... those ones on a car steering wheel so you can steer with one hand?
Currently unable to drive due to a radial head fracture in my dominant arm and wondering if I should get one of those spinny steering wheel knobs to allow me to get mobile again.
Are they legal?...will it wreck my steering wheel?...will i die?
Car is electric so no gear change issues and all the lights , wipers etc are automagical so should, in theory, be perfectly safe to drive with one hand, right?
MrsMC needs one due to only having one working arm/leg. They are fantastic even for those of us with two working arms and legs. (See also autoboxes)
Depending how long you will need it for, I'd get a nice one from a disability specialist rather than a cheap one from Amazon.
They will mark the steering wheel over time but a couple of layers of inner tube and not overtightening will reduce that. We put our spare knob on hire cars when she has them for work and never had an issue.
Would only be illegal if medical advice was not to drive even with one?
The knob pics are the only reason I still come here 🙂
Have you asked your insurance company if they're OK with you driving with a broken limb?
Have you asked your insurance company if they're OK with you driving with a broken limb while clutching your knob?
The op earlier...
Medical advice from the fracture clinic this morning was "you can drive whenever you feel you're able".
A decidedly unhelpful, "mibbes aye, mibbes naw" response.
Find an old Grey Fergie tractor lying rusting in a field somewhere as they usually would have them
Have you asked your insurance company if they're OK with you driving with a broken limb?
This.
If there's any sort of incident and you don't have it in writing from the docs then your insurance company will likely tell you to sod off.
I thought I'd broken my hand 12 months ago and even though they weren't sure if I had (I hadn't) the hospital said deffo not to drive.
Surely a modern car has so much assistance you could steer it with the other knob?
I often just use my non dominant hand to steer whilst eating a kebab or writing an email.
More seriously everything I’ve driven in recent years has had very light steering, absolutely fine driven by someone with a disability or ****ing injury.
Car is electric so no gear change issues and all the lights , wipers etc are automagical so should, in theory, be perfectly safe to drive with one hand, right?
Indicators? I find them problematic when I'm driving whilst eating a pasty.
People understand if you get a 'Pasty on board' sticker for the back of your car.
Motability cars that have them fitted need the wheel reconstructed after removal because the padding gets completely crushed by the clamp. I guess a piece of tube, like water pipe, sliced along it’s length and put under the clamp would work as a temporary fix, though.
Indicators? I find them problematic when I'm driving whilst eating a pasty
Maybe OP has a BMW.
Have you asked your insurance company if they're OK with you driving with a broken limb?
And they would probably consider it as a modification to the vehicle.
If you have a heated wheel, it'll quite possibly damage the heating element.
Depending on airbag location/size you might end up with pattern from the end of the knob embossed on your face in the event of a crash. Can also get in the way of retractable/collapsible steering columns.
Indicators?
Left hand side and I still have use of my left hand, so probably OK
If you have a heated wheel, it'll quite possibly damage the heating element.
This has tipped me from "Probably a bad idea" into " Almost definitely a bad idea"
Working from home for the next few weeks it is then.
A massive pain in the arse (and the right elbow) all round
I have heard these described as "suicide knobs" because of the high likelihood during a crash of them punching a hole through your ribs/face. Perhaps this term comes from before the days of airbags though.
Anyway, they must be popular, there's certainly a lot of cars around here being steered by knobs.
If you have a heated wheel, it'll quite possibly damage the heating element.
Which won't matter anyway if you have your hand on your knob instead of the wheel.
A massive pain in the arse
It's a steering wheel knob. You're doing it wrong.
...OMG I can't continue with this. So much innuendo 🤣
Buy a Tesla. I’m told the autopilot thingy needs no driver input at all.
Buy a Tesla
That would require repetitive straightening of my right arm.
Not an option.
Many people manage to steer single-handed with the heel of their hand anyway...do you need a knob?
Indicators? I find them problematic when I'm driving whilst eating a pasty.
I'm not sure why, but some how I misread this as "whilst eating pussy"
As is suggested by mobility cars being fitted with them there are drivers who drive with on arm / one good arm - and insurers and the DVLA will be fine with you driving with a knob because of disability so long as you've been medically cleared to do so. Thats more than your doc saying 'its fine' though. The NHS has a Driving Assessment service. The one on Glasgow is supposed to be mobile but when I had an appointment with them the truck was sitting of flat tyres in hospital carpark somewhere near Paisley, but still operating the service.
Its actually quite a fun test to do - you do the Trump 'Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV' cognative test and you do an assessment in a driving simulator (thats whats inside the truck) that measures everything from periferal eye sight and your abiities in low light, to how quickly and how hard you can press the brake pedal and so on. So in your instance it would assess your ability and strength to use the steering wheel one handed accurately. Then you go out in a duel control car just like when you were at driving school.
It was interesting how much more thoroughly you're assessed, both physically and mentally, in order to be able to keep the right to drive than you are to be able to drive in the first place.
That'll result in thumbs up the insurers and DVLA would need for you to drive an adapted car one handed. The likelihood of getting an appointment with them before your arm is healed is pretty low though (which is probably why a doctor hasn't suggested it to you). No idea if theres any private providers of a service like that although I would probably have looked into it at the time and not found anything
EDIT - actually maybe there are private options now and just around the corner from the Bagdad Bakery which is nice
If you have a heated wheel, it'll quite possibly damage the heating element.
Depending on airbag location/size you might end up with pattern from the end of the knob embossed on your face in the event of a crash. Can also get in the way of retractable/collapsible steering columns.
How do Motability modified cars manage, then? They sometimes have significant modifications to the driver interface.
Generally speaking, and having seen a good few ex motability cars, they don't give a toss.
