Interpretation ID: aiam2048
General Manager
Flasher Division
Ideal Corporation
1000 Pennsylvania Avenue
Brooklyn
NY 11207;
Dear Mr. Rothfield: This is in reply to your letter of August 11, 1975. You ask fo confirmation that 'variable load flashers are permitted as replacement equipment by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 for any vehicle contemplated by Paragraph S2 of the Standard, where such devices shall operate in accordance with the appropriate Tables of the Standard.' You noted that some suppliers were under the impression that variable load flashers, which do not provide a failure indication, were not permitted as after-market replacements for fixed-load flashers.; The confusion apparently arose when the agency amended S4.5.6 o Standard No. 108 (June 6, 1974, 39 FR 20063) to permit variable-load flashers to be used (*i.e.*, to except from the failure indicator requirement) on trucks capable of accommodating slide-in campers (as well as vehicles of 80 inches or more overall width and those equipped to tow trailers, as provided by S4.5.6 before the amendment). To specify its intent more definitely, the amendment added the words, 'where a variable-load turn signal flasher is used,' to the exception to the requirement for a failure indicator. Some persons evidently thought that the new, explicit reference to variable-load flashers meant that such flashers could not be used as replacement equipment where the vehicles originally had fixed-load flashers.; That was not the agency's intent. The language was only added to mak it clear that where a fixed-load flasher is installed as original equipment, a failure indicator must be included. But a variable- load flasher may be used as replacement equipment for a fixed- load flasher on any of the vehicle classes specified in S2 as covered by the standard.; Incidentally, the statement in your letter that the June 1974 amendmen 'concerned itself only with original equipment applications' is incorrect. S2 of the standard states in pertinent part that it applies to 'lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment for replacement of like equipment on vehicles to which this standard applies.' This means that equipment must comply with applicable requirements regardless of whether it is used as original or replacement equipment. For example, original and replacement variable load flashers must both meet the appropriate requirements of SAE Standard J590b, 'Automotive Turn Signal Flashers,' October 1965.; Sincerely, Frank A. Berndt, Acting Chief Counsel