Are Suicide Knobs Legal ???

They are only legal on farm tractors. The reason being that a farm tractor will not go fast enough to cause personal injury.

On vehicles if you come to a sudden stop you can impale yourself on the knob causing internal injuries.

Wonder if we can get Dieselbear to weigh in on this. You might want to check with DOT to make sure your not going to get penalized for it.

 

They used to be illegal in PA. I think they might be legal now. Or it's just one of those things the state troopers don't bother enforcing anymore. Not real sure, but I do see alot of them. I call'em wrist breakers. Cause that's what happens if that wheel should spin back on you real quick-like and you ain't prepared for it!

 

DOT lady in Indiana grabbed mine to help pull herself up on the steps of my truck. She stated then that she now has found a use for them.. I use mine while in reverse. or slow moving. I have had 3 DOT inspections in the last 3 years and not one of the officers mentioned my spinner knob. Cept for the lady officer who just found out how she could use one.

 

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...iolation-for-spinner-knob-steering-wheel.html


also from another thread....

Seems like I did some research on this before and the only thing close was some OSHA rule.


The only thing bad about them is if you blow a steer tire the wheel can jump and break your fingers if they are mounted close to where you hold. It has happened.

I got a company truck one time that use to have one. It had a big old indentation where it use to be mounted. Not exactly what you like to hold for 11 hours. A company could get you for damaging equipment.

 

In the days of manual steering the above post is 10x over for finger breakage. Didn't even have to blow a tire, just bump a curb at 2MPH while negotiating a driveway.

 

I have been warned by DOT that I have to remove mine before I can leave the scale. And as far as backing up you shouldn't need it you don't have to spin the wheel that much if you slow down a see how the truck responds to each small ajustment, pluse if you hit something going slower damage will be less.

 

If you wear black fingerless gloves while using a suicide knob they are perfectly legal.....


and for a limited time only a chain drive wallet will be included with your purchase..














just kidding....there was a thread on this a while back and Cali was said to have outlawed them, big surprise there huh ?!?

 

I have one on the farm tractor I use for mowing. It's great. I can mow at 10 mph, get close to stuff, then quickly slam the wheels all the way to one extreme to manuever quickly around a tree or something. I love that tractor. With it's 72" belly mower it'll cut the lawn in about 2 hours. Takes all day with a conventional riding mower. It's also got individual brakes for the big rear wheels which can be used to make it turn on a dime. The individual brakes and the steering wheel spinner make it almost as useful for getting around trees as my ZTR mower. (Only problem with the ZTR is it's only a 46" cut and it's hard to steer straight when I'm mowing the ditch.)

 

They can hang up on a long sleeve shirt. Forget where it is stated, but they are illegal. Not enforced very often.

I know Swift specifically has it in their driver's manual. Yet I see many with one.