Anti-tailgater device

[adsm08]

Ok, so I hate tailgaters. In the last week before the bad weather hit the North East the bed of our S-10 almost got smashed in by two different idiots driving too fast and tailgating us. I made the first one piss all over the interior of his Ridgeline by brake-checking him while he was paying attention to his phone.

The next guy was just an ass, in his lifted dodge ram 2500 who obviously thought it was funny to play with someone who drives a compact pickup (even though the wife was driving), so when she hit the brakes he sped up. He also almost rolled his truck into the oncoming lane of a I-180 when he finally had to swing around us, and had I been driving the Ranger which sits a few inches higher and has a stronger body I'd have tried to force him into the barrier and actually make him roll because he deserved it. Anyway...

Actually hitting the brakes hard in a situation like that is dangerous. When you do that you are definitely increasing the chance for an accident. Most states consider whoever has the front end damage to be at fault, but I'd just as soon not get rear-ended, which incidentally is the same reason that I'm trying to get these idiots off my tail.

So I was thinking about going to the parts store and getting one of those push-button momentary contact switches they have, and wire it into the brake lights like you do for the engine speed signal with and aftermarket tach.

The brake pedal will still turn the lights on, but I can also make them come on without actually hitting the brakes and letting these morons get closer to me.

Thoughts?

 

[Hopman]

Would that be legal?

 

[adsm08]

In my state you can do whatever you want with your lights as long as the front end lighting doesn't exceed a certain candle power, off-road lights can't be on w/ the high-beams, and they work as they would stock. The only thing you aren't allowed to do is to change column switched high-beams to floor switch high-beams, which sucks, because i prefer floor-switch.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Hehe what I thought about doing on my new truck was flip some cheapy lights backwards and put like 100w bulbs in them and run them on a seperate switch. Bright enough to blind you in the daylight.

Had a similar setup on my old truck for a bit then I took out my bed bars. Mostly to get people who follow you and leave their highs on so you can't see anything to get them to turn them off. but it works for tailgaters too. You could always hook up some strobes too. make em think your a cop. (don't do that actually, neat idea but not good if a cop finds out)

 

[Madracingalley]

I WAS going to place rear facing MILLION CANDLE POWER lights on a roll bar and put them on a button switch so when someone tailgates me with the highbeams, on I can STOP THEM DEAD IN THERE TRACKS


I had an Xterra....(the driver obviously drunk) tailgating me so I gave him a break check and He turned his high beams on for the next mile and a half and got so close to my bumper I could not pull over!!!!!!!!!! That @$$#0!3

 

[RustedRanger]

Tailgaters are one my biggest pet peaves...drives me up the wall! I usually just start easing off the gas and slow down more and more until they get the message. Tailgaters with bright lights are the worst....I have used a mirror to shine their light back at them to get em to shut off their brights and or back off. I have thought of a couple different things to use against them....one might be illegal but hook a set of driving lights as "back up" lights and the other is to mount a windshield washer pump to spray backwards. Another thing that works sometimes (if you smoke) is if you flick a butt straight up out the window sometimes it will bounce off their windhsield,the lit ones really get their attention. I'm not saying revenge is ok but I wish people would stay off others butts while driving

 

[Madracingalley]

my dad chucked a penny out the sunroof at an 09 Exspedition what was riding us on I-95

 

[pastor bubba]

An easy way to make it look like you are using your brakes during the day is to turn your lights on and off.

 

[Bent Bolt]

.............. or just TAP the brake pedal...........................

 

[AllanD]

My brake lights are "hair trigger" meaning the slightest touch of the pedal lights the lights.

I keep it this way because it's the primary method of disengaging
the cruise control.



AD

 

[LittleHorse]

I'm sure everyone here has heard of the ol' spark plug in the tailpipe trick.

Of course I'm not sure how well it works on a modern, fuel injected, catalyst equipped vehicle. Maybe if you had a switch that turned OFF the ignition system on the engine and turned ON the "ignition system" for the exhaust, you'd pump you're entire fuel charge straight out the tailpipe in the form of FIRE.

I haven't determined what your risk would be for the fire traveling backward up the pipe and blowing up your muffler or something...and you'd momentarily lose power as long as you were pressing the button. On a coil-over-plug design you could just shut off a couple of cylinders instead of the whole thing.

 

[-Nathan-]

before my ranger i had a 1990 vw jetta, turbo diesel. There was straight pipe from the downpipe the whole way out the back. I had the fuel pump screw turned up, so whenever i had a tailgater....i would just stomp it, and theyd get a BIG BLACK cloud of smoke and soot all over their car...theyd back off after that.

 

[GoodOld85BlueBalls]

Ok. I will be a voice of reason here.

In Colorado last year a guy went to jail for life for hitting his brakes in front of a tailgater. He caused the guy to go rolling through the median and his vehicle landed on an oncoming vehicle and killed that driver. Thanks to witnesses this guy went away with TWO life sentences for being an ass.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/12138736/detail.html

Some of the following is from a drivers education handbook.
Looks like some of us need to review this.

The best thing to do is get the tailgater safely around you. Do this by slowing slightly below the normal flow of traffic speed. This allows him more room to pass, and your slower speed makes it easier for him to do so.
This is what you WANT. Think about the frame of mind of someone that is tailgating you. If not at first, very soon the tailgater gets impatient, frustrated, and maybe angry.

Do you want him behind you, where you have no control over his actions? Tailgaters typically exercise poor judgment and endanger you and others trying to pass when it is not safe. If they still cannot pass after you've slowed a bit, then change lanes or pull off to the side and let them go by.

Don't hit the brakes suddenly, and do not tap your brake lights to warn the other driver to back off. Slamming on the brakes to get rid of the tailgater is against the law almost everywhere, not to mention that some folks get shot for doing it.

Tapping your brake lights to get an impatient driver to back off is also not a good tactic. While not illegal when you tap your brake lights without actually braking, you are training the other driver not to take your brake lights seriously.

Let's say you can't get the guy off your tail and he follows you for several blocks. If something requiring immediate response happens and you actually do hit the brakes, the tailgater's reaction time may be longer because he is thinking you are just tapping your brake lights again -- and by tailgating he is already too close for comfort.

So...

For all of you testosterone laden brothers out there, just let it go. Your lives are worth more than your egos. Better to arrive safe at your destination, you have a lot of people out there who are amazing and great people when you meet them in person, but behind the wheel they just want to kill you.

And Never ever Pull this kind of crap if you have your kids in the vehicle!!! I know that you all already know most of this and are just frustrated at the mindlessnes of tailgating @ss holes. It pisses me of everytime, but over my 25 years behind the wheel I now know better. I drive a big 1 ton service truck for work and always leave a huge space between me and the cars in front of me due to stopping distance and Mass. What pisses me of are the people that pull into my stopping area when trafic come to a quick slowdown. I could care less about the guy on my @ss as my rear bumper is made out of 1/2 steel plate. He will get shruged off like a bad case of fleas. Nothing that can't be fixed by a can of spray paint. But in my cars my family comes first, let them pass and waste gas.

Mike.

 

[Chance]

I'll say the same thing I do every tailgater thread...

Wave a brown bottle out the window and start swerving. People tend to back up.

But seriously, who cares? Get them past you. If it's that big of an issue, shoot them (yes, I mean with a gun) or get them on the side of the road and fight them.

Is it really that big of an issue now?

 

[fireguy12117]

i drive two footed in all automatic cars, so in an automatic if this happens, i feather the brake and the gas. it cant be great for the brakes and tanny, but on occasion i figure what the heck. brake lights come on, you keep your speed however lately i have found that people don't get it. in my other truck with the stick i'll do a hard downshift so the lights don't even come on. this got real dicey once as i did it 3 times and each time the idiot just still didn't get it and passed me in the center turn lane with on coming traffic, so really...best thing is to control my temper and just keep going slower. slower i go the better response time i gain and that's about the only real control in that situation.