Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Do you need an engineer's certificate for a SPOA lift?

fervit wrote:Do you need an engineer's certificate for a SPOA lift?

yes

Do you need an engineer's certificate for anything? Yes
Pain in the rear? Yes
Mine Engineered? No.
Should be...

Ok, so how much (approx) to get an engineer's certificate then? Thanks for replies so far

Yes anything changed from stock should be enginnered and no I havnt always done this. For years I didnt and had 4wd insurance that were happy with the mods I told them everything but then I enginneered and they knocked it back???
Anyway I have toy diffs and its enginnered as a diff swap not a spoa nothing said about lift!!
Nik

Yes you 100% need a cert for a spoa.

Is the car already built though? Most engineers won't touch an already modified car.

Engineers certs run from about $600 upwards, depending on how much work you make the engineer do (how many modifications are required)

Remember too that under the NCOP, overall lift height is very closely monitored. I think 6" is the absolute limit, and takes into account tyre diameter, suspension and body lift. Most SPOA conversions are good for 5" of lift, so be aware that you might be sailing close to the wind.

not bashing SPOA, Just giving you some things to consider.

Steve.

also what state are you in as different states will allow a SPOA and others wont. Also different states have different approval processes and costs etc

qld is a big negative for spoa so shhhh dont tell

Gee whiz! I didin't expect it to be so expensive i must admit. I'm looking at buying a Sierra, it's got over 5" of lift with tyres and spoa but it's not engineered, so it would need to be done. This is in NSW btw.

I might get flamed for this, but in all honesty, if you want to road drive the car, there is no point buying a SPOA car (or any highly modified car) without an engineers from the time of construction.

Basically, you have to take the view your just buying the parts. That why even very well built cars are very cheap without a cert.

Any engineer worth his salt will require a "baseline" which means they drive and measure the stock car before modification. they then supervise the process and will usually want to see the car during the build.

Call a couple of engineers and get a feel for what they require- I'd be surprised if they will even want to look at an already complete car.

$1200 isn't expensive. A qualified engineer can charge $120-200/hr in industry. They are ultimately signing their name that your car is safe and if they get it wrong, (and their work is called into question) they stand to loose their livelihood. This has happened in Vic. This is mostly why they won't touch an already modded car or a car they haven't seen was stock before commencement.

This is my take on things, others may have another view.

Steve.

And from memory ( failing I admit ) in other threads on the subject, an engineers cert doesn't mean that the registration authority has to register it if they are in a bad mood or the police won't sticker it if they are on a revenue raising exercise.

True, although I think there are ramifications if this happens - if the car hasn't been subsequently modified by the owner or someone else, then the engineer will feel the heat for certing a car in that state that doesn't comply with the registration authorities requirements.

PS Certs are NOT transferrable from state to state without lots of hassles and some luck.

Though as to the above comment having one helped me get through rego for my Sierra, though the local inspection up here brought up a few problems and I had to change fix and things before I got rego....

Otherwise I would recommend don't buy unless it has a comprehensive engineers report.