driving with a tire clamp

beerismygas ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I dunno - doubt you'd even move.

OTOH, you'll do your guide dog plenty of damage if you drive off with it's lead caught in the door.

Ok I'll bite. I'd expect some bodywork damage around the clamped wheel, possibly a damaged brake hose etc. But the real question is why are you asking?

How would you miss the huge sticker in the windscreen? As a minimum of damage: wing/bumper, brake hose, steering rack all spring to mind. Assuming you pull away fast enough o break the chains then add on floor, sill, door, tyres, exhaust, fuel tank, rear bumper, etc. etc. Plus the cost of the clamp (several hundred)

The message from beerismygas contains these words:

A mighty thwack round the ear from the owner of the car for ignoring the sticker?

I'd expect it to vary a lot depending on whether it was a driven wheel or not - small cars are almost universally FWD and if it was a front wheel I suppose you might damage the wheel arch. Rear wheel it'd probably just drag along.

rofl.

A lot of tyre wear on the unclamped wheel(s)? Depending on your journey, lots of body damage from hitting the kerb / other obstacles! And hence damage to your insurance policy.

Possibly a little wear and tear on the clamp as well.

In message , Mark W writes

MPG might suffer a little.

Have you seen those chains? You'd pull the entire wheel/hub/strut/drive shaft/steering arm off the car before you'd break them.

Steve

according to this news article it a car was actually driven off with a clamp still attached and the clamper holding on the bonnet of the car!

actually it appears this is quite common. this article has a photo with the car with clamp attached

you can smoothly hang a lot of weight on a chain, but give it a very sharp loading and it might well break, I agree it is unlikely. the clamp in the picture someone refers to looks as though it doesn't have chain and it may be possible to revolve the wheel if the clamp was held off the ground.

Mrcheerful

Along with it pulling to the left, you can't blame the tracking this time.

Reminds me of a local around here who bought an old car for parts, one day he found it clamped, so not wanting to damage the car he simply dismantled the car around the clamp leaving the wheel and clamp in place before phone the clamp people telling them to remove their clamp before it was stolen. The car was scrapped but that was the case anyway and as it was a while ago he didn't loose a tenner for the tyre. Dunno what the outcome was though.

Tom

Probably quite a bit of damage if it's on a driven wheel. I usually have an extra large pair of bolt cutters and an angle grinder in the boot for such an inconvenience. All you have to do is suggest the clamper is running a scam and using Photoshop. If you can manage to remove the clamp without causing damage to it then you can't be prosecuted for anything.

"dfire" wrote in news:466b2d66$1 snipped-for-privacy@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com:

REminds me of Mo who used to post on one of the uk.rec.car forums. He/she came back to their car to find an unlocked clamp on it, removed it and buggered off with it. Anyone remember this and know what was the outcome?

Sounds like an excellent suggestion, but how do you avoid causing damage to the clamp if you're removing it with bolt cutters and an angle grinder?

I suppose you just get rid of it altogether and claim it never existed outside of Photoshop.