Text 30536, 209 rader
Skriven 2009-03-30 20:28:38 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 30501 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Plates
==============
30 Mar 09 20:10, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Roy Witt:

 MvdV>>> Clear enough, two plates it is. So if you have no front plate,
 MvdV>>> you are in violation of the law.
 RW>> Yes, that's why I can be stopped for not having one.
 MvdV> And apparently you are willing to take that risk.

Yeup...is that as bad a being a pirate and robbing people of their
property rights as they do in Sveden?

 RW>>>> Of the 50 states and Puerto Rico, only 31 states require two
 RW>>>> plates for each vehicle, one for the front and one for the back.
 RW>>>> The remaining jurisdictions only require a rear plate.

 MvdV>>> So the majority requires two plates.

 RW>> Yes, but you must keep in mind that states do not do things because
 RW>> other states do them. Each one has it's own legislative body and
 RW>> each one of those has it's own agenda.

 MvdV> I unnderstand that. Nevertheless it is of advantage not to have too
 MvdV> much difference. Especially when it comes to trafic. here in Europe
 MvdV> things like that are harmonised. Tarffic sign are now all the same
 MvdV> all over Europe.

As they have been here in the last 100 years or so. Of course, this
standardization is done by the US DOT...

 RW>> i.e. the cost of making duplicate plates may outweigh the benifits
 RW>> of having two plates on each car.

 MvdV> I don't buy that. Making two plates only adds the cost of the raw
 MvdV> material. One has to set the machine for the requyired number only
 MvdV> once.

That's something that was quoted on the googled sites with that kind of
information. I can see the benefits of making only half as many plates as
they do now.

 RW>>>> The trend, however, may move to one plate only because of the
 RW>>>> cost of manufacture.

 MvdV>>> Cost? Ow c'mon.. What is the cost of that second plate compared
 MvdV>>> to the cost of the car. Peanuts.

 RW>> That's what you would think, but that isn't the case.

 MvdV> Of course it is. A set of plates costs EUR 15,-. for the car owner.
 MvdV> Production cost probable EUR 5,-. For a car that costs 10.000+.
 MvdV> C'mon...

You guys pay too much for those plates...we aren't charged for them.

 RW>> It costs more to make those aluminum plates with the bonded plastic
 RW>> coating, inking a design on it and then covering it with the
 RW>> relector material.

 MvdV> Making two instead of one is just having the machine run one more
 MvdV> time.

So instead of making 2 million plates, we can make 4 million just as
cheaply? Not likely.

 MvdV>>> Other than that: Most of the rest of the world requires two
 MvdV>>> plates. So figure it out...

 RW>> They're wasting materials that could be used for something more
 RW>> important and productive.

 MvdV> Peanuts. Besides.. the aluminium can be recycled. Nah

Nah is right. They don't collect those old plates for recycling.

 MvdV> , i do not buy that cost argument. The far bigger factor is guys
 MvdV> like you who prefer no front plate for estetic reasons.

I'm just trying to save them more money.

 MvdV>>> But they do not have patience with people who are waisting their
 MvdV>>> time and who do not WANT to obey the law. Which in your case
 MvdV>>> seems pretty clear. You know thate law requires two plates, You
 MvdV>>> *have* two plates. You just refuse to mount the front plate
 MvdV>>> because you find it doesn't look good. IOW you value your taste
 MvdV>>> above the law. That would not look good here in court.

 RW>> The best part about that is; I'm not alone in that thinking.

 MvdV> How does that help you? The law is the law.

There are people working on that legislation all the time. It'll get
introduced in the legislature until it's finally passed. Wait and see.

In case no one has ever told you, laws are made to be broken.

 RW>> In May of 2006, a bill was introduced in the Texas legislature that
 RW>> said only one plate is required on a vehicle. It even had a date of
 RW>> implimentation of Sept of the same year. It didn't pass,

 MvdV> it didn't pass and so the law is that you must have two plates.

And I continue to ignore that law.

 RW>>  but that doesn't mean it won't show up again.

 MvdV> But until it does and is passed, two plates is the law.

[yawn]

 MvdV>>> The very fact that you are convicted for not carrying a front
 MvdV>>> plate is an implicit order to correct the situation is it not?

 RW>> Of course, but that doesn't mean it has to be permanant.

 MvdV> Of course it has to be permanent. At least until the law is
 MvdV> changed.

[yawn]

 RW>> In fact, Chevrolet doesn't provide a front license plate bracket to
 RW>> dealers in states that don't require a front plate. In those states
 RW>> that do require a front plate, the bracket comes in the trunk and is
 RW>> dealer mounted. That's why I can say the car wasn't designed to have
 RW>> a front plate, since mounting one seems to be an after-thought.

 MvdV> Brackets? Hmmm.. now that you mention it, I vaguely recall that my
 MvdV> father's Ford Mainline (sixties) had the front plate mounted with
 MvdV> brackets.

 MvdV> Today's cars that you see on the road here do not need brackets to
 MvdV> mount the front plate. In fact most cars have a recess in the
 MvdV> bumber or the plating for the front plate. European and Asian cars
 MvdV> ARE designed for front plates.

Yeah, I've seen butchers screw plates to the body before.

 MvdV> You may have a point when you say American cars are not...

Some are like the Euro and Asian cars you mention, but those are made here
and not in Europe.

 MvdV>>> The law is the law. Two plates you said.

 RW>> I choose not to have two plates on my car. A LEO may choose to
 RW>> enforce the law or not. I'm not afraid of the consequences if he so
 RW>> chooses.

 MvdV> Well, do not complain here if you face "serious consequences". ...

Yes daddy, I promise I won't...

 MvdV>>> Here the state never made the plates. The state just laid down
 MvdV>>> the specifications. it always was up to the car owner to obtain
 MvdV>>> a plate matching the specifications.

 RW>> At one point they must have decided that they should make the
 RW>> plates, because everyone else's interpretation probably didn't match
 RW>> what they thought they should look like.

 MvdV> How does that jive with a free market economy?

How doesn't that jive? When you join the army, do they allow you to make
your own uniform or is a standardized uniform provided?

 RW>>>> Something else interesting was that Arizona's plates were made
 RW>>>> out of copper.

 MvdV>>> Why not? Sheet copper is easy to process.

 RW>> Arizona happens to have the biggest copper mines in the country.

 MvdV> So they got it it cheap...

 RW>> Perhaps the world. It might have been common place for them, but I
 RW>> find it strange that they'd do that when steel has always been
 RW>> cheap. Today you dare not leave any scrap copper laying around or
 RW>> someone will steal it for the scrap money.

 MvdV> Copper theft is a problem here as well. The ligntning rods from old
 MvdV> buidings are an easy target. So are the railways...

Believe it or not, theives are jumping the fences at power stations and
removing the copper wires - while the circuits are live!

 RW>> PS - There is a commercial antenna manufacturer in Atlanta, GA that
 RW>> uses copper in it's repeater antenna tuning cavities and they supply
 RW>> Motorola with those systems. They used to be silver plated copper,
 RW>> but these days I think they're silver plated tin. I had 4 of those
 RW>> cavities in silver plated copper in my UHF repeater.

 MvdV> I had 6 cavities made of copper in the local 2 metre repeater that
 MvdV> I was the care taker off. They were home made.

I've got four UHF cavities that I made in the garage.

 MvdV> Had to polish them every year, until I found someome to silver
 MvdV> plate them for me. Unfortunately he neglected to properly rinse out
 MvdV> the electrolyt after the orocess. It worked fine but after two
 MvdV> weeks the trouble started. Has to take them all apart to remove the
 MvdV> green stuff....

I etched mine with a metal cleaner, then painted them inside and out.

                R\%/itt




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