Maybe These Massive Wheel Spikes Shouldn't be Legal
Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with his partner Sally, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap.
By nature, I'm not a guy particularly interested in safety concerns, but when I saw these massive wheel spikes on this big rig on the 5 freeway the other day, I couldn't help but wonder if having something normally associated with a brutal chariot race is such a hot idea.
This picture doesn't quite do them justice, but these spikes are no joke; they could easily turn a close call into a harrowing, screaming gash torn into the bodywork of your car. I've never seen these before, but, then again, I don't really do that much driving in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland ruled by gangs of mechanized toughs.
By nature, I'm not a guy particularly interested in safety concerns, but when I saw these massive wheel spikes on this big rig on the 5 freeway the other day, I couldn't help but wonder if having something normally associated with a brutal chariot race is such a hot idea.
This picture doesn't quite do them justice, but these spikes are no joke; they could easily turn a close call into a harrowing, screaming gash torn into the bodywork of your car. I've never seen these before, but, then again, I don't really do that much driving in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland ruled by gangs of mechanized toughs.
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"I don't really do that much driving in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland ruled by gangs of mechanized toughs. "
So, never driven in Detroit, then.
I'm guessing if you got close enough to hit the spikes, you would have hit the truck anyway.
Think of the spikes as a gentle reminder to stay in your own lane.
http://www.empirechromeshop.com/pc-7279-441-1516-chrome-plastic-spike-push-on-lug-nut-cover-single.aspx
my 'ead 'urts
Holy Crap!
It is kind of ironic that those trailer-hitch testicle truck-nuts things are banned but these things that can actually kill you are legal.
Two vehicles enter, one vehicle leaves!
Two vehicles enter, one vehicle leaves!
Wonder if we can get Mythbusters to prove these could shred a child into tiny little pieces after going through a car.
It"s nothing but trucker bling bling. They are caps that cover the lug nuts on the tires, and are made if cheap metal or plastic. I had rounded ones on my lugs when i drove.
"Sir license and registration. Thank you...mmmm...Lets cut to the chase, what on earth would pOsseeess you to attach little deeldoes to your hubcaps son?"
Secret_Life_of_Plants @3: Nah, typically American: sex is bad, but violence is fun for the whole family.
Wake up, they are PLASTIC! in a near miss it might scuff your paint job, that is about it.
These are not going to shred your car or kid.
(panties - wad) x common sense = "no big deal"
I raise my miller lowlife to you, O truck driver. Those spikes are awesome and you need to leave it alone. If you got close enough to that truck to get snagged by the spikes, you were creating an accident anyway. A brush with that truck's un-spiked hub would still f**k you the f**k up. Idiot drivers abound. When they're truckers, havoc is created, spikes or no; but mostly the idiots are folks like you and me. I.E.: truckers and their awesome spikes aren't usually the problem--YOU are the problem. Hang up and drive, America!
Novelty item, no?
I dunno... to me they look more like cooling fins. Maybe this truck is pulling loads over a mountain?
I used to drive over the road in an eighteen wheeler, and now work as a truck dispatcher. The lug nuts on the wheel of a big truck are just a plain large nut that goes over the wheel stud to hold the wheel to the vehicle. If you see fancy chrome lug nuts they are usually just fancy plastic chrome plated covers. I feel that these are just the same thing. I also don't think the D.O.T. of any state would allow real metal covers like those pictured to operate on the interstates. The truck would be stopped at the first weigh station, fined, and put put of service until the situation was remedied. Besides if you got close enough for those things to hit you, or your vehicle, you would in more trouble from the mass of the big truck than the damage they would do anyway. Think about it. 40 ton truck vs. 2 ton car, or human body. Who do you think wins.
As shown on Top Gear, knee-cappers on cars just don't work. You end up wrecking YOUR car, not your... uhhh... opponent's.
I just saw these yesterday on a truck in Boston! I felt like I was in "Death Race 3000" as I pulled past the guy.
i thought the same thing when i saw these a while back. imagining them to pull someone off of a bus stop and process them into lumps of ground beef. i'm all for making a car look good, but making a car into an even deadlier weapon? maybe if they made them silly? like if the people that put those anooying stickers on windows when you park in a spot you shouldn't be, also put rubber dildos on each spike. wow, what a great way to spoil their fun! :)
Who played Car Wars, the Steve Jackson cheapo game, about 20 years ago?
http://www.sjgames.com/carwars/
Lots-o-people will be playing SJG Car Wars in Indy in 2 weeks (GenCon 42)
Are we sure that those juvenile truck nut things are illegal? I know that we've spent most of the last 9 years veering towards fascism, but still, it's kind of hard to believe.
Like the old saw goes, I'd never expose myself to the ridicule engendered by installing a pair of the things on my truck, but I'll fight like hell for your right to do the same . . . .
Well in some states you could cause an accident with this fellow, and if you get hurt by the spikes, sue him for putting them there.
They are plastic.. they snap on the end of the lugnut. A swift whack sideways knocks them off.
These are hollow 'chromed' plastic spikes. As much as you guys would love to put them on your Geo or Vespa, they only seem to sell 'em for those giant lug nuts on rigs.
Those fake metal truck nuts constitute fraud. If you want to put those on your truck, you should use your own, actual nuts.
I've seen those many times, in many states, I doubt they are illegal. They aren't really dangerous on the road for the following reasons:
if your car made contact with them, it probably already hit other parts of the semi, as they don't stick out past a bunch of other parts of the truck
they just pop off (they aren't the actual lug nut, as previously established), so if they did come in contact with part of your vehicle, it wouldn't "shred" your car, but probably gouge it up before coming off in the fray.
I would be more worried about scraping my leg on them when walking by in a parking lot.
They're probably plastic push on covers that will pop off or break as soon as they come into contact with anything else. Like these:
http://www.empirechromeshop.com/p-7273-716-chrome-plastic-spike-push-on-lugnut-cover-single.aspx
Yurko, Assuming you're correct, I'm not sure it's a good idea (or legal) to have something on a vehicle that's designed to come off in a slight impact. Consider a car grazing the truck at highway speeds, and what these might do to motorcyclists dozens of yards back.
Even if we ignore that, I wonder what the trucker's insurance company would say when they're sued because the trucker deliberately attached devices that cause additional damage to other vehicles in otherwise minor collisions? Or what DOT might say concerning allowing the trucker to continue to operate on the highways.
Grahamers2002, That game ruled!! I don't understand why there hasn't been a videogame adaption of it. The closest I've ever seen was I-76.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_%2776
Still seems pretty Speed Racer villainesque to me.
They're just plastic. They would do no damage.
These 'spikes' are barely attached to the underlying lug nuts and will just shear off if they are struck. IN other words, harmless, (but not as tasteless as trailer hitch testicles) decoration.
I like them. I'm gonna get them for my Honda.
oddly, i saw a set of these yesterday.
being a lane-sharing motorcyclist, I was curious, so, in a parking lot, stopped, I felt of them. they are plastic decoration
if you are this close to the wheel? the spikes are the least of your problem....
:)
They probably have the psychological effect of telling people to back off and that may be a good thing. I've seen people do incredibly stupid things when driving.
Is this post indicative of a social segmentation that can best be summed up in terms of geeks v rednecks? It seems like a bunch of people are terrified by this, and a precious few realize that these spikes just snap off. I have to wonder if those with the same emotional reaction as the post's author have trouble relating to their working class brethren, and therefor expect the worst (that truck drivers are out to shred our children)?
If you're close enough to worry about these, then YOU'RE TOO DAMN CLOSE ANYWAY!
@13 GRAHAMERS2002
"Who played Car Wars, the Steve Jackson cheapo game, about 20 years ago?"
Hey, inexpensive!=cheapo
#16, igpajo:
There was a ZX Spectrum game of "Battlecars", Games Workshop's Car Wars knockoff.
They're meant to be psychological deterrents to those who would otherwise think nothing of weaving in and out of lanes around a giant semi-trailer.
Pretty clever, actually, and it does look cool. We probably carry those in our travel center stores.
possibly the driver got sick of the people who show no respect for the size of his vehicle and decided to give them a new reason to back off a bit.
@igpajo, beanolini
there was an official Autoduel game for computers and it was so bad Steve Jackson refuses to let anyone else try.
These things are popping up on pickup trucks down here at an alarming rate. Should mention that these are your typical jacked-up, souped up Dodge Rams, Chevy heavy duties and the like. "Here" is the South, BTW, you know, where we're all friendly, Christian folk.
Yes, they're plastic, I know. I just don't like the message. Of course, with all the confederate ( No, we've wheeled past fascism and seem to be heading straight into dystopian...
You know, it's definitely not a good idea, but it's also not a great idea either.
You know, it's not a good idea, but it's not a great idea either.
Is this the same blog with that reviewed "The Dangerous Book for Boys?" Relax, its just a redneck decoration.
@23
Only after having talked to some truckers for an extended period of time would I think they want to shred children. Even the sane truckers I've met go on about their insane "me first, everyone else can die" brethren.
oh, hey - I think I should get those for my Scion...
OK, let's say the spikes break off. Don't they leave dangerous debris on the road?
Oh sure, and next thing you'd want me to give up my gun turret.
-- MrJM
there just made of plastic,just for looks they would not hurt anything,I have them on my truck besides that if you get that close to a truck going down the road them covers would be the last thing i'd be worried about!!
Agreed w/#2. If you are close enough to get hit by the spikes, you are close enough to hit the semi-truck anyway. So...yeah. Don't get that close.
@#49
What do you call dangerous debris? If my bumper breaks off, I would think that that would leave dangerous debris in the road. Or my gas cap. Or...for that matter, my un-spiked lug nuts: http://www.corsportusa.com/store/catalog/images/buddyclublugs.jpg
Life is dangerous. Vt 'yy' fr ntnwd hlth cr. /thumbsup
Talia@1:
Quit hatin' on the D.
What's next? Hanging a big metal scrotum from your trailer hitch? Oh, wait...seen that already.
A semi doesn't need massive wheel spikes for its wheels to do damage; this is what one semi's wheel did to our car a few months ago:
http://gallery.prwdot.org/gallery/7895895_qtg9S#512002504_8omSs
#41
I took a lot of beatings growing up. My parents were good, but some of my teachers were downright nasty. The South may look friendly to you, but it is not so friendly to queer folks, and I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I were black or latina too.
#2 & al.
Why not install spikes on the steering wheel? Everyone would drive more carefully if an accident would impale them.
#27 & #33
Yes. It's important to remember that cars are not the only vehicles on the road.
Some years ago, my then-girlfriend (still learning to drive) slammed the right front fender of my car into the rear wheel of a big rig in the next lane over -- both vehicles were doing about 45 mph.
Both of us walked away shook up and scraped a little, but my car was hauled off the road with one wheel hanging by a thread, and needed $3000 worth of repairs.
The truck? Didn't even slow down.
If these little plastic spikes make a few more people give big rigs the space they should, more power to 'em.
Grahamers2002 @18, it was closer to 30 years ago for me. My first dueling car was a van with three linked lasers. But most of my friends never really got into it; we played a lot of Illuminati instead.
Carmageddon was the computer game (and Carmadeddon II.) Great fun. They had the original Death race 2000 cars and everything.
Those are just bicycle guards.
I have seen these at truck stops all over, they are available in metal and plastic. the metal ones are slightly thicker than a soda can, and the plastic ones are made from brittle plastic that would instantly shatter if run over. The chance of these actually cutting through sheetmetal in an accident or engaging in some drag racing mayhem like in the movie grease is slim.
Yeah baby - saw these in Corpus Christie last year. Scary.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cybermynd/2449721231/in/set-72157604629659837/
JUST GIVE US THE FUEL AND WALK AWAY.
I've always thought shippers and trucking companies should maintain their own, seperate roads reserved just for trucks.
Primarily because they are commercial entities profiting from the use of public resources.
Secondly because, as many people have pointed out, trucks can and do inflict much more damage and destruction of life when involved in a collision compared to an automobile.
Like worry about a 4" spike on a 6 ton vehicle moving at 60mph?
Even liberties as small as what is put on hubcaps should be given more consideration than what was given here.
I have these on my truck and yes they are a subtle way of saying "stay out of my lane!" to bad they dont do that! As for debris causing hazards for motorcycles.Get a clue!! they will break into small pieces if hit,much smaller than the Mcdonalds cup you just tossed out your window!!!! And less harmful to your BEEMER!
Didn't I see these on the bad guy's chariot in Ben Hur? Carved up Heston's wheels real good.
Actually I believe the official conversion of 'Car Wars' (great game but it was always hard for me to to find others enthused enough to play it) was 'Autoduel'. I had it on the Apple 2e, great game for the day. There should be more games with cars with mines, flamethrowers, etc...
perhaps spring loaded scythes that leap out from under the rockers to menace squeegee racketeers? Soft rubber of course - save for the one, single incident of cold steel that establishes the legend.
It's not that I hate the poor, but I really dislike a windshield scrubbed down with a bucket of warm piss. Especially when the "indigent" has a cellphone on his waistband.
I saw a Peterbilt with a set of these the other day that were definitely NOT plastic -- the cone had flats at the base that allowed them to be removed with a deep socket. I can't find anything like it online (they might have been custom made), but a quick search did turn up these, for smaller vehicles.
Just because you see them on the highway doesn't mean they're legal. But they probably are.
@62 Anon
Why, the companies have to pay taxes just like the rest of us. In fact they even get distributed to all the states they travel in. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fuel_Tax_Agreement
As for the trucking industry profiting from the use of the interstate highway system.... you obviously have ABSOLUTLY NO CLUE!!! as to the amount of taxes big trucks contribute to the federal and state road tax funds!!!! Look it up!!! Its staggering when compared to what the average joe pays to maintain our highways! Besides the fact that our interstates were built to transport our military and commerce quickly accross our country! NOT for PUBLIC RESOURCES! REMEMBER WHAT LINCOLN SAID..."ITS BETTER TO REMAIN SILENT AND THOUGHT A FOOL THAN TO SPEAK AND REMOVE ALL DOUBT" this can be easily applied to the keys on your computer!!!!