the US, a typical trailer[1] size could come in at ~4500 lbs. Mind you, this weight is what we call dry, not…

> Having looked into RV trailers in both the US and EU, I can say that the US trailers are by and large MUCH bigger than in the EU.

Hmmm... interesting.

It does make sense, though. Everything is bigger in the US: cars, roads, parking lots, nature reserves, people :-p

> https://rv.campingworld.com/rvdetails/used-fifth-wheel-rvs/2...

This is basically a house on wheels at this point :-)

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#317

Post by fireflash38 »

Dalewyn wrote: post #282
____jes wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately weight _is_ generally a predictor of occupant safety. IIHS says: “Frontal crash test results can't be used to compare vehicle performance across weight classes.… Given equivalent frontal ratings, the heavier of two vehicles usually offers better protection in real-world crashes.” https://www.iihs.org/ratings/about-our-tests

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.

It's this exact line of thinking that explains why there's an arms race going on - not just in larger vehicles, but a literal one where carrying a gun makes one person safer but almost everybody else around them less safe.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#318

Post by ilyt »

mdtusz wrote: post #4

In the PNW these are absolutely everywhere and for good reason - they're exactly what most people need when they need a truck bed for hauling capacity. Plus, many are 4/AWD and have relatively high clearance so they're great adventure wagons for forest roads and getting out there. If a manufacturer made a truck similar (or slightly larger - not much room for people 6' and over in them) available for the market here,…

They tend to be absolutely horrid when it comes to crash safety.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#319

Post by ilyt »

tinus_hn wrote: post #295
danuker wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Every time when I think I have an idea on how much asshole and terrible human being he was tidbit like this comes out and deepens it...

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#320

Post by p3rls »

weberer wrote: post #33
asdfigandfiono wrote: post #3

This goes to show just how superficial and backwards the American car industry is. You can do the job of a $50,000 pickup using a machine that is half the size of a Honda Civic, costs $10,000 new, gets 40 MPG, fits in any parking spot, is easy to load, and sells for around $10,000 new. But they look weak and girly . Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas.

>But they look weak and girly. If you've read the article, you'd see its because these vehicles don't conform to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

Plus, looking girly is totally different than looking small.

They look like utility vehicles to me, but then again I had a miata and a grom...

Post reply on HN