This is probably what you meant, but just to clear it alittle, I think that we all need to rewrite a letter that someone thinks contains enough to convince the assemblymen, not the manufacturers. If the manufactures hear about it from just one person, they'll look into it. Send them a link to the actual bill. They'll read it and do what they can. The real benefit of individual letters will be to the government. You don't need to convince the manufactures - just the assembly.

In addition to letters to assembly, effort spent on finding all of the manufacturers would be the best payoff (IMO).

 

I think we need to prioritize and coordinate what we are doing here to get this done. Here are my thoughts in terms of priority order:

1) I agree with Barr (bterry) that it is the New York Assembly Transportation Committee that needs to hear from us. They are the ones we need to convince this is a dumb idea. Personally I don't think it matters if all the letters are the same as long as all the members of the Assembly receive them. I would love to bury them with tons of emails even it if it is the exact same letter. It is the number of letters, emails, or calls that will matter not that they are different. Also has anyone noticed when the vote on this bill will be? We need to get our letters to the Assembly before the vote takes place.

Ang - could you share what Aaron provided to you? Was it a letter or just all the emails in an easy to use format? I think if someone has a basic draft letter that we could all use it would be helpful. We can personalize it or just use one that has the basic facts contained in it would be helpful for members to send. Does someone have one already made yet?

2) As to contacting the manufacturers, that is easy and I agree with Barr in that all it will take is one of us contacting them. I think we need to coordinate this a bit so we cover more ground and are not doing double work. I have already contacted ARB, Warn, and Atlantic British (a NYS based Land Rover vendor) as I have personal contacts with each of these. I have already received word back from the president of ARB-USA that he asked for help from HQ in Australia. I will update this as soon as I hear back from them. For those of you interested in contacting manufacturers and/or vendors you are welcome to use my words or modify this to suit you or the person you are contacting. This is what I sent to ARB:

Subject: Assistance in fighting NYS bill ban on grill guards and brush guards

Can you help me with this? I am putting together a letter that can be used by several clubs to be sent to members of the New York Assembly Transportation Committee to vote "NO" against this bill. Are there some facts that you can provide me? I thought that the manufacturers had to ensure that a grill guard/brush guard would not effect the operation of an airbag. Is this true or false and do you have some kind of documentation we can direct the Assembly to?

If you need some background infomation here is a link to the bill:

http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A10116

Here is link to the SEMA article on it:

http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=62090

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. I would think that ARB would have a vested interest in this too considering you sell grill guards and brush guards. Maybe you can help get the word out too though the clubs and your customers.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

I also don't think it matters if the manufacturer/vendor you are contacting is a manufacturer/vendor for Ford vehicles. The more people we get help from the better. It is because of wheeling my Range Rover that I have personal contacts at the above mentioned companies. So use your contacts if you have them!!

3) I think we need to continue to spread the word with the focus being that they send letters, email, or call the New York Assembly Transportation Committee. Here is a list of sites that I know of that have this bill posted already:

FTE
SEMA
Ford Truck World
Team Mudnuts 4x4 Club - Rochester based off road club
East Coast 4 Wheel Drive Assocation
Finger Lakes Rover Club - Rochester based Land Rover club
British Pacific - Land Rover vendor
WNY Car Clubs forum
Jeepaholics forum
Xterra Firma forum
izook.com - Suzuki Samarai
bronco9.com forum

I am sure there are others, but those are the ones that I aware of at this moment.

 

As I live in the next state down and have 450 lbs. of Ranch Hand Bumper and Bull Bar on my truck, I'd be glad to help. I too live in an area with alot of deer and runaway livestock.

My sister lives in the Finger Lakes. Does this mean that they're going to stop me on NY roads when I drive through? The wording of the bill is silly. Take my truck for example. If someone pulls out in fron of me and I tee-bone them. Is the damage going to be all that different with or without the bumper?

Here in NJ, if your vehicle is registered commercial, it changes a lot of the rules. Is that possible in NY? I have deep, factory tinted windows (to hide expensive tools) and
that massive bumper. I don't have to go through inspection..go figure.

State legislators are out of control here in the Northeast. They need to be put back on the leash and start taking care of real problems. This "feel good" legislating is crap.

 

please don't talk about runaway livestock. we had very big bull loose 2 weeks ago that broke out of a trailer in route to the S. house it was running around the middle of town, usally just a smaller cow that gets out.
i can just see some drunk driving the road and see a 1k plus bull in front of him runing down the road .

 

Hitting a deer is one thing, hitting a cow is another. You'd be wishing for that big bumper then.

 

I also posted @ F150Online & ford-trucks.com. I also emailed Sam Hoyt & SEMA as instructed. My email is in a new post here.

 

I will send an email to the following companies. If anyone else wants to help, feel free to do the ones I couldn't find or start going through the google list.

Go Rhino - (Click Here to find out why email addresses are removed from posts.)
Westin - (Click Here to find out why email addresses are removed from posts.)
WAGG Los Angeles - (Click Here to find out why email addresses are removed from posts.)
Manik - (Click Here to find out why email addresses are removed from posts.)
Aries Off Road - (Click Here to find out why email addresses are removed from posts.)
Go Industries Inc. - http://www.goindustries.com/home/go1/contact_main.html
Tal & Hadas - (Click Here to find out why email addresses are removed from posts.)
Fabtech Motorsports - (Click Here to find out why email addresses are removed from posts.)
DeeZee - (Click Here to find out why email addresses are removed from posts.)
(Don't worry about the email address being removed - I've got them)

Other possibilities:

Big Game - COULDN'T FIND A WESITE/EMAIL
Polar Bear - COULDN'T FIND A WESITE/EMAIL
SmittyBilt - COULDN'T FIND A WESITE/EMAIL

http://www.google.com/alpha/Top/Business/Automotive/Parts_and_Accessories/Trucks,_Vans,_and_Sport_Utility/

I suggest posting the ones in this thread to keep the list easy.

 

Thanks bterry! I was assembling the list & got sidetracked @ SEMA's site!

Smittybilt is www.smittybilt.com - phone/fax # or snail mail only for contacts.

Still looking for the other 2 sites. Email me when you get time ok?

 

I just wrote a web mail application. It has a hard coded message similar to Ronin007's message. I don't want to make a text field, as that would make it unsecure (spam tool). All you need to do is put in a address and send it. Check it out. If anyone thinks I should edit the mail body - I will.

Intended to be sent to manufacturers or retailers.
http://www.geosurface.com/mailprogs/mail2manufacturers.asp?

Cowlady - I'll do a whois to get a smittybilt email address. And will mail you as well.

 

Got a smittybilt email. Sent them the message using my site. (first actual use)

 

WOW bterry!!!!!!! God Bless you for knowing what that is & how to do it! That was - well it was WOW! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One ? for you - when we use that form will the banner ads also show to the recipient?
Hey - I just had an idea. If I compose a petition to be printed out can you do that same thing with it? I was thinking we need to take paper petitions into local offroad shops/auto part stores & get actual signatures to send to Albany. It is usually easier to get someone to sign a petition that to sit & email or call politicians. Whadda ya think?

 

There are no banner ads - that must be on your machine or something.

I could do something. Maybe a database (but don't really see the need), I could certainly put up a blank petition for people to print. What were you thinking?

 

Check your email! I am insure about the wording so that's why I haven't posted yet.

 

For those of you who have already sent a letter or email or a phone call to a member or hopefully to all the members of the New York Assembly Transportation Committee....THANK YOU!!!!

If you have not done so yet, please do so ASAP. I was just reading this on Autoblog and it is scary the way that some people think. Look at several of the comments that were posted:

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/03/28/n...brush-bar-ban/

They sound like sheep being sent to the slaughter blindly following one another. They are taking the bill for face value not questioning where the data came from (if there is any data) or where this can lead.

I can hear the members on the New York Assembly Transportation Committee now: "Gee let's ban anything that can be dangerous to a pedestrian. Let's start with trucks and SUVs. Ok.... now that is done it seems these darn cars are a hazard to pedestrian so let's ban those. Ok.... that is is done now these darn bicycles are a danger, let's ban those. Man now all these people are walking on the streets getting in the way and bumping into me. Let's get the Buffalo SWAT team to take care of them the way that they took care of the deer there!!!" (I know Ang, it hits alittle to close to home for you).

 

Ronin - good post! Now - I have some GOOD news which I'll put in a new post. Standby.............!