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Comment by Stevvo | Hacker News Reader

I love that you can get something like this road-legal in the US; in Europe you wouldn't stand a chance.

The only issue in Europe would be the loading gauge possibly being too big, but that's specific to this car, not specific to making your own custom car.

And with motorhome you're not going to take trips to tiny old city roads anyway, so you can go big.

Your only practical issue is that you need to have C-class driver license for many bigger motorhomes, due to weight limits on normal B-class driver's license. (C-class is trucks, including semi-trailer tractors)

That's amusing, in the US, its the other way around: Class C is for regular autos while Class A is for tractor trailers.

(Class B is for heavy vehicles not towing, like buses or large delivery trucks)

You also don't need a special license unless you're driving commercially. Anybody can drive a motorhome of any size.

That’s not entirely true. Most (all?) states have exemptions that let you drive a motor home with a class C license. But you still can’t drive a bus or tractor trailer, even non-commercially.

Absolutely not true. Some examples:

In California, you need a special license to drive anything 40 feet or longer.

In Texas, you need a special license to drive anything with max weight over 26,000 lbs.

I’m curious why you reckon it wouldn’t stand a chance. In Australia and New Zealand I’d expect it to be fairly straightforward (meaning fiddly in places but perfectly doable), so long as it isn’t too wide (it’s within half an inch of the US limit, by the sounds of it). I know one New Zealander making a fairly outrageously large, heavy and wide RV at present, and he knows all the details that will be required to get it road-legal (a family member has done something slightly less extreme before) and reckons it’ll be fine.

How does it getting approved in Australia or New Zealand help counter it being harder to approve in EU?

Australia and New Zealand are also less busy and have wider roads than most of western Europe.

> wider roads

Surprisingly but not, at least compared to Russia (and Switzerland)

Lanes here are narrower than in Russia and of my memory doesn’t fail me, when we were driving from Switzerland to Italy several years ago, the lanes there were as wide as in Russia.

My understanding is that Australia can be pretty picky. Dick & Pip Smith drove an Earthroamer (a $500k offroading RV) around the world and when he got to his native Australia there were several things he had to alter, even though it was titled in Colorado, had Colorado plates, and had a 12-month Carnet from the government for it. The ones I remember were he had to install wider fender flares to ensure full coverage, and replace the red rear turn signals with amber ones. Being famous there apparently didn't help.

The two things you recall are simple things that are only relevant when you’re bringing in a vehicle designed against different standards. When you’re making such a thing from scratch, you’ll consult with the standards documents (treating them as a checklist, to a considerable extent) and get it right from the start.

Because is not safe to drive. Wouldn't never pass the technical exam for vehicles each 6 months. You can't drive a car in a public road without it.

What specifically might they be likely to complain about? I’m unfamiliar with the idea of regular tests (in Australia I don’t think you ever need a roadworthiness check if you keep the vehicle’s registration) and don’t know what they’d be looking at.

“Because it’s not safe to drive” is nebulous; I’m interested in details.

The safety concept is pretty clear in fact: "Your extravaganza and attention craving, puts my life in risk".

To start, all car makers must destroy several vehicles in crash tests before are allowed to touch any public space. The analysis of the damages in dummies proves that they are safe in the most common types of collisions.

This car has not passed it. Would end the steering pedal buried in your belly in an accident? Nobody knows.

Was built with 1950' technology. Technology from the Korean war!. Early 90's maximum. Totally outdated in terms of safety. The structure could accumulate easily 50 years of stress over the materials or even more.

Wasn't designed to hold airbags or points able to support attachments for pyrotechnic seat belts. They would never work correctly with that structure.

The airplane part don't includes modern extra weak points designed and arranged in the structure to bend in a safe way and absorb the energy. Is a total mess in this sense. The pointy end probably guarantees, in my non expert opinion, that the cabin would be stripped off from the truck and pushed back against the driver in a frontal crash.

The brake system wasn't designed for this weight and center masses so could stop the vehicle too late, bend the brake disk or work in an unpredictable way.

The center mass looks higher than normal. The vehicle could turn upside down in a closed curve

In case of collision against somebody walking on the street the front of the vehicle is clearly unsuitable to protect human lives from serious injuries in spinal cord, head or legs. They wouldn't even see it coming with this tiny windows

And is so ugly that even hurts my eyes.

If you drive a sofa or a two-story bicycle you basically accept the risk over your life, not mine. A truckenstein is a different issue. I don't want this experiments allowed to be in the same road as me, ever.

For more details ask an engineer

I’ll address only a couple of points, but am sceptical of the relevance of most of it for roadworthiness certification.

In at least AU/NZ/US, I believe crash testing is only required for production vehicles above a certain number of units produced. Prototypes and experimental (one-off) vehicles don’t require it.

> So ugly that even hurts my eyes.

I would be deeply amused if this could actually be presented as grounds for disqualifying roadworthiness because it’s so intensely subjective and opinion-based.

Someone in the UK made a drivable sofa and was able to have it legally registered:

https://youtu.be/CTgLnUgzZYk

The requirements for custom vehicles are much less than for mass produced vehicles. Of course it is going to vary by country though. My country is very strict and doesn't even allow retrofitted LED license plate lights...

The requirements for vehicles go up with each weight category. Take the sofa as an example; it's registered as a motorcycle with sidecar. If it was a car instead of a 'motorcycle', it would need to meet additional requirements starting with a windshield. Heavy vehicles are strictest.

Clown vehicles for clown politician times. I'm not surprised really.

You love the fact technical inspection in US comes down to at most someone looking at the car from afar and proclaiming it road legal?

This is ok by you https://youtu.be/ZlwjXhdNd3Y?t=456 ? No instruments, no road legal lights, basically full racecar made legal by briefly looking at it on a parking lot.

We call it freedom...

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