Pulled out of NAPA parking lot into medium traffic, nailed it, got that nice third gear chirp in the Townie 4BT. Safely into traffic, cruising through town, maybe 5-7 over the limit, slowing to cut into the bank.

CHP coming in the opposite direction, slowed down & whipped a hard U across 4 lanes and came after, red lights flashing. Fine, I was stopping anyway. He followed the desperate criminal into the bank parking lot. Came up and was medium friendly, not friendly enough, I was composed and as friendly as possible. License, insurance, registration, yes, sir. Out of state license, we chatted about that. To my everlasting surprise, "Yeah, no problem on that, there's not much you can do there. You have to choose if you live in 2 states but with your California ID matched to the license it tells us what we need to know, and you have your insurance, so that's not a problem, we don't care about that."

"But the reason I pulled you over is that I observed that you were pushing it on the speed limit, and observed that you were not wearing your seatbelt. I see that you have it on now. Speeding, that's a ticket. No seatblet, that's a ticket. Speeding & no seatbelt, that's a problem, possibly a very large problem. I'm not going to write you on the speeding, and I see that you have your seatbelt on now..."

So I thought I was off, but he came back with a ticket & notice to appear for '27315 [d]VC Unbelted Driver'

Vehicle listed is '1967 Dodge Power Wagon GRN type 01'

Soooooo, I need some advice. Can somebody please advise me how, exactly how, this young CHP officer could ever possibly observe me as not wearing a seatbelt in a truck whose profile is about 2 feet higher than his snazzy cruizer, while traveling in the opposite direction, at 40 miles per hour?!!?

For a fact the truck came from the factory with no seatbelts ever installed, no facility for seatbelts, no anchoring points, and with a floor area & framing not even designed or suitable for seatbelts!

Seatbelt mandatory installation by manufacturer did not become law until during the 1967 model year, same as dual chamber master cylinders. Truck never had that either, no Townie has a dual chamber master from the factory. I've never seen a Townie with factory seatbelts. Far as I know, this was the single, one & only Town Wagon built in 1967, the last one off the Dodge assembly line, and Dodge doesn't even admit building this one!

I had to tear out floors, build a 1" x .120 square tubing superstructure under floors, then plate that with 3/16" steel in order to invent a solid steel mounting point for my custom installed belts. Pictures of that project are in Norm's DTA Image Event Album under 'Town Wagon/Panel' images number 38-42 & 58-66.

See ya in court, copper, you young whipper snapper you! No, sir, there was a time back in the far distant past when trucks didn't have front & side airbags, padded dash, recessed knobs, collapsible steering column, ABS disc brakes, built-in cup holders, rear window defrosters, collapsible front bumpers, OR SHOULDER HARNESS SEAT BELTS!!!!

It would be oh, so nice if these guys were in the cities with populations above 3,000, busting gang punks, drug dealers, rapists & murderers, illegal immigrants, pedophiles, hookers, con artists etc. instead of burning up taxpayer dollars writing sillyass tickets for not wearing a seatbelt. That's too much like work though. Plus it would actually cut down on crime, then we wouldn't need so many cops....oooohhhh, can't do THAT!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2009 09:10AM by JimmieD.