The United States Postal Service employs private citizens as contractors to deliver large portions of the mail. These people usually drive their own vehicles to do so instead of actual USPS vehicles, especially on rural routes. Since mailboxes are often on posts curbside, it’s advantageous to have a right-hand drive vehicle for this in order to just stick the mail in the box through the window. Subaru and Jeep (amongst some others historically) have both sold select vehicles so equipped to special order (and Jeep still does but apparently not Subaru any longer), which wasn’t difficult for them to offer since both market their vehicles in right-hand drive countries. It takes no special qualification, your local dealer would order and sell you one if you asked and it would be perfectly legal to drive.
But what if, say, someone decided they already had a Subaru and didn’t see the need for a new one, wouldn’t it just be easier to convert it themselves and then drive all around the place delivering the mail while interacting with regular traffic? How hard could it be? Here is one such vehicle that apparently was used in this way and while I’m not necessarily of the mindset that we need a TÜV-style vehicle inspection and authorization system, seeing stuff like this does make me a little more leery of sharing the roads with others at times, and perhaps all the times. So let’s take a closer look.
Our subject started life as a 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback, the second year they were offered. These cars are everywhere around here in Colorado and the only reason I haven’t featured one yet in the Curbside Recycling series is that I can’t decide on one to feature, there are just too many of the damn things. And they never offered a red interior which generally guarantees you admission to the club forthwith. As much disdain as much of our readership pours on Subaru at times, they do seem capable of some impressive mileages before people throw in the towel, rare is the junked Subaru that doesn’t feature a six-digit odometer starting with at least a 2.
This one is fitted with the requisite signage that lets people know it’s being used as a US Mail vehicle, i.e. self-sourced stick-on black letters on the rear reflector panel. Some people also add a sign advising of Frequent Stops or reflective tape etc, but that all adds extra up-front expense. I have no idea if there is an actual rule or law that explains how a private contractor’s vehicle must be differentiated if used for this purpose, if there is it’s likely not enforced any more than numerous other rules regarding vehicles.
At first glance through the back things didn’t look all that bad, I really only looked at first due to the signage. Conveniently the driver didn’t believe whiplash is a thing so nothing to obstruct the view. Hey, a wheel on the right, haven’t come across a RHD Outback yet, cool. Oh, wait, wouldn’t the gauge pod be on the right too? Hey now, what exactly is going ON here?!? Which side to start on, do I head left or right? See, more conundrums every time I actually think about featuring an Outback.
Homebrew alert #1 – the Chevrolet steering wheel. While I’m well aware that Subaru and GM had a few tie-ups and I even owned a Saabaru at one point when GM had their fingers in both of those brands, this wheel is not part of any official conversion kit, in fact it looks like it came out of an Astro van or perhaps a Silverado.
It’s a bummer someone dropped the Subaru steering column to get to something else, but at least it’s here. There are in fact companies that perform and/or sell conversions for Subarus and many other vehicles to make a system that does this, briefly glancing at them seems to show a relatively robust system overall, but in essence boils down to the same principles, i.e. control the existing controls from the right side of the car instead of actually moving them to that side as a factory car would have.
The image above was from the website of Postal Things Inc. which provides kits for literally dozens of vehicles, this is I think of a Forester but they do offer one for this year Outback as well, their price is just over $2,000 for the DIY install or an extra $400 for them to install it, leading one to believe that it can’t be too difficult. I’d pay the extra $400 though so if it all went wrong I’d have someone to point at. Always try to have a deeper pocket behind you.
The Chevrolet wheel seems to be attached to a double pulley from I have no idea what, perhaps the same Chevy that donated the wheel, which is then (still?) attached to what I think may be a water pump housing which is then affixed to the dashboard with a bracket and some bolts. Note the airbag is still in place atop the dash, no guesses as to whether or not the functionality was disabled. Having been in a Subaru when an airbag, actually ALL the airbags, deployed now has me being quite concerned when there is anything atop or in front of them that ideally would not be there. The force is not imaginable unless experienced. I wouldn’t want anyone to have to eat a Chevy wheel and waterpump with pulleys attached.
Note the welded rods atop the column.
Yes, those rods seem to be there to control the turn signals. Lift to signal a right, lower to signal a left. Easy peasy if obviously not intuitive when transferred to the opposite side of the “column”.
Another perspective. The belt obviously slipped off when the original column was dropped. There is no tensioning device, I think a just right belt was employed and then the assembly was bolted into place. This system appears to have been in place for some time judging by the door panel, this side looks to be in far worse condition than the old driver’s side one two pictures ago. But wait, that’s the steering, what about the going and stopping?
This is the originally passenger side footwell (the Chevy side). These two pedals need to be imagined side by side, I wasn’t going to have my head in this footwell for very long to untangle the apparently jammed rods so please just imagine them as two metal faced (racy!) pedals next to each other, one to accelerate and the other to stop.
The aftermarket kits that do this have a seemingly very beefy pedal setup with a metal pedal box bolted into the footwell if you look at the vendor’s picture above again. This one not so much. Let’s now finally move to the Subaru side of the car and see how it all comes together!
No junkyard post would be complete without the money shot, in this context obviously the odometer picture. 225,410 of the king’s, er, president’s miles on this one. Not bad at all and it likely had more to give, I don’t think the powertrain was the issue that did this car in. It’s handy in this case that there was no wheel in the way, Subaru gauges are nicely clear and crisp in their presentation too.
This is the opening picture again for reference to locate what we are going to look at next. Note the turn signal rod (detached) at the top and the belt running behind the wheel. You might ask what is it going to, Subarus don’t come with a pulley back there.
No, they do not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t just remove the airbagged wheel, slot one in, and somehow put it all back together. Happens all the time somewhere, likely mostly in third world countries without any kind of safety inspections that seemingly let anything on the roads. Uh, wait a minute…
It’s not super easy to make out but below the turn signal lever is a rod with a 90 degree bend and then a hole, I was sort of able to hold it together with the actuator rod from the Chevy side to determine that it does seem to then enable the signals to activate when/as desired. Pretty ingenious actually but the least of concerns.
Here’s the footwell, the accelerator pedal has one rod mated to it (or at least on top of it), while the brake pedal’s actuator, complete with clamp, has come off the pedal and is currently adjacent to the accelerator. This is why the pedals are out of place on the Chevy side. If that pedal/rod was further left, then the clamp could/would be on the brake pedal. I just can’t see how pushing the pedal on the other side would generate enough force to provide enough braking action on this side using that 1/4″ rod, most importantly in any kind of emergency situation.
Ironically the damage that likely consigned the Subie to the junkyard occurred on the “Driver’s” side. I’m not a particularly litigious person, but if I was hit by this particular car and got a look inside, I’d be seeing dollar signs furnished courtesy of the USPS, contractor vehicle or not. At the very least perhaps free mail for life if I employed Jackie Chiles as Cosmo Kramer did…
Dang, what a mess!
I live in England. Any such cobbled together junk like that it 100% illegal here. If it’s not factory, it’s not allowed. Maybe things will change, but only once somone has been killed from such idiocy.
I…that…I…!
Delirium the mail for the USPS.
I’ve seen photos of equally crude RHD to LHD conversions in South America where cheap used cars from Japan are given minimal LHD conversions to either sort of comply with protectionist laws or make them slightly less unsafe in chaotic traffic. (background, IIRC Australia prohibited LHD cars for a while and some LHD countries around the Pacific prohibit RHD in an attempt to block cheap imports)
I haven’t seen one of these homebrew rigs in the wild but both rural and USPS mail carriers run a variety of stuff around here. Since Oregon is a port of entry some grey import Japanes vans do mail delivery as do some officially imported Subarus and some LHD make do operations. On the other hand our apartment style boxes are routinely service by a uniformed mail carrier driving a bone stock Dodge Caravan with the seats folded.
Samoa changed from LHD to RHD in 2009 purely to allow cheap RHD imports from NZ.
I’d feel more comfortable with this Subaru’s setup than with a stick mounted to the steering wheel as is sometimes done (Below). The stick is much cheaper, which is why some rural mail carries use it, but dang, that seems terrifying.
Most of the rural mail carriers where my in-laws live use Jeep Wranglers (a good bet since it’s an area with mostly gravel roads that are tricky to navigate in the winter). But I have seen a few Subaru wagons (both LHD and RHD) as well as some older American sedans with bench seats, so the driver can easily slide across.
I have to assume that stick is used with a right-side pedal assembly, or a right-side brake pedal only (of the type commonly seen on Driver’s Ed cars). Preferably the latter, since that would mean speeds while driven from the right would be limited to that supplied by automatic transmission creep.
Creep speed and *no brake control*, on a car whose parking brake is to the left of the normal driving station, puts this back into the “aw hell no” category.
Yes, I think the idea is to use it with passenger-side pedals. At least, I hope so!
It must be easier to import RHD vehicles in Canada – I’ve seen several being used as rural Canada Post carriers. Here’s a Toyota Estima in eastern Ontario.
And here’s a JDM Odyssey north of Toronto, something I’d love to have as a prior 1st gen Odyssey owner.
You can import anything that’s at least 15 years old, down here it has to be 25 years old. Some states are now adding their own restrictions, Maine apparently just announced they are invalidating the registrations of any Mitsu Delice registered there even though it complies with every Federal rule RE the importation.
A 25yo Subaru would be easy to import and register in many states (not CA) but who wants to import the crapshoot that is a 25yo normal car?
Occasionally a right hand drive car comes up on the used market. I actually came across a RHD Porsche 944 last year in the junkyard. Who would want a RHD 944 over here, there is zero use case for it.
Good; it’s about time.
No, it’s ridiculous…and Maine should be stomped flat for doing it. (And probably will be, if anyone takes it to court.)
Why is it ridiculous? Why should Maine be stomped flat for doing it? And what’s the chain of legal logic behind your prediction of what will happen in court?
Righteous, Maine?!?
Excuse me while I spit.
How ironic to hear that Maine officials are masquerading as some self righteous do gooder watch dogs, when in fact Maine itself is officially engaged in what’s essentially a massive circumvention of law that is defrauding other States of their just and sorely needed revenues.
How so?
Trailer registrations.
Maine officials have decided that it’s fair play to register trailers that they know, or should know, are likely never going to roll a single mile on Maine roadways. So, greedy Maine apparently feels there’s no downside for Maine collecting their unrealisticly low registration fees.
It’s “free” money for Maine, registering trailers that will never wear or congest Maine roads. Meanwhile, States where the Maine registered trailers are using up infrastructure are defrauded of their sorely needed registration dollars.
Shame on Maine for now mounting their high-horse on import restrictions. It’s laughable. Hypocrites, sounds like the appropriate word.
Is it any wonder so many righly feel that they can look out for their own good far better that “The Maine” can? lol
Thanks Maine, great example.
It’s not just trailers, and it’s not just Maine. I see lots of trailers tagged in Oregon, Tennessee, and lately, Idaho. (Mostly Amazon trailers in ID.) Last Uhaul trailer I used had Mississippi tags. (Rented in Massachusetts.) Every Uhaul truck has AZ tags. Most Ryder and Penske trucks are tagged in Indiana.
…and a whole lot of American corporations are incorporated in Delaware, no matter where the bulk of their actual commerce takes place.
I shouldn’t have written in such a knee-jerk way about Maine leaders. They deserve a better proper more harsh dressing-down. lol
They are claiming the Delice is a Kei truck…which is, charitably, idiotic.
The moment one is titled in another state, and Maine refuses to transfer the title/tag, they probably lose the court case. I recall Kalifornia tried that and got slapped down.
Every state is allowed to set its own criteria for vehicle registration. There are states without roadworthiness inspection where any pile of junk can be registered. States with roadworthiness inspections are not obliged to register a vehicle that flunks inspection or otherwise don’t meet the state’s requirements—regardless of whether some other state was willing to register it before.
The California thing, if it’s the one it looks like you’ve got in mind, was not at all analogous to this, and wasn’t decided the way you seem to recall. It was a question of the applicability of California’s federally-enshrined ability to set its own vehicle emissions standards, more stringent than the federal standards: does that ability allow California to refuse to register vehicles, purchased out of state, that were not built to conform to California emission standards?
The answer is yes, California can enforce its own emissions standards not only on new vehicles offered for first sale in California, but also on new vehicles bought outside of California by California residents. The fact sheet is here; with some practical exceptions, a vehicle with less than 7,500 miles on it cannot be registered in California by a California resident unless it was built to comply to California emissions standards, no matter where it was originally sold.
The only way California was found in conflict with Federal law was an extra $300 interstate title fee.
I don’t know the whole story about the new rule; why was the Delica banned in particular? A safety issue unique to that vehicle, RHD concerns?
Neither, but rather apparently a different reading/interpretation of the rules. This article is one of many that seems to sum it up fairly well. The whole thing is still in limbo currently but not looking good for owners. It apparently won’t be limited to Delicas either.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/41590/maine-is-de-registering-imported-mitsubishi-delicas-and-no-ones-sure-why
Call me an oldster, but I think life was better when articles had to be vetted by an editor for factual accuracy and comprehensible writing. Any half-competent editor would have kicked that article on TheDrive back to the writer very hard and very fast. Just to hit a few of the lowlights:
No, per the 25-year rule, vehicles ≥25 years old may be imported regardless of their noncompliance with US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. And there’s an analogous 21-year rule for US EPA vehicle emissions standards. But that’s all these rules do, is exempt such vehicles from the prohibition on importing noncompliant vehicles. Vehicles are registered by the individual states, which are free to set their own requirements vehicles must meet in order to be registered. There is absolutely nothing about the rules allowing import of 25-year-old noncompliant vehicles that obliges any state to register such a vehicle. Any state is perfectly within its rights to refuse to do so.
“Unsafe at Any Speed” wasn’t a campaign, it was a book. And—again—vehicles ≥25 years old are exempt from the prohibition on importing noncompliant vehicles, that’s all. There is nothing such as “Scuze me, comin’ through, you have to issue licence plates to me because 25-year rule”. That’s just not how any of this works.
This is very simple and easy to understand: the Federal Government decides what vehicles may and may not be imported. The individual states decide what vehicles may and may not be registered—other than fully US-compliant ones, which they are obliged to register.
Boy, it’s really amazing how sloppily writing “has a sticker” when one meant to write “has no sticker” changes the entire meaning, isn’t it…!
That’s Maine’s prerogative. And there’s sturdy evidence banning wrong-hand-drive vehicles from regular road use is a sound decision.
Perhaps the State of Maine has erroneously decided Delicas are minitrucks, or perhaps they have classified all Japan-specification vehicles as ineligible, and the error is just in what they’re calling the classification. Another article on a site we don’t mention by name here suggests it’s the latter; the Maine Secretary of State office rep Emily Cook says “We should have been more precise in our language around the Delica and ‘mini-trucks,’ but regardless, the underlying statute is what is being followed”, and refers to this amendment, which says 47-A. Off-road vehicle. “Off-road vehicle” means a motor vehicle that, because of the vehicle’s design and, configuration, original manufacture or original intended use, does not meet the inspection standards of Chapter 15, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s pollutant requirements or the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration’s crash testing standards and that is not a moped or motorcycle..
Chapter 15 says Equipment subject to inspection must […] D. Not pose a hazard to the occupant of the vehicle or to the general public; and E. Meet the standards set forth in rules adopted by the Chief of the State Police. Given the significantly greater crash involvement of wrong-hand-drive vehicles and their other incompatibilities with American traffic, it’s easy to make a case that Japan-spec vehicles violate (D). And given (E), it is entirely lawful for the State of Maine to have standards, for example, requiring all vehicles (or all headlamps…tires…brakes…airbags…all the rest) to comply with US standards.
There’s just nothing obliging Maine or any other state to register these vehicles. States cannot refuse to register vehicles that do comply with all applicable Federal safety and emissions regulations, but that has nothing to do with what we’re talking about here.
In reply to Daniel, the legal issue I see is when the State registers a vehicle, then the next year says “nope, not allowed now”. I would agree that they can either allow or not allow in certain categories, but once they have registered them as legal up front, I would argue this a “taking” that would require compensation for the owner, at a minimum. Or else, those already registered must be grandfathered.
I think that’s a realistic way of looking at the matter, and I can see your point. I can also see the counterargument resting comfortably atop what looks to me like a mountain of precedent. States may increase the stringency of their registration requirements without grandfathering vehicles registered prior to the change. When a state puts an emission test program into effect, for example, even those vehicles that were registered for years without having to pass any test must pass the test for their registration to be renewed.
Maine might have overstepped by cancelling, before their expiry date, registrations purchased in good faith. Whether or not that’s the case probably rests largely on whether the registrations, according to Maine law, should have been issued in the first place. If a registration was issued contrary to prevailing law, then it seems to me Maine is on solid ground saying “Sorry, we made an error; you have to send back your plates and we’ll issue you a pro-rated refund” (and it also seems to me affected vehicle owners have grounds to sue the state for associated losses).
Whether existing registrations should be grandfathered is debatable, and probably comes down to the reasons why the laws were changed (if they were substantively changed). If the registrations were issued in accord with the law, then Maine changed the applicable laws such that no new such registrations can be issued, then it seems legally problematic that they would retroactively apply the new law to existing registrations. If nothing else, in that case it would seem much less inappropriate for Maine to have issued letters along the lines of “Once your vehicle registration expires, it cannot be renewed”.
If Maine’s intent is to protect public safety, banning kei cars/trucks and all other RHD vehicles from regular unrestricted usage in traffic is defensible, perhaps with narrow exceptions for the likes of rural mail delivery and limited-use collector vehicles. It would be much less defensible to ban non-kei-like LHD vehicles built to other than US standards; their safety incompatibilities are minor and readily remedied (side markers, CHMSL).
Maine might have used an unreasonably blunt instrument in crafting and interpreting their statutes, and now here comes SEMA, themselves an unreasonably blunt instrument. It will be interesting to watch that collision and see how this all shakes out.
I think that’s starting to become more common in the US. There’s a few dealers that cater to the rural postal carrier market, and import 25+ year-old RHD cars marketed mostly for postal use.
It’s not a bad deal — a 1990s Corolla with very low miles will provide many years of service even in tough mail-delivery driving. The prices for ordinary sedans & wagons isn’t bad, considering the very specialized RHD need.
This is one such dealer:
https://www.rhdvehiclesales.com
Coming from a country that has a well established road worthiness inspection (the MoT) for vehicles 3 yrs + and where the second question on an insurance quotation is “is the vehicle RHD?” followed by “Has it been modified?”, stuff like this just fries my brain to be honest.
Never mind the likely practical compromises required and the vagaries introduced by the engineering, this seems so off the scale it would sound like a wind up without the photo evidence. Any such change would have to go through the licensing authority as well as vehicle inspection – it is possible to register a LHD vehicle and/or a dual control (for instruction) vehicle but without either you’re going nowhere.
The only LHD vehicle we regularly see are the council street/gutter sweepers. Anything else is in the classic/show network. The Post Office expect the posties to get out and walk to the letter box or post box, which is presumably why most (well, many) of them wear shorts all year round.
We have all kinds of mailbox situations. Many subdivisions (mainly newer but my last house built in the late ’70s had it too) now have cluster boxes where a combination box with multiple small compartments is arranged in one location and it’s up to the homeowner to come and get their mail, frequently the mailman will be at one cluster for up to half an hour delivering to every one, depending on the number of homes served by that cluster.
Others have the traditional box next to the door on the wall and the mailman usually walks the route with a handcart or drives their truck to the end of the street and then carries the mail in a bag until complete and then drives to the next street (or area).
And then there are the mailboxes on the post by the road for which RHD is essential. Some areas (especially rural) don’t have sidewalks so it’s easy to just drive along in the road and deliver. Our house has the mailbox on the post but we DO have sidewalks, without a tree strip between walk and road, so the post and box are on the house side of the sidewalk. One mailcarrier I’ve seen in the ‘hood drives to the curb, turns the engine off and then hops out and covers the three feet to the box on foot and then gets back in, restarts the truck and repeats at the next house, highly inefficient. Another does the same but leaves the truck running and shifts it into Park, better/faster. Our usual guy though just says screw it and drives right over the curb onto the sidewalk and stays seated the whole time, he barely even comes to a full stop while on the sidewalk. He’s the least friendly of the three..
I figured this would blow some of the Western European readers’ minds…:-)
…by the which, now? I’m sorry, I was awwwwwwllllll the way over here lookin’ at pictures of a crudely hacked Subaru and must not have heard you correctly.
On our recent 2/3-cross country trip, I saw more RHD rural mail carriers than I would in California; one seemed to be a pretty real RHD Forester (JDM or legal? I’d only seen RHD Legacies here before this, when they were imported by Subaru). The other was a CRV which seemed to be able to go and stop with right side controls but the driver appeared to be reaching across, or at least to the middle, to control the steering. He was going pretty fast on a straight dirt road in Montana, a stretch where I had seen an Amish horse and a buggy a few days earlier.
North Carolina has an annual inspection process before you can renew your plate. However, I don’t think anything about this conversion would cause an actual issue/fail. Some counties inspect emissions via the OBD connector, and some don’t.
Tires, exhaust, lights, turn signals, wipers, glass, that type thing, must all be present and working/not leaking/not cracked/within wear limits. Obvious leaks underneath should also trigger a fail, but I doubt that is enforced with any rigor.
We don’t inspect rust-through, or suspension wear/rust, which I think a lot of other states do. Nothing would be looked at inside the vehicle at all, unless you have window tint, which must allow enough light through with their little meter.
Tennessee, our neighbor, has NO inspections and does NOT require liability insurance either. I think this homebrew conversion would be kosher in a lot of states. A good idea? Maybe not, but allowed.
Zero inspections here beyond emissions in -some- counties, mainly along the Front Range. But even that doesn’t seem too difficult to find someone who has a cabin in the mountains in a non-emissions county and use that address to register the “mountain car”. Nobody will need to look at this thing here either before registering it. I’m guessing you can insure it until something happens and an adjuster comes out to take a look, then renewing might be tougher but who knows.
Chain operated conversions were used by a Melbourne outfit and they move the instruments too but RHD conversions arent required in NZ anymore if you want a typically US classic you can have one and being able to see is your problem when you want to overtake, cameras are being used now if a reliable passenger isnt available,
We have annual and biannual inspections for pre 2000 vehicles and for commercial vehicles its a bit more vigorous, this heath robinson arrangement would fail miserably.
I own a Ford truck that was dual-steer converted by splitting the main column and installing an “egg beater” gear arrangement. A jackshaft connects the main column’s gear to auxiliary column and it’s “mirror” of the gear.
I was a bit skart of the gear arrangement. Now after seeing this I figure the Ford’s slalom course ready. lol
I don’t recall this minute how brake and fuel are actuated. Maybe MICO cylinders?
I drove a couple of trucks (International S1900, Ford F-800) with that dual-control setup…they were residential pickup recycling trucks, with the cab modified so it can be operated from the right side, while standing. Both had a second wheel, with the connection to the factory column via a shaft and gear.
Similar plan. This truck was originally upfitted for highway construction work zone marking.
I am just stunned.
I’ve seen pictures like this from some third-world countries, but….
My mental gearbox is jammed. The US, a country with some of the most picky safety legislation – has loopholes big enough to drive THIS through? And by someone doing government work?
I guess your postal service doesn’t oversee contractors’ vehicles, and has no standards for RHD conversions for their contractors. For all the US road users, I hope this abomination is a one of one.
We used to be on roadside delivery here in Australia. No need for special conversions here. The post office has regulations about the siting of your mail box so the contractor can reach it from their seat. A few years ago they made someone just out of town shift theirs. Our contractor drove a green XD Falcon van (with red S pack stripes, so definitely not a fleet vehicle!), and he’d drive onto the grass verge the wrong way to shove the mail in our box from the driver’s seat. Living in a dead-end street with only about four cars a day, it was safe to do that. 🙂 We’re in town now, but Gus, the local rural contractor here, has a red Corolla wagon that’s about 15-20 years old; goes into the drive, mail in the box, reverse, then onto the next property. Rinse and repeat….
This thing is dangerous ! .
Some years back I was reselling used government fleet trucks and ran across some 1980’s Mitsubishi mini pickups that had been converted to RHD by adding a domestic dash panel and a wobbly steering wheel with a gear, then another gear on the origin al LHD steering wheel, connected by the flimsiest bicycle chain I’d ever seen – it was loose and floppy, Id been scared to dive it around the block much less on the freeway .
I wonder of this P.O.S.’s V-Belt slipped and he hit a mail box or parked car and then the game was up .
-Nate
We had a dear neighbor who got a job as a mail carrier after he retired form the New York City Police Department. He had a JEEP of the ilk that is based upon the original design. His RHD conversion was a commercially made foldaway unit. This was in the 1980’s.
Ah the classic Rural Route RHD conversion. Grew up in a letter carrier’s house and the stuff I saw…. We used to use venerable K car wagons as the bench seat made it easy peasy lemon squeezey and the cargo area for parcels. No double wheels, but I did use a stick on my way to school sometimes for gits and shiggles… The few times I helped friends as a sub contractor, I just sat on the console of my then Trooper and drove (uncomfortably) from the middle on route, then in the normal driver seat between routes. Gotta do what ya gotta do….$$$$
The carrier in my area uses a 95 Hi Ace as his rural carrier, Duncan Imports is local so many a RHD vehicle around in general. I respect his hustle.
Are these conversions sketchy? Maybe, but better than the center console dance version I and many other carriers used/use. Mail must go through and all that you know.
Great opportunity to upgrade to fast ratio steering. lol
I used to operate a rubber tired mobile crane.
The carrier (truck-type lower unit) had a conventional steering column, gear, etc.
However… just below the steering wheel (similar to the featured conversion’s pulley) was located a chain sprocket. A “bicycle chain” connected the sprocket to a nearby large d.c. motor, starter motor size. So when the steering wheel was turned the motor would turn.
(Don’t let the neutral safety switch crowd know, but this was all open mechanism for convenient idle finger poking while “motoring” along. lol)
It gets better… from “upstairs” in the crane control cab a toggle switch cold be bumped to “motor” the steering wheel left or right. There were mechanisms for clutch and shifter too, so the truck could be driven by essentially remote control.
Of course the purpose was for short slow moves of the carrier during crane operation, but I don’t recall any sort of limits to insure that.
Back when I was a kid and most cars had bench seats, I remember a lot of mail or newspaper carriers that would sit in the middle and drive with their left hand and left foot, while being able to reach out the right side window.
Although I am a fan of barnyard engineering, this looks a bit dicey. I would have liked to have seen it in its “as used” state.
The oddest thing to me is why someone considered it easier to work the pedals than to rig a secondary control to what is being operated. A second master cylinder plumbed into the brake hydraulics would be a lot cleaner, and a second throttle cable under the hood. But then I have not tried either of these methods, so maybe old fashioned steel bars and leverage is a better answer.
Amen on the fuel control.
As to a second master cylinder… cowl might be pretty “busy” for PS pedal and master.
Of course there’d be some valving to engineer to prevent backflow to OE master, instead of actuation of wheel-end hydraulics. Ditto RH master when OE is used.
Looks like something put together by this guy after he grew up to get a real job.
This thing is just begging for a Jackass TV or movie scene. Ship it over to Europe or Asia and then drive it to the vehicle inspection department. Act like it’s no big deal and that you don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Watch everyone meltdown as they look inside. Then drive off and see how far you get before being pulled over by a cop.
Makes some of chain-under-the dash conversions I’ve seen look well designed & engineered.
My local rural mail carrier runs the route with a “converted” 2000s LeSabre–he rigged up the pedals across the cabin and over the hump, but left the steering wheel untouched and just steers from the passenger seat.
For 18 years I served as a Federal Govt. employee of the USPS as a Rural Carrier. I bought an officially USPS sanctioned and Subaru built (in Lafayette, IN) Legacy ‘L’ wagon. In factory RHD and this same Ruby Mica red paint. It was ordered new in August of 1997 and arrived as a ’98 year model; it served myself and the Rural Carrier Craft till I retired in ’11.
It was an ingeniously built machine with all componentry exactly as a LHD car would have been, only mirror imaged. The button to unlock the shifter was even reversed correctly to facilitate ease of actuation. Power window switches and turn signal lever were properly placed. The only difference quickly noticed between a left and right hand car of same build date (my dealership shipped one in identical and placed them side by side for my inspection and possible dual purchase, as I lived 45 miles from my delivery office) was the airbag on the left side or now passenger side, was slightly upraised in appearance instead of totally flat on the dash. They were indeed mirror copies of each other.
We had to pass periodic ‘Postal Service’ walkaround inspections. Usually a penny was first out of the pocket and inserted in each tire tread to assure Lincoln’s head was partly blocked from view, thus safe rubber wise. If even a bit dusty, the postmaster demanded I get it washed before leaving the route at the local carwash on the edge of town. Where within 200 feet of exit, I was once again on gravel and getting dusty.
She would have had a massive coronary if inspecting this poor Outback which apparently gave it’s all in Federal Combat ….
(I still own mine and it looks nearly new even after 300,000 miles of rugged service). Must have been all those carwashes !