Is It Legal To Install Custom Backup Beepers on Your Truck?
Here's what you need to know if you want your pickup to sound like an 18-wheeler when you back up.
Kyle Miller, a mechanic who goes by @kylemiller2217 on TikTok, posted a video of a Toyota truck he worked on, and it might cause you to get your hearing checked.
Miller strolls around the back of the blue pickup to the truck bed and shows off a series of cables and a neon yellow remote.
“All right, customer just brought this new Toyota truck in,” Miller says in the video. “He said he wanted a backup beeper. He said he left the part in the truck. And as soon as he left, I looked at him. I said, ‘Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know about that.’ Listen to this [expletive] thing.”
Miller presses a button and then unleashes a piercing beep, powerful enough to echo out of the building and down the street. But is a custom beeper something that regular people can actually just install in their trucks?
Yes, You Can Make a Racket With Your Truck
Anyone can install a beeper if they want, although not everyone needs one.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires an audible reverse alarm—or a spotter—any time a driver’s rear view is obstructed. Mining vehicles fall under similar rules from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The alarm has to be loud enough to stand out over background noise.
That means a custom backup beeper is legal, as long as it meets those standards. In fact, newer “broadband” or white-noise alarms are becoming more popular because they get the job done without the piercing shriek embraced by Miller’s Toyota-driving customer.
So, truck owners who love mods can rejoice. They can add beepers to the list of lift kits, custom exhaust pipes, and aftermarket lights that they already add to trucks. But for drivers that don’t need them legally, which should include most pickup truck owners, why deafen yourself with unnecessary beeping?
The answer might be being obnoxious.
“Obnoxious,” TikTok user “TheRealSodi” wrote in response to Miller’s video. “I need one for each of mine now.”
Another user going by “Teddy Bear” wrote that it’s good for getting attention.
“Had one on my truck a long time ago so people would stop trying to not see me backing up,” they wrote.
Motor1 reached out to Kyle Miller through TikTok’s direct messaging service but didn’t immediately receive a response.
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