Remember Fender Skirts?
Logistics Pro
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 4,221
Likes: 3
Originally Posted by Ringo Fonebone
we used to call those wheel spinners "suicide *****", but suicide ***** and doors are gone now.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,465
Likes: 0
From: Southern Alberta
Because if the handle broke off (which they did with alarming regularity) or your hand slipped off them, the wheel would spin back the other way and you'd be in the ditch (if you were lucky) 
Junior User
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 85
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From: fayetteville, ar
i don't recall my yunguns ever askin' for a bar of candy or a stick of gum, but they know what a cat-head bisquit & red-eye gravy is...are...uh...
Last edited by razell; Oct 6, 2004 at 01:48 AM.
Gone but not forgotten.
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 6,521
Likes: 2
Originally Posted by ryaneverk2
Why did they call them suicide *****??... my uncle used to have one on his truck, but had to get rid of it because they became illegal, as far as I know. Didn't they make turning with one hand easier?
Dono
Thread Starter
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Elder User
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 753
Likes: 2
From: Oklahoma
Originally Posted by dono
They really helped with the hard mechanical steering of the time, but were known to break at times. I had one off a forklift that was heavy duty and it worked great on my '37 Ford.
Dono
Dono
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Joined: Apr 2004
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"Suicide *****" are part of required equipt. for some handicapped drivers. We bought a tractor in '66 with one and, being used to hand over handing the steering, I promptly clubbed myself in the wrists. All tractorage stopped as I removed the ****.
RE: Fender Skirts:
My fond memory comes from sometime in 71, 2 or 3 or before the gas crisis in 4 as everything changed after that. Anyway, I'm doing full survice on two islands with 4 pumps. This guy comes up and wants me to put his wire wheel cover on. I directed him to the service bay where the other guy was working so we could lift it and get the wheel down out of the well so you cold seat the thing. Sure, you can take skirts off, but the backside is full of dirt, mud, rust and may or may not come off and darn sure won't go back on without a fight. Anyway, the guy berates me and calls me lazy etc etc. Runs me into the ground for a while.
There were others, and the general way you were treated was like dirt. So, when the '74 crunch came, it was 10,000 paybacks.
Hhmm: Mention "fender skirts", get a flying rage. Hhhmmm.
RE: Fender Skirts:
My fond memory comes from sometime in 71, 2 or 3 or before the gas crisis in 4 as everything changed after that. Anyway, I'm doing full survice on two islands with 4 pumps. This guy comes up and wants me to put his wire wheel cover on. I directed him to the service bay where the other guy was working so we could lift it and get the wheel down out of the well so you cold seat the thing. Sure, you can take skirts off, but the backside is full of dirt, mud, rust and may or may not come off and darn sure won't go back on without a fight. Anyway, the guy berates me and calls me lazy etc etc. Runs me into the ground for a while.
There were others, and the general way you were treated was like dirt. So, when the '74 crunch came, it was 10,000 paybacks.
Hhmm: Mention "fender skirts", get a flying rage. Hhhmmm.
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Laughing Gas
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 796
Likes: 1
From: KCMO
Suicide *****
Those dandy little "spinners" made it possible to steer with one hand, and were great when the other arm was wrapped around Betty Lou (who got married one night). I'd always heard that they were illegal, but I'd also heard that it was illegal to drive barefoot. The barefoot thing turned out to be some old wive's tale, so who knows about the spinners. (And, where did all them old wives come from? What was their purpose? Where did they go?)
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