(not my image. I just find these comical and incredibly dangerous)
They probably aren't. Doesn't stop them from existing though. 🤷
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2026
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fun fact I learned, when taking the wheel off of antique or fancy cars you have to hit this part with a lead hammer that deforms with each hit so it doesn't get scratched/damaged. Eventually it gets so deformed that you have to melt it down and mold it back into a hammer shape again.
idk why a rubber mallet wouldn't work but I assume car guys have thought of that before me and there's a reason why they're not used
I got the chance to use one of those hammers on a knock off hub before, it weighs like 6-7 lbs and you've gotta swing it pretty hard because it needs 5x more torque on it than a normal lug nut to stay put. Rubber can't quite cut it.
The modern upgrade is just use an actual nut and a comically long wrench if you don't have a pit crew.
Didn't mythbusters or top gear do an episode on this type of stuff? Iirc they had two cars do something like this and it ended very poorly for the car with the spikes. I think the wheel ripped itself apart.
Just cause they have them doesn’t make them legal. Cops probably don’t even know so they just let it go
Usually, US law enforcement errs on the side of illegal since they have the presumption of good faith (or at least did until ICE went gonzo about lies and cover-ups).
But anything that looks suspicious counts as probable cause meaning they can search you and relieve you of cash and valuables. Nowadays, they presume they can jusy rob you and it enhances the precinct budget for fun stuff.
We see this kind of overpolicing done more to minorities than whites, but so long as you don't look super rich (enough to have a lawyer on your contacts list) then you're fair game.
If this sort of thing is uncommon in their parts, it's going to draw more attention than a red sports car.
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They are not legal in the civilised world.
It's pretty common to see these on the road in Houston, Texas.
Oh wait, you said "civilized world", my bad.
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They aren't. There might be places with shitty cops that tolerate them. (Quick search shows this is mostly a Texas thing)
They aren’t.
Confidently incorrect. Maybe they're illegal some places, but definitely not most places. In Texas, they're not illegal, but it can be illegal if they make your vehicle more than 8 feet wide. Since they're usually on sedans, they usually don't hit 8 feet.
Also they're more specifically a thing in Black culture in Houston. I see them pretty rarely in other Texas cities
Maybe they are legal in a few places. There is more places in the world than just a couple of US states.
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Swangas are among the most fucked up modifications you can do with your car. It's literally not just a "fuck you" to other road users but actively hostile to everyone around you.
Just reflect for a moment what kind of culture can be so deeply submerged in toxic displays of hostility as a form of "swag", "coolness" or "masculinity" as to create something like that. How insecure do you have to be?
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I don't know. Why are semi trucks allowed to have these?
I see them all the time even though they seem like a liability for a professional driver.
The idea is the driver can see if a lug nut is missing. They are typically just plastic, but would still shred a pedestrian or cyclist, two members of the woke left.
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How does one fit into a parking space?
There's zero chance these are legal. And even in places where enforcement of such things is lax, is be surprised if this lasted very long, simply because of how crazy dangerous it would be to pedestrians and cyclists.
Nothing says idiot loser like these do.
This seems like a surefire way to get any insurance claim denied for dangerous modification to your car, or something along those lines.
Im sure the driver has absolute zero in social skills.
I refuse to believe that america is a real place
America is a scary story the Brits made up to keep the other colonies behaving.
That looks like a really expensive accident waiting to happen.
Why would anyone put that on their car?
Idiots, they live among us.
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Houston is a weird place.
In short, they often make the car as wide as is street legal. Sometimes they end up being too wide, but "maybe it's too wide but I can't quite tell" doesn't meet probable cause, so the police can only really measure them if they get pulled over for something else.
They aren't in any civilised countries, probably land you in prison when you are driving that on any public road in one of those.
According to Alexander's tactics in Gaugamela, you first have to wear them down with javelins, and then open ranks to create alleys for them to pass through your infantry, then finish them off with hypaspists. Afterwards, you can charge your cavalry straight to Darius himself and win the battle.
Piece of cake really.
Satire become reality if we don't do something after learning about it: https://xkcd.com/3167/
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In the Saints Row series they're called kneecappers and I tried and uninstalled them because they caused too much mayhem. They also appear in the Spy Hunter 1983 coin-op video game
I remember seeing them on Speed Racer used by villains before seeing the chariot race version in Ben Hur.
IRL they're obviously a hazard and inappropriate in traffic where people are just trying to collaboratively get home. (And yes, traffic is a collective cooperative effort, and we see that as soon as someone gets antagonistic.)
But Americans imagine themselves rugged individualists, a component of capitalist propaganda, and like to show they're rebels with shit like rolling coal and truck nuts.
This totally looks like a FAFO moment that is going to turn into a regulatory statute.
Since it's not a firearm, I doubt courts or officials will be interested at all in pursuing second-amendment liberties over this. They seem not to care about knives or ninja gear, either.
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See also
- Scythed chariot – An ancient, military counterpart
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If I drove a clunker and spotted one of these I'd make sure to drive past him, because it's probably a man, as close as I could so I'd rip these things to shreds.
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