Suicide Knob

[Golfgar4]

There may be more to the story than this, and if so, I'm sure one of the knowledgeable members will fill us in.

But as far as I know, the term "suicide knob" was derived as a result of the accidents/injuries that were attributed to these devices back in the days when there wasn't power steering. These knobs would be mounted on steering wheels in order to assist with the turning of the steering wheel because it could be so difficult without powering steering. If the vehicle happened to hit a pot hole, large bump, or anything that might deflect the path of the front tire, the steering would whip around so fast that the driver could actually get a broken hand/fingers from being struck by the knob. Or even worse, because of the loss of control, there could be an accident in which the driver and/or passengers could be severly injured or even killed.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

 

[Mith]

yea thats good enough for me - so where do i get one /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Golfgar4]

Well, here's one place - J.C. Whitney

Of course, I don't know if there's one in the U.K. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Mith]

how hard do ya think itd be to make - looks easy enogh to do on a lathe or am i missing a vital technicality - anyone done it before?
mith

 

[Dave4410]

I once heard that the device is called a "Suicide Knob" because when you crash, the knob can end up in your skull. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Mith]

the riddle is 'but how?' /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Dave4410]

I believe it happened when crashing a big truck with a large steering wheel and the driver was thrown against it. Let's talk about something more pleasant, like mowing etc... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Yourkie]

Sorry to resurrect this 3 year old thread thread as JD's black (and green) spinner still doesn't seem to fit many JD steering wheels. There are 2 sets of screws that come with the knob, but in my case both sets are too short.

It looks to me that the knob bracket that fits the black rubber spacer goes over spoke and the bracket then extends over the wheel, but they don't provide any instructions.

It seems like they should be able to make a universal knob design that fits all their current steering wheels and include some basic instructions. The number of posts and threads on something this basic proves that there is something wrong when something this simple doesn't fit without a hassle. The installation isn't that straight forward. You'd think that Deere would include 25 cents worth of various screw lengths that would cover all steering wheel configurations and provide an instruction sheet.

BTW I'm trying to put it on my 3x20.

 

[garth466]

My dealer had 3 boxes of these things. I brought one of each to my 3120 that was sitting outside and I couldn't get any of them to fit. In hind sight, I should have tried them out on one of the X320's in the show room since mowing is the only time I wish I had one.

 

[marco246]

When I bought my 4610 in '04 the dealer threw in a green suicide knob at no charge. I put it on at the junction of a spoke and the wheel and it works great. The black plastic or rubber tab has worn out and fallen off but it doesn't seem to matter.

Just bought a 2305. Got no freebie with this one, so I bought another green knob for 10 bucks and put it on the 2305. It didn't fit well when mounted at the junction of a spoke and the wheel in that the knob was angled to the inside of the wheel and didn't provide much advantage. I couldn't see how it would mount to the wheel alone, so I just tossed it out.