Doors or no doors

[northernjeep]

I know it,s winter and most if not everyone are running with doors but I would like to revive this as a subject. Based on a conversation I had years ago with a police officer CJ,s built before 1986 are the only Jeep legally allowed to run without doors. The reason for this is Jeep,s of this era when purchased new at the dealer had doors listed as an option. Jeep was the ONLY manufacturer that ever had this option. All other series of Jeeps had doors installed by the factory and they were NOT optional. I was just reading a long thread over at BC 4x4.com about this topic and one of their members went to the trouble of contacting their motor vehicle branch which stated the exact same thing. We all see YJ, TJ JK,s out there in summer running doorless and pretty much everyone does not get hassled over it. Plus there is the convertible top issue, soft top doors don,t offer any protection.
Reality is, it,s pretty much up to the officer whether you get a ticket or not. If you do get a ticket and you are in a newer Jeep, you will probably lose and have to pay. More often than not if you are driving responsibly most officers will overlook no doors. And don,t forget to run mirrors both sides also.

[JeepBob]

Which section of the HTA would apply to this? Are we just opening a can of worms for no good reason?

[LOBSTER]

One or both mirrors are not necessary on all vehicles. As per the Vehicle Inspection Handbook from the MPI site which states to reject if the following conditions are met.

Left side mirror

a) missing from passenger vehicles manufactured after Jan.1, 1971; missing from any  truck or bus regardless of model year

Right side mirror

(b) missing from multipurpose passenger vehicles  manufactured on or after Sept. 1, 1988; miss- ing from any truck or bus regardless of model  year

Note: This probably applies to left hand drive vehicles. It's possible this could all be reversed for right hand drive. Before someone goes off on a tangent about those overseas imports having their own hurdles to pass, there are a lot of postal carrier Jeeps that were built, sold, and only operatted in North America.

[TheHurricane]

I was told that new jeeps all have nuts on the bottom of the door hinge pins making them a bolted on accessory where the old jeeps just slide on with no nut to hold them down. Could someone with a cj comment as to having or not having nuts?

[River Jed]

I have an 83 CJ 7 and the upper pins are threaded for a nut but the lower is just a pin no threads

[GotRoks]

It can be argued either way I think at this point.

The best way to find out is visit VIU without doors and see if it passes giving all reasons for why it should. I mean I could argue designed to come off, jeep puts a warning sticker that doors and top are designed to keep environmental elements out but not to keep passengers in etc.

BC is different. There the VIU has taken a stance that only factory doors pass safety. You can't run any other door like tube or aftermarket half doors. Only choice you have is factory half doors. Now that said I see that it is not enforced in northern bc. It is really left up to the police to make that call.

I have been making changes to my jeep to meet there safety requirements as I don't want to have troubles there once I move to interior bc area.