Mudflaps and OHV's in California
What's Legal, and What's Not
First, it should be made clear that I am not a lawyer and don't work in the legal profession. I am just a guy who got tired of ambiguity in the way that mudflap laws have been enforced in my area, so I decided to do some research and find out what is really true and what is not.
There are two documents in the state of California that determine use of mudflaps and fenders: California Vehicle Code (CVC) section 27600 and the Highway Patrol Manual (HPM) section 82.6.
This is CVC section 27600 in its entirety:
27600. No person shall operate any motor vehicle having three or more wheels, any trailer, or semitrailer unless equipped with fenders, covers, or devices, including flaps or splash aprons, or unless the body of the vehicle or attachments thereto afford adequate protection to effectively minimize the spray or splash of water or mud to the rear of the vehicle and all such equipment or such body or attachments thereto shall be at least as wide as the tire tread. This section does not apply to those vehicles exempt from registration, trailers and semitrailers having an unladen weight of under 1,500 pounds, or any vehicles manufactured and first registered prior to January 1, 1971, having an unladen weight of under 1,500 pounds.
Now, this is a pretty vague law. Here are some observations:
- It calls for “fenders, covers, or devices, including flaps or splash aprons, or unless the body of the vehicle or attachments thereto”. The word “or” in this context indicates that you don’t have to have all of these things as long as what you do have extends to the edge of the tire and will “afford adequate protection to effectively minimize the spray or splash of water or mud to the rear of the vehicle”. According to the law, you don’t need all of them as long as they keep mud and water from splashing to the rear of the vehicle!
- If you have a vehicle (trailer) that is less than 1500 lbs unladen weight (most jeep trailers), no splash protection whatsoever is required, period.
So now on to the second document, HPM 82.6, a two page document used by the CHP as an enforcement guideline for CVC 27600 (see citations below for a copy). The Watch Commander at the Placerville, California CHP office told me directly that when in court, CHP officers will refer directly to HPM 82.6 and judges will use it as an accepted interpretation of CVC 26700. So where does that leave us with the National Forests, local agencies, and BLM? The answer to that is that I am not sure, so everyone should take the information presented here and go talk to the enforcement agency in your area.
Here's what I found out locally: The Patrol Captain of the Eldorado National Forest told me directly that their Law Enforcement Officers (LEO’s) use HPM 82.6 in exactly the same way as the CHP, are trained to use it, and rely on the CHP as the authority in enforcing vehicle code violations. The document says an awful lot about commercial vehicles and not much about passenger vehicles, but I think I have distilled it out and will address only what it says that affects us.
Alright, on to what HPM 82.6 says:
- Fenders and/or flaps are required on trailers with an unladen weight of 1500 lbs or more, but does not require either on smaller trailers.
- All 4 wheeled motor vehicles weighing 1500 lbs or more are subject to flap and fender laws.
- All wheels in contact with the road must be adequately shielded to minimize the spray or splash of mud or water (doesn’t say anything about rocks) to the rear of the vehicle.
- Vehicles in combination (meaning towing a trailer) that are not at the rear of the combination are s.ubject to enforcement only if there is evidence that splash or spray extends to the rear of the combination of vehicles (you don’t need flaps or fenders if you are towing a trailer that prevents splash behind your vehicle).
- There is a “Guide for Determining Adequacy of Flaps” that has measurements and angles and distances listed in it, but these guidelines do not apply to passenger vehicles!
- Fenders and flaps must cover the width of your tread.
- Flaps should be placed “as far to the rear of the (rear) wheel as practical for greatest effectiveness”.
- The only vehicles that are required to have BOTH fenders and splash flaps are those hauling aggregate.
In my opinion, based on these two documents, the bottom line is that if you have a set of flaps that reasonably prevent splash or spray of mud or water to the rear of your vehicle, and cover the width of your tire tread, any citation issued to you can be fought and won in court. In order to be double sure you won’t get a citation (for those of you who don’t like to go to court, even if you are going to win), put fenders on it as well that extend to the edge of the tire tread and come forward to at least the centerline of the axle (the requirement for vehicles hauling aggregate).
That's it...pretty simple!
Citations: California Vehicle Code 27600
Email me if you have questions at: John.Arenz@RubiconTrailFoundation.org
