Interpretation ID: 77-2.43

TYPE: INTERPRETATION-NHTSA

DATE: 05/27/77

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; Joseph J. Levin Jr.; NHTSA

TO: Sullair Corporation

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This responds to your April 1, 1977, question whether your company's wheel mounted portable air compressors qualify as motor vehicles under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, as amended, (15 U.S.C. @ 1381, et. seq.).

The answer to your question is yes. Section 102(3) of the Act defines motor vehicle as:

any vehicle driven or drawn by mechanical power manufactured primarily for use on the public streets, roads, and highways, except any vehicle operated exclusively on a rail or rails.

Thus, a motor vehicle is a vehicle which the manufacturer expects will use the public highways as part of its intended function. Vehicles which use the highway on a necessary and recurring basis to move between work sites are motor vehicles. Since your portable air compressors are used in this manner they qualify as motor vehicles. For purposes of regulating motor vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) established vehicle catagories within that class. Your portable air compressors meet the definition of one of those catagories, trailers.

The following safety standards are applicable to the manufacture of trailers: Safety Standard No. 108, Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment; Standard No. 121, Air Brake Systems, and Standard No. 106-74, Brake Hoses (in the case of trailers equipped with air brakes); and Standard No. 120, Tire Selection and Rims for Vehicles Other Than Passenger Cars.

You will have to certify the compliance of your trailers to these safety standards. Part 566, Manufacturer Identification (49 CFR Part 566), specifies identification information which must be submitted to the NHTSA by manufacturers of vehicles and equipment that are regulated by our safety standards. Part 567, Certification (49 CFR Part 567, specifies the content and location of the certification label or tag that must be attached to motor vehicles regulated by our standards.

SINCERELY,

SULLAIR CORPORATION

April 1, 1977

United States Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration James B. Gregory, Administrator

Sullair Corporation requests a formal determination as to whether or not wheel mounted portable air compressors manufactured by our company fall under the jurisdiction of 15USC1391-1431 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, or any of the Federal Regulations listed in Appendix 1, or any other Federal Regulations administered by the United States Department of Transportation.

Briefly, our wheel mounted portable air compressors can be categorized as shown in Fig. 1 through 4, attached. Obviously, all of these categories may be considered trailers. They all have pneumatic tires, some with rims. They all contain an engine with fuel system, but none are self propelled, nor are they intended to carry passengers or any operator, and some are lined with acoustical materials.

15USC1391-1431 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, Title 1, Part A, Sec. 102, (3), states -" 'Motor Vehicle' means any vehicle driven or drawn by mechanical power manufactured primarily for use on the public streets, roads, and highways, except any vehicle operated exclusively on a rail or rails".

Our interpretation of this statement has been that our wheel mounted portable air compressors do not come under the jurisdiction of these Federal Regulations due to the fact that they are manufactured primarily to provide compressed air at construction sites and the like, and the fact that they are drawn over public street roads, and hghways for the purpose of transporting them from one construction site to another, or to the site of road repair, for example, was only incidental to their use, and not the primary function they are manufactured to perform.

Occasionally, we factory install customer specified optional equipment on these wheel mounted portable air compressors, such as electric, hydraulic, pneumatic, or vacuum operated service brakes, mechanical, hydralic, or pneumatic, operated parking brakes, electric or hydralic operated brakeaway brakes, safety chains stop lights, turn indicator lights, tail lights, running and/or clearance lights, hazard warning lights, and/or reflective devices, for example.

It has been our thinking that installing this sort of optional equipment only enhances the safety with which these wheel mounted portable air compressors may be drawn from one work site to another, and in no way alters the primary function that they are manufactured to perform, and as a result, does not automatically bring these products under the jurisdiction of the Federal Regulations mentioned elsewhere.

Please let us have your determination as to whether or not our interpretation and thinking are correct.

E. C. Elliott Engineer, Product Safety and Environment

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