TexasCHLforum.com

... was stopped yesterday by a real cute blond lady cop for no front license plate on my Corvette .

Now most Corvette owners know that having a front plate on a Vette is worse than running around with your fly open . I followed the rules and presented my CHL with my license. She asked me if I was carrying my weapon right now and I said yes. She asked me where and I showed her. Then she asked me what I carry. I told her I got SIG and she said "Well, they don't give these to just anybody - you're free to go. Have a nice day".

I don't know if it was my corvette, my SIG, my CHL implying "solid citizen" , or my disarming charm - but my first armed encounter with LE ended well. Since I won't put a front plate on my vette, I'm sure I'll be meeting other LE officers looking for probable cause for traffic stops - I just hope they are all as cute a she was!

red2000vette wrote:Now most Corvette owners know that having a front plate on a Vette is worse than running around with your fly open

Apparently it's also a sin on a BMW; I have it on good authority from my boss that at least one DFW dealer won't put the front plate on when you buy a new Beemer unless you ask them to do so. Dodge has similar front end pride with their Vipers. I'm not even sure it's possible to put a front plate on a Lambo.

I'd say it's very probable that sooner or later you will encounter a hard-reared cop who will not be cute and will write you a $200 ticket under transportation code Sec. 502.404. The fact that most Vettes from 1990 onward in fact have a special area in which to install plates will not lend credence to your assertion that Vettes shouldn't have front plates. Now, if you are ticketed, you can install a front plate, then go to the city/county court, show them you've done so, and pay $10 before driving back home and taking the plate off, but something tells me that's against both your principles and the spirit of the law.

Liko81 wrote:

red2000vette wrote:Now most Corvette owners know that having a front plate on a Vette is worse than running around with your fly open

Apparently it's also a sin on a BMW; I have it on good authority from my boss that at least one DFW dealer won't put the front plate on when you buy a new Beemer unless you ask them to do so. Dodge has similar front end pride with their Vipers. I'm not even sure it's possible to put a front plate on a Lambo.

If you are driving a Corvette, BMW, Viper, or Lambo, you can afford the ticket. Us Nissan drivers on the other hand...

I have been driving my Miata for 8 years now with no front plate.

Pulled over once, a couple of years ago, for turning from one street (50mph speed limit) to another street (30mph speed limit) at 40mph, and got pulled over immediately. That day I also had a bike rack on the back of the car and my insurance card was out of date. So I got a warning for no front plate, obstructed rear plate, and 40mph in a 30. I got a ticket for the FTP insurance that was dismissed when I faxed the court the ins. card.

So in 95,000 miles of front-plate-less driving in Texas, I have gotten stopped exactly once, and on that stop, got a warning for the missing front plate. I think it has a lot to do with not speeding or driving like a nut.

I'm sorry, I don't get this blatent disregard for the law. Do we get to pick and choose which statutes we will obey?

The TDPS BTW are enforcing this requirement much more stringent these days by a directive.

I have both a vette and a lowered truck with a custom front bumper which i am unable to bring myself to drill. My solution is to mount the front plate inside on the windshield useing suction cups. I have been pulled over twice ,once in each car and the officers said that as long as they were visable from the front it was OK. And at carshows it pops off and can be stored under the front seat.

sbb wrote:I'm sorry, I don't get this blatent disregard for the law. Do we get to pick and choose which statutes we will obey?

Yes. Of course, we also have to deal with the consequences associated with those choices.

KC5AV wrote:

sbb wrote:I'm sorry, I don't get this blatent disregard for the law. Do we get to pick and choose which statutes we will obey?

Yes. Of course, we also have to deal with the consequences associated with those choices.

Yes, this is so very true... there are consequences attached to every choice we make and then we must be willing to accept the consequence of our choices. ...huh? In other words, I just really don't like getting a ticket!!

Showed mine (CHL, that is!) twice.

I was headed home kind of late (about 10:00 PM) on a Friday night from the old office in Houston's beautiful crime-free Westchase. Headed down Westheimer towards the Beltway and there was a roadblock; HPD was waving everybody over into a strip center parking lot. Officer came up to my window and I handed him my TDL, CHL, and insurance card. I told him I was carrying; he asked where it was and just said "well, don't let me see it". Asked where I was coming from and where I was headed so I told him from working late and headed home. Waved me over to a parking space, carrying my documents; I saw him get on his radio and in a few minutes he came back over, handed me my stuff and said "have a nice evening"- I said "well, same to you, officer" and that was it.

Coming back from loading up my feeder at the lease near Corrigan. Just out of Corrigan I get "lit up". My bad! I'd been carrying my validation sticker around for months without putting it on the windshield, what a dipstick. I had no idea why I was stopped until the LEO pointed it out. I told hime what I was doing and everything. I was nervous as a cat and the officer just laughed and told me not to worry about it and even said that "we like to see good folks like you carrying, just hang on and let me call this in and you can go get on your way". He called me in (the vehicle is registered in my wife's name), we had a short conversation about handgun hunting and that was it.

I'm always reading about folks getting asked to search their vehicles. It will probably happen to me sometime but neither of those LEOs even said anything about it to me. Although that time on Westheimer they were searching other vehicles, maybe the CHL does give us a little bit of slack.

KC5AV wrote:

sbb wrote:I'm sorry, I don't get this blatent disregard for the law. Do we get to pick and choose which statutes we will obey?

Yes. Of course, we also have to deal with the consequences associated with those choices.

Amen. Sometimes the consequence of deciding to disobey disagreeable laws, is a wonderful country like America.

The Founders were not especially obedient to silly laws.

Speaking of... there was a long discussion about front plates in another thread. Apparently Texas only requires that the front plate be "visible from the front"; the dashboard will do if you have it mounted so that it doesn't obstruct the driver's view, and so that it's clearly visible to the front.

Drivers of pointy cars might want to take advantage of that factoid. Personally, I drive vehicles with the aerodynamics of a sheet of plywood. Sideways.

sbb wrote:I'm sorry, I don't get this blatent disregard for the law. Do we get to pick and choose which statutes we will obey?

You mean like LEO, politicians, celebrities, etc? I got skewered on this board for having no front plate recently and looks like I am not the only one doing it. Well since all laws are proper and must be followed I guess we will quit fighting for RKBA? Just follow whatever law is written, must be right. No one on this board has lived their life without breaking some law somewhere.

front plates are dumb
i have a truck so i dont realy care but they are still dumb regardless

I dont think anyone is pushing the issue in Austin so this state will never get rid of this useless requirement.

rm9792 wrote:I dont think anyone is pushing the issue in Austin so this state will never get rid of this useless requirement.

well there are to many issues that trump this one IE CHL rights etc etc
keeping illegals out all that whos thinkning about front plates when there are other things at hand