Fuelly Forums - Ruses to stop tailgaiters

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ArtFox (Post 100952)

JC Whitney has LED flashers but they are $79 and not very aerodynamic...

Do NOT drive down the road with a blue or red light like that on your car, especially the red one.

Blue they may not hassle you much unless you have it on but just having the red light can get you nailed for impersonating a police officer regardless of it being on or not.

In Va. Blue is state police you will get nailed to the wall.

regards
gary

Get an old ('72 or '73 would be good) Mazda with the Wankel Rotary Engine...stomp on the foot feed then let off...makes the most satisfying explosions. Loved doing that under overpasses or in tunnels. If you get one, make sure the exhaust system is still up to that. They were when the cars were new...Remember watching one guy fishtail all over the place after I did that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by landspeed (Post 100945)

My car is not (yet) very aerodynamic. I have found that tailgaters improve my MPG slightly, so I put up with it :) (if the car is the same size, and I can see that things are 'safe' ahead of me).

Something I did in my old car once by chance, and am tempted to set up in my current car, would be a special switch to cut off the fuel to TWO of the four cylinders, while making the AFM run richer than it should.

Then, drive along. Flip the switch, then press the accelerator fully down (WOT) for half a second. The exhaust will fill with very hot, ENRICHED, burnt mixture, from the two working cylinders which are running rich. It will also be filled with pure air from the two cylinders which have no fuel... :)

Then, when you let go of the accelerator, this mixture will stop flowing in the exhaust, and some of it will be 'stuck' next to hot exhaust valves. There will be a loud bang as the mixture burns from the exhaust valves. The explosion pushes the mixture out of the exhaust as it goes, giving a 6-12 inch flame together with a nice bang from the end of the exhaust :)

I discovered this when experimenting with 2-cylinder running, on my old car (using an LPG switch to disable two of the fuel injectors). The only proviso, is that you shouldn't do this to cars that have a catalytic convertor!

I had just discovered the 'popping' noise when someone tailgated me, I tried it, and they backed off :) Then, later on that day, when it was dark, I tried it out again (with no-one behind me), and I could see huge flashes of light behind the car :D If you hide the switch somewhere, and splice into the injector wiring under the dashboard so no-one can see the modification, then even if someone reports you for it, and the police stop you or something, they will just find your car running smoothly, and there will be no sign of how the flames could have happened :)

I will just go and update my avatar I think to show the effect :)

I've found that rear fog lamps can temporarily dissuade tailgaters, especially at night. When you switch it on, they assume its a brake light and back off a bit. Works nicely if you accelerate slightly as you switch on the light.

Hella rear fog lamps for universal applications can be found here: https://www.rallylights.com/hella/backup.asp#rfog

Quote:

Originally Posted by swng (Post 100880)

I have been thinking about a horn that honks to the cars behind:).

I like that idea, like 190 db super horn, yea!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArtFox (Post 100800)

Has anybody considered putting a magnetic sign on the door and on the back of your car that says "Survey Crew?" Just put a hardhat on the dash or on the back deck, a clipboard on the front seat and wear a safety vest everywhere you go?

If your county/state allows it, add some flashing yellow lights in the rear window and behind your grill. That should keep most manic tail-gaters from
honking while you coast. :D

https://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...4survey600.jpg

I've found that a few pumps of the accellerator from soot belching diesel does the trick nicely. I basically have a switch on my dashboard that says, "Get off me, I'm in front and you can't change that," by adding 140 more horse power. Try that one sometime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkjones96 (Post 101029)

I'd say it depends on the State you live in. In my case its blue. A nice amber light should do it.

The craziest anti-tailgater thing I've seen was a set of train horns pointed rearward in the bed of a mini pickup.

For the most part I don't worry about tailgaters. The major fear is them hitting you... obviously they would if you had to hit the brakes. But they wouldn't hit you very hard as you only have a few feet to decelerate. You could loose control, or hit whatever you were trying to avoid, but the major danger is still in front and mostly controllable by you.

On the other hand, someone way back and completely spaced out will slam into you at nearly full speed. I've had this one happen, and it sucks, even at way less than highway speeds.

So I normally just ignore them. If they really wanted to go fast, they would pass. I think a lot of people just get so used to tailgating that they don't even think of it as 'pushing' you, just normal driving. I've been passengers with several drivers like this. It doesn't matter if you're 10 over or 10 under, they're just stuck there.

On rare occasions I do stress about it... the last was a semi who flew up on my bumper in the right lane just because he wanted to pass traffic on the right instead of left, and thought I'd make room somehow if he threatened me enough. Even this worst case I just gently slow down until there's room for them to pass, reminding myself that it's not constructive to cause an accident then pull them out of the truck and shoot them with a shotgun at close range repeatedly. The crazier traffic gets, the saner you need to be, as it's the only way everyone arrives home in one piece.

Today I was driving my normal route, going into the last 4 mile stretch, in the right lane approaching the Naval Weapons Station where a lot of people turn right. Sure enough the car two cars in front of me turns on his signal.

I was watching the traffic all around and I had a clear left lane to move over to avoid stopping. Speed limit was 45 and I was doing just over 50 moving with traffic. I move over to the left lane, but there is a pickup truck about 150 feet behind me. The problem is he is doing at least 65 trying to pass the group of cars to get into the right lane to get on the interstate.

I guess I pissed him off, so he pulls up on my rear end in his full size Chevy pickup.

Three feet off my bumper at 52 MPH!!!! I could only see his grille in my rear view mirror. Couldn't see the hood or the top of his front bumper.

When this idiot realized he wasn't going to be able to get in front of the car in the right lane he finally slowed down to merge in front of another car, maybe 1 car length between the car in front and behind him.

I get soo tired of idiots that accelerate to try to block your lane change to avoid a huge fuel wasting stop. It seems like they think its a challenge to see if they can cause a wreck.

Maybe one day I will take my spritzer bottle and fill it with a 50-50 antifreeze and water mix to spray it out the window. Windshield wipers wont do much of anything to get antifreeze off the glass. This idiot certainly deserved a shot of that kind of juice.

Around here you don't need to worry about drafting. I see people tailgating at 1 car length 12-15 feet at 70-75 MPH everytime I get near the interstate.

regards
gary