On The 4th we took the Jeep up to Big Bear to meet another racer and do a little crawling. On the way up, a guy hauling arse crosses the line into our lane on a corner and I have to swerve scaring the crap out of my wife and I. About 5 seconds later a CHP passes us going his way and we joke, he'll get him.
Less than a minute later the CHP is on my tail and in the first turn with a pull off, lights us up? Waddles up on the pass side where (we are 50' off the road), walks pst the window and looks at the front bumper and walks ot the pass window and asks for paperwork; which we hand him and my wifes asks "what's wrong officer" (as we were doing about 35-40 on the curves uphill and it was a 40 or 45 zone)?
He says: "The lightbar you have on the front bumper isn't covered!"? I look at the switch and apologize asking was it on? He says no and asks if my wife if she has ID, walks away and then spends 10+ minutes running us. He finally comes back with a fix it ticket for a 20" light bar cover (REALLY) and a pep talk about how it's illegal to have uncovered off road lights... FYI the light bar has been on the Jeep for over 4 years and never heard a word about it before or the one on my FJ that I DD which has been it on for 5 years. We sign and he ignores a few other potential violations. During all this since he said uncovered lights and spun a U turn to run us down... My wife counted 3 cars hauling ass coming down the hill on the curve with tires screeching and 4 vehicles headed down with uncovered lights.
All day we joked about all the uncovered lights which was approximately 99.5% of ALL the jeeps and all the vehicles that had any aftermarket lights on them we saw: Big, small, round or square and every LED bar from 10" to the massive roof LED bars that are all the rage. It's would have given Super Trooper a boner!
In conversation with a local later that day, he said lots of rookie CHP's on the hill and lots of stupid tickets.
So yesterday I fabbed a quick Alum cover and zip tied it on. Found me a Sr. CHP officer today in a parking lot who signed off on it. I mentioned that it seemed tit for tat afterward and he chuckled and said basically; lot's of rookies and lots of light bar tickets as we have been told to crack down on their use on the roads as they are very popular and bright... Seems maybe ownership and "use" is a misunderstood term.
Don't know if it's a rookie thing, light bar deal or just a guy that dislikes off roaders or green Jeeps... But to flip a U turn and then haul tail to catch us over that just seems very odd.
Just a heads up!
Less than a minute later the CHP is on my tail and in the first turn with a pull off, lights us up? Waddles up on the pass side where (we are 50' off the road), walks pst the window and looks at the front bumper and walks ot the pass window and asks for paperwork; which we hand him and my wifes asks "what's wrong officer" (as we were doing about 35-40 on the curves uphill and it was a 40 or 45 zone)?
He says: "The lightbar you have on the front bumper isn't covered!"? I look at the switch and apologize asking was it on? He says no and asks if my wife if she has ID, walks away and then spends 10+ minutes running us. He finally comes back with a fix it ticket for a 20" light bar cover (REALLY) and a pep talk about how it's illegal to have uncovered off road lights... FYI the light bar has been on the Jeep for over 4 years and never heard a word about it before or the one on my FJ that I DD which has been it on for 5 years. We sign and he ignores a few other potential violations. During all this since he said uncovered lights and spun a U turn to run us down... My wife counted 3 cars hauling ass coming down the hill on the curve with tires screeching and 4 vehicles headed down with uncovered lights.
All day we joked about all the uncovered lights which was approximately 99.5% of ALL the jeeps and all the vehicles that had any aftermarket lights on them we saw: Big, small, round or square and every LED bar from 10" to the massive roof LED bars that are all the rage. It's would have given Super Trooper a boner!
In conversation with a local later that day, he said lots of rookie CHP's on the hill and lots of stupid tickets.
So yesterday I fabbed a quick Alum cover and zip tied it on. Found me a Sr. CHP officer today in a parking lot who signed off on it. I mentioned that it seemed tit for tat afterward and he chuckled and said basically; lot's of rookies and lots of light bar tickets as we have been told to crack down on their use on the roads as they are very popular and bright... Seems maybe ownership and "use" is a misunderstood term.
Don't know if it's a rookie thing, light bar deal or just a guy that dislikes off roaders or green Jeeps... But to flip a U turn and then haul tail to catch us over that just seems very odd.
Just a heads up!
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