Offroad-Express

Here's a chance to vote on whether it's a good idea to use a steering knob when operating your trusty 4x4... and i'm sure everyone has an opinion on their merits or major disadvantages

personally, I think on-road they kinda suck but off-road they rock!... makes me feel like a classy taxi driver everytime I get behind the wheel

Az

i thing good idea, but what would i know. i dont have one. i have used on forklifts and think it could be very handy when turning in tight spots. but then it could be an issue when on the road so it needs to be detachble. hmmmm. this is a good topic for debate. bring on the debate

i used 1 on my zuk for the first time last sunday and liked it. I wont be going back thats for sure. Helps you turn much faster.

When I was younger I used to drive cars that had them fitted ( my father lost one arm in a work accident and the knob allowed him to drive easily ) I got used to them being there and ended up fitting one to my first car ...
It also made it easy to drive with one hand and the other was free to hug the girl friend.

I have not used one since except on forklifts

I find that the Isuzu is really easy to control so I would not bother ...
but the surf is a lot more stubborn and it could probably benefit from the addition of a knob if I was going to use it off road a lot .

I have had them on forklifts / cars / vans and trucks, they are good for tight turning as on forklifts, are good on trucks ( mainly older ones that have #### all power steering ), they would be good on a trail truck at lower speeds but I would not put one on a normal 4x4 after seing my mate get his arm caught buy the knob in a river crossing (big submerged rock) and breaking his arm and disclocating his sholder

But thats my 2c worth

ive got one on my 40 which is great offroad but i wouldn,t put one on my 80 as it spends most of its life on the road

Im not 100% sure but i think its illegal to fit these to a road going vehicle unless you have a special dispensation due to a dissabilty.
Someone may be able to confirm or deny this.

tallsam66 wrote:Im not 100% sure but i think its illegal to fit these to a road going vehicle unless you have a special dispensation due to a dissabilty.
Someone may be able to confirm or deny this.

that is what i was lead to believe as well

I have one one my 40, but I would never put one on a vehicle if it didn't have power steering.

I seen broken thumbs from trying to drive with one that has no power steering.

I just had a look at the LTSA website & it seems you dont need a LVV Certification for a "Steering Wheel Spinner" ...but there maybe some other rule that says you still need permission to run 1....just means it doesnt have to be certified.

See table 9-1-1

http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/certifiers/virm-in-service/general-09-v3.pdf

PR wrote:I have had them on forklifts / cars / vans and trucks, they are good for tight turning as on forklifts, are good on trucks ( mainly older ones that have #### all power steering ), they would be good on a trail truck at lower speeds but I would not put one on a normal 4x4 after seing my mate get his arm caught buy the knob in a river crossing (big submerged rock) and breaking his arm and disclocating his sholder

But thats my 2c worth

If it was a real truck you actually had to stand up to turn the wheel with a load on. No spinner was going to do the job for you

the spinner was so you could rest one arm while moving at speed before the slowwwwwwww feet on the floor turn

i have one on my 413 zook and no power steering has swung on my and ye it hurts when it hits u but i think i would never go back to normal steering. so ye i recon its worth it.

Old man has one of his Series One landy, never been an issue at warrent time. Learnt too drive in this so well aware too keep thumbs out of steering wheel and be ready too let go in a hurry. Just reinstalled one in my Zuk. Handy in some events when you need oppsite lock really quickly

lilpigzuk wrote:Old man has one of his Series One landy, never been an issue at warrent time. Learnt too drive in this so well aware too keep thumbs out of steering wheel and be ready too let go in a hurry. Just reinstalled one in my Zuk. Handy in some events when you need oppsite lock really quickly

true dat !..... wonder where i put mine

I had one in my safari for about a year. It was awesome around town and especially swinging into supermarket car parks.

Off road it was the shit, saved my ass many times. I was always really carefull to make sure i had a good grip on it before hitting stuff hard. The spinner was set up for my right hand at about 2 o'clock.

I got rid of it after i hit something i hadn't seen on a boring easy section of a track. I wasn't hanging onto it tight as there seemed no reason too, i wasn't attacking anything hard just bumbling along waiting for the next interesting bit. It ripped its self out my hand as the wheel snapped around clock wise and then instantly bit back in a milli second in an anti clock wise direction and smashed the shit outa my hand.

After that,i decided that even though it was awesome for manovering, it wasn't worth nursing a damaged hand through a trip in the middle of no where when you needed to be on the ball behind the wheel and get in amongst it with spades and recoveries.

What i'm sayin is they are great, but they will get ya when you least expect it, and then your screwed.

Uncle used to call em suicide knobs.......... reckons dudes got too casual with em, and they ended up doing what DB just described. Imagine popping something at 100km's and all ya had controlling the wagon was one casual hand, arm half hanging out the window and a knob (on the wheel!!!!! keep it clean!!!!) Than again, im talking before the advent of power steering and the like.

its not just steering wheel spinners that break hands and wrists , I managed to get my elbow stuck in the spokes of one of my old 40# cruiser steering wheels when I clipped a log or something and just about snapped my arm in two