ROCKINGHAM — A truck alteration trend somewhat popular in the Carolinas could soon be outlawed.
The N.C. House of Representatives last week almost unanimously passed HB 692 which would restrict the modification known as the “Carolina Squat” — where the front end of a pickup truck or SUV is jacked up higher than the back.
The bill would prohibit vehicles from being raised more than three inches in the front and lowered two inches in the rear from the manufacturer’s specified height. (See attached at the bottom of this story.)
Vehicles exceeding those restrictions would be forbidden on public roads and drivers could be cited, with three citations within a year leading to a license revocation.
Primary sponsors of the bill, filed April 27, are House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, Majority Whip Jon Hardister, R-Guilford, and Reps. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, and Jason Saine, R-Lincoln.
The bill garnered bipartisan support, passing 107-5, according to legislative records. Those voting no included House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and Rep. James Boles, R-Moore.
Many of the style’s detractors say squatted trucks are hazardous.
A photo circulating on social media, purportedly out of Scotland County, shows a squatted truck rear-ending a passenger car.
One petition on Change.org calls for making squat modifications illegal.
The petition description reads:
“These trucks blind people with their headlights pointed to the sky and show zero care for others safety, they also pose a danger to passengers in cars by having the nose of their trucks pointed up, causing a side collision to flip a passenger car or truck, their steering is off balance, their trucks braking power is worse. All drivers usually cut off their catalytic converters causing pollution to the enviroment! There is supposed to be a law stating a front bumper shouldn’t be so high but it’s not enforced! This law needs to be done so that lifts on trucks don’t allow a front bumper to go above a standard cars trunk lid and to not allow just the front of a Truck be raised up to cause an unbalance in the trucks suspension and safety issues for others in the community!!!”
The petition, started seven months ago, had nearly 68,000 signatures of the 75,000 goal by 7 p.m. Thursday.
There are two other petitions to ban the trend, including one in Alabama.
Several other petitions, including one each for North and South Carolina, are in favor of squatted trucks.
The N.C. petition has the most signers — more than 18,700 and rising as this story was being written— and appears to be in response the one wanting the style banned:
“People made a petition to get sqautted trucks illegal cause they don’t like it or think it looks dumb but us Carolina boys made this petition to keep it legal cause we like it and if it a tooted up we don’t want it.”
The description for the Palmetto State petition reads:
“Squatted trucks are combined as a huge friend group the truck meets bring fun and entertainment and make memories and you can meet new people from all around. Just because others do not like the way they look or sound doesn’t mean they should try and make them illegal it’s our vehicle and we do what we want to it.”
In one supportive petition, the originator isn’t a fan of the squat, but worries what other restrictions could follow:
“I think Carolina squat is the dumbest thing honestly, I hate the way it looks and there’s no way it’s comfortable to drive that way. However, if this gets passed what other vehicular modifications are people going to try and put a damper on in the name of “I don’t like this”. Will I have to lift the mustang back up? Take my subs out the Jeep? Peel my window tint off so people can see my sound system and know what they can steal? Nah, let the yee yee boys squat.”
Rep. Ben Moss, R-Richmond, who voted for the bill, agrees that squatted trucks have the potential to be dangerous on the roads.
“This is a very narrow bill targeted specifically to those trucks that pose a hazard for other drivers,” Moss said in a statement. “This bill will not affect all modified trucks, but rather only those that are lifted in such a way as to inhibit or impair the vision of the driver of these vehicles, and the vision of other drivers at night, due to the angle created by raising the front markedly more than the rear.”
The bill was sent to the Senate May 7 and referred to the Rules Committee May 10.
