Vehicle Equipment Laws
State vehicle-code rules on window tint, radar detectors, auxiliary lighting, tires, lane splitting, plate covers, and dash-cam mounting.
Window tint is the clearest example of a rule that is a number and nothing else. Each window gets a minimum visible-light transmission, the windshield usually gets only a strip measured down from the top, and an officer settles it with a meter at the glass. Change states and the number changes, which is why a legal car becomes an illegal one during a move.
The rest of the equipment code works the same way. Which light colours may face forward, when studs may go on and must come off, whether a plate may sit behind a tinted cover, whether a motorcycle may move between lanes at a stop. Every one of them resolves to a line in the state vehicle code, along with the exemption process that a summary of the number leaves out.
All 50 States: Vehicle Equipment Laws at the State Level
Each tile shows the strongest state-level rule for that state. Click a state to see its full statewide rules and how local cities are constrained.
Severity: Few Restrictions · Light Restrictions · Some Restrictions · Significant Restrictions · Heavy Restrictions
What's Covered
Window Tint Limits
The visible-light-transmission percentage each window may be tinted to, which differs for the windshield strip, front sides, rear sides and back glass, plus reflectivity caps, the…
Radar Detector Rules
Where radar detectors are banned outright, where they are barred only in commercial vehicles, the separate and near-universal prohibition on laser jammers and signal jammers, and…
Underglow & Auxiliary Lighting
Which aftermarket light colours and placements are legal on a moving vehicle, the near-universal ban on forward-facing red and on blue light reserved to emergency vehicles, flashing…
Studded Tire & Chain Rules
The calendar window during which studded tires are permitted, the states that ban them year-round, stud material and projection limits, and the chain requirements that apply when a…
Lane Splitting & Filtering
Whether a motorcycle may ride between lanes of traffic, the newer lane-filtering statutes that permit it only at low speed and at a stop, the speed differentials written into those…
Plate Covers & Obstruction
Whether a licence plate may sit behind a clear cover or frame at all, the rules against obscuring the state name, registration stickers or any character, plate-flipping and…
Dash Cam & Windshield Mounting
Where a camera, phone mount or GPS unit may legally sit on the windshield, the size and corner-placement allowances states carve out of their windshield-obstruction statutes, and the…