First post, just bought a 98 e250, van has 90k miles on it it drives nice and smooth no complaints other then a little noise from the belt but no big deal. I bought the van from a plumber he just got a box truck so he just wanted to get rid of it, bought it for $650.... body needs little work, dent on sliding door and also I am going to paint it myself it needs it bad.

So basically I work for myself as a locksmith and been working out of my jeep wrangler unlimited but obviously no work space. I needed a van I can drive on the parkways with and in NY I need at least one side window to do that. The outline to cut the window out is already there obviously so doesn't seem to difficult, jigsaw and sawzall should do it but idk if I wanna take the chance. How much am I looking at to either get just a single window installed or a porthole window, whatever is cheaper..... thanks

 

So if I get you right, you are required to have a side window to drive on the roads you want to drive on. Is that correct? Funny laws. Anyhow putting a window into a cargo van is a pretty common task that body builders do all the time. A body shop could probably hook you up, but it wouldn't be terribly cheap (several hundred at least) What about just driving it and seeing if anyone notices? I mean how many cops know the regs there about that? Would people complain?

 

 

Ny really has the dumbest laws. I live in suffolk county long islan and I could deff get away with driving on the Parkway with no side window but I do work in nassau and those cops do not play around. Probably could get away with it but is it worth a 300$ ticket, probably not

 

Wow, so an "Oops didn't know officer" from a working dude in a van would land you with $300 ticket for lack of side windows. Amazing. I'm in the Midwest and can't imagine that.

There's a section of road we drive down that says "no vehicles over 10,000lbs GVW" and I once had a driver raise that issue with me when I had him pulling a 2k lb trailer with the 8600lb van and I was like really? Ain't no way they'll mess with you. I rescheduled another less nervous driver and it was fine. Anyhow, my view is as long as no one complains and you aren't grossly violating reasonable regulations that it's probably not going to be an issue.

I think there's a rule in NYC where you have to have a man waving a red flag in front of any vehicle driven by a woman to warn other drivers. Point is, lots of stupid regs and assuming you have a half competent enforcement staff in your area (police) that you can take the rules with a grain of salt.

 

I installed a sliding side window out of a Land Rover 110. Took me all about 2 hrs to do.





















Maybe adding a set of stock side doors with windows is an option for you?
That's the next thing to add to my van. Got them both for a steal and only need to paint them to match my van.

 

The passenger side window doesn't qualify?
Cargo vans are illegal?

 

Most class 8 trucks dont have a window on the passenger side of the sleeper...some do, but few of them are visible to the driver except maybe as a peripheral light source.

And lets think about the cargo vans with partitions behind the driver compartment...some of them have vented sections you can see thru...but others do not.

I wonder if this law only pertains to private vehicles as a reason to pull someone over?

 

That doesn't make any sense to me either. There are tons of vehicles that do not have anything more than the driver and passenger window plus rear window.

If the driver and passenger windows do not count, then they have just excluded a ton of 2 seat sports cars and roadsters. And you can be damn sure there is people in NY driving 2 seat sports cars.

 

Ah this might answer it:

From New York State DMV

Modifications that change a registration from 'Commercial' class to 'Passenger' classVans (Part 106.3 (d)) - you can register it in the 'Passenger' class if the van has

• at least one side window behind the driver, and blah blah blah
  

And commercial class vehicles are not allowed on parkways. So you play a game with tossing a window in the side and putting a seat back there or a camp stove or bed so that you can drive your locksmith van to where you need to get to more efficiently. I can understand weight restrictions but that's really dumb.

 

WOW! I can't believe they wrote a law specifically for Vans. That is super dumb.

 

I agree. That is nuts.

 

Exactly it's a joke what's classified as commercial. You cannot have any advertising on your van or pickup on the parkways not even a liytle magnet on the door.

 

Thanks, I just saw couple vans without commercial plates without the rear side windows so maybe I can get away with it. All I know is I'm not painting the van white that will throw up some red flags, prob dark blue or something. As far as I know since it is going to be my business vehicle and personal vehicle he cannot give me a ticket based on I have tools in the nack, I'll just say I'm going to my girlfriends house or somethjng.

 

My stepdad had a pickup truck with regular tags but he had a 14"x20" magnetic sign on the doors advertising his business. He would often park on the right of the street (see photo) until a city cop told him commercial vehicles couldn't park overnight. He had to remove signs when coming home and remount the signs again in the morning.

Powerful Law Enforcement at work!