PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

Points on my license. Between that and a couple of tickets..

Ran me about that 21 years ago.

3K for lawyer.
3K extra for insurance over 6 years...though that also included fixing my car which was about 4K in work.
Roughly 2K taking the train to work for 6 months.
$800 for the classes
I'm sure about $1200 in fines and miscellaneous crap.

And yes, none of that horseshit. Haven't touched the stuff since.

 

My last ticket was in Vermont in 2019. In most states even local cops can use radar and I came out of a 55 mph zone on a nice rural 2 lane road and was entering a small town where the posted limit dropped to 30mph. Admittedly I was doing over the posted 55 to begin with but by the time I realized I was within the town's borders and the speed limit had dropped it was already too late. The local sheriff was sitting alongside the road in an unmarked Dodge Charger and I was came up on him him lit me up. I pulled over right in front of him close enough that he didn't even have to move his car because I knew he had me. I was very polite as was he and he wrote it at 53 in a 30 zone rather than the 58 he could have written. Had he written the 58 I would have been forced to appear in court so this allowed me to just write a check and drop it in the mail after I got home. No points since VT is too far away from PA and I paid the fine as soon as I got home. $153.00 so I viewed it as a relatively affordable lesson.

 

@BkerChuck

Cop told me to plead not guilty; I don't want 4 points on my license...

 

Would it even be possible to do an LS swap on a 2nd Gen and retain things like A/C? Would the OBD2 have to be swapped out?

 

@Taco critter

Seriously, why would I just plead guilty and accept the charges? I've never done that before. It's just not in my nature, and I've always gotten the charges reduced to no points; I admit that I was wrong, but I can admit that I was wrong without dropping my pants and bending over for PennDOT...

The lesson here is to (A) watch my speedometer very closely and watch my speed, and (B) avoid that stretch of road like the plague. There are numerous roads and intersections I go out of my way to avoid one, or any combination of, the following...

• Torturously long stretches of road with a speed limit of 25-35 MPH.
• Uncontrolled intersection where I have to make a left or go straight.
• Obnoxiously long red lights/short green lights.
• At least two thirds of New Jersey.

 

I watched the movie with my grandma and cousin on VHS at her house in Maine. When the sex scene between Jack and Rose in the back of William Carter's Renault limousine came up, I was like "who's gonna want that car now that somebody's had sex in it?" I was like 14 or 15 at the time, and had gone through both "the talk" from my dad and sex ed in school, so I knew exactly what was going on and was mature about it. My grandma was like 64 or 65 at the time and has always either said it like it is or made a wiseass remake. This time, it was a combination of both. She said something like "they're just giving it character" and I laughed; I'm glad that Renault had leather seats...

 

NG?

 

Throw them a curve and tell them you wish to plead "No Contest". You're not admitting guilt but acknowledging you're likely to lose in court. I did that once many years ago at a Magistrates office. Lady up front told me I wasn't allowed to do that I had to either take guilty or not guilty. I asked to speak to the magistrate so he came out and I asked. He told me it was perfectly legal for me to do so.

FWIW I live in a development with a posted 25 mph speed limit. Houses on both sides of street. Lots of families, quite a few with young kids and one young man across from me with special needs aged 30 but mentally about 4 or 5. School is out. We see people form the trailer park behind our street always flying up through and have had more than a few close calls. There have been more than a few cases where some asshat can be damned thankful I don't have access to spike strips. If you were doing the speed then man up and take your lumps.

 

@ColoradoTJ

I can actually afford my insurance right now and want to keep it that way; I have a clean driving record except for a minor at-fault accident in June 2021, and I intend to do everything in my power to keep it that way. Accident forgiveness saved my ass in 2021 and kept my rates from going up, and the state trooper who responded did not want to give me a ticket. Nobody was injured and my truck was able to be driven home. Unfortunately, there is this stupid law that if somebody is injured or a vehicle has to be towed, the at-fault party gets a ticket.

I was a 3-way intersection where a 2-lane road crossed a busy 4-lane highway, and it was controlled by two stop signs. I went without looking left a third time, after a waiting a good 4-5 minutes, and a nailed a 2017 Kia Sedona on the left quarter panel. The van was not damaged badly at all and no airbags went off, but I hit the van at such an angle that the left rear wheel was bent upwards and it had to be towed. Automatic ticket, which the trooper told me to plead not guilty to; I went to court and the trooper asked the judge to dismiss the charges, which she did.

 

I miss Whidbey Island sometimes; I loved the beautiful scenery and mild temperatures, but I didn't like the isolation of living on an island or the subpar public schools on said island...

 

@ColoradoTJ

I also love Washington for the fact that they don't salt their roads and thus, cars don't rust! Here in Pennsylvania, Ford Econoline vans tend to start dusting before they are ten years old. Andy, the guy who did @Stitchgirl90's tattoo coverup last month, moved from Washington and drives a 1992 Ford Club Wagon that spent the first three decades of its life in the PNW. The van has over 200K miles (which is low for a vehicle that was 31 years old at the time I took the picture), but aside from some dents, it is clean!

 

My friend Colleen's dad is an electrician and owns his own company. His work van is a Ford Econoline that is at least twenty years. That van runs and drives great, and the A/C works, but the body is rotted. The fender wells are especially bad; Ford trucks, SUVs, and vans all seem to rot out really badly around here. I see 2009-2014 F150s that look much older than they actually are because of the rust, and Super Duties tend to rust so bad that I see them driving around with the bed literally sagging on the frame rails!

 

I tend to keep it exactly 5 MPH above the speed limit. In Pennsylvania, only 6 MPH results in a ticket with points, and 5 MPH over is what speeding tickets get reduced to when people fight ticket; 5 MPH over will not go on your record and doesn't in points. I have never gotten my license suspended or even gotten any points. @Stitchgirl90 has had one minor accident that was not her fault, and has never been pulled over, so she's a better driver than me!

 

From PennDOT...