I thought about adding one.

Over here in Ireland in the '60's & '70's (and in the UK also I guess - we shared a lot of the same ads) they were seen as a parking aid. My father had one on his 1962 Wolseley but it was always clear to me that it was for low speeds only but then for the kind of cars that we had 60 mph was heady stuff indeed.

I guess that he taught me what it was used for so early that I don't remember but its something I thought that always knew.
--
1967 131, 1977 Volvo 245 DL, 65 VW Bug, 71 VW Westy

My dad had a used car business all through my pre-teen and teenage years (1957-) and I saw many trade-ins with "neckers knobs". My favorites were the ones with the photos of naked ladies embedded. -- Dave

My college roomate had one on his suicide doors '65 Lincoln Continental. Man, that thing was a boat, and the knob fit really well with the way it drove. Even then, '70's the knobs were outlawed in many states, but legal in AZ.
It was great until you took it over 35 and then the float turned into over-reactions

I do believe for the most part that they are outlawed on over the highway vehicles, and for the reasons cited. Great on slow moving stuf though, especially if you do a lot of over the shoulder work; backing up, furrows, etc.

Eight or nine years ago, my father in law got in two serious accidents, One when someone cut him at a gas station in florida - he totaled his van against a large bollard. The second when he was cut off leaving a shopping canter in NH. He went off the road, around a grassy corner, down a 20 foot embankment, off a 4 foot wall, across a parking lot and sheared 1/3 of his new van off when he hit the corner of a store.

In both cases, he hit the gas instead of the brake. I had seen him drive and he drove quite well for his age - he finally told me that he could not lift his right leg quickly.

I suggested that he get hand controls.

He looked into it and found that General Motors would equip his new van for free and send him to a driving school for free.

They evaluated him and found that he could operate the throttle, so they added a hand brake and a suicide Knob.

He had to get a permit for the knob.

I drove the van and the hand brake worked very well and it had a lot of leverage.

However, you had to keep your hand on the brake during slow driving, hence the suicide knob.

His knob did not fold, it was easy to remove and he was told that it was illegal for anyone to use the knob without a permit.
--
'96 855R,'64 PV544 driver, '67 P1800 basket case, '12 XC70, the first three are mine, heh, heh, 525,000 miles put on 10 bricks

On a tractor, great.

On an antique Swisher riding lawn mower like the one I found, great.

For backing trailers, great.

For necking, great! (but need a bench seat for that to work well)

For a modern (and by modern, I mean anything newer than about 1930)road car, I wouldn't even thing about it. Basically, if steering lock to lock is less than about 12 wheel rotations, and/or the steering wheel is smaller than.. oh... 22" or so, it'll be annoying, and more of a liability than an asset.

And I'm pretty sure they're not legal in CO.
--
-Matt I ♥ my ♂

I had one in my old 67 wagon for a bit, was nice when parking. I took it off eventually, it got in the way sometimes and it marred the steering wheel.

They're illegal in some states or at least they used to be. I never had one myself but I've used them when driving other peoples cars back in the pre-power steering days. You do get some good leverage with one but you want to be careful when letting the wheel spin back at the end of a turn - it can be a real knuckle buster.

BTW - we called them Brody knobs. I don't know where the name came from.

A steering wheel knob is a device that mounts on one end of the steering wheel and is intended to make steering with one hand easier (not recommended). Also known as Brodie knobs, after American bridge jumper Steve Brodie, steering wheel knobs are a great tool in slow moving traffic and while parking, though at high speeds they don't offer enough feel and can, in fact, be dangerous if used incorrectly, which led them to be termed as suicide knobs.