Shocking footage has emerged of a truck driver navigating a busy Melbourne motorway with a dangerous modification to his rig.
Huge spikes protruded from the edges of the front wheel as the truck wove through heavy traffic on a highway.
The video, titled ‘What a knock’, was posted on Reddit this week, and Victoria Police said the truck modification was illegal.
A police spokesman said they were following up on investigations into the truck and advised people not to make illegal modifications to their vehicles.
Under VicRoads vehicle standards, it is illegal for anything wider than the fender to protrude from the wheel arch.
“When in the upright position, the wheels and tyres do not protrude beyond the extreme width of the fenders when viewed from above,” VicRoads said.
The original Reddit poster warned of potential injuries that the truck’s studded tires could cause.
‘This was slightly higher than the threshold of a normal road car, so it would go through the car door and crash into her children’s hip.’
Images of the truck driving on a busy highway with illegal modifications appeared on social media.
“That sounds like a great idea,” they added sarcastically.
Social media users were quick to point out that the modifications were illegal in Victoria, with one person commenting: “Absolutely illegal in Victoria.”
‘No part of the caster wheel may protrude from the guard when the wheels are pointing forward.’
“It doesn’t have any sharp protrusions either,” another agreed.
“It’s legal to ride in a Roman chariot in the Colosseum,” one person said.
Some Reddit users said the wheel mods were poorly made and came off easily, destroying tires that drove over them, while others said they were made of plastic.
Others compared the wheel hub to something you’d see in a Mad Max movie, not on city streets.
“Stop trying to make Mad Max a thing,” one viewer said.
Another added: ‘Mad Max: West Gate Bridge’.
Under VicRoads vehicle standards, it is illegal for anything wider than the fender to protrude from the wheel arch.
A third wrote: “I live where they filmed Mad Max… Every day I drive up to the hill where the movie was filmed. I’d laugh if I saw something like that.”
“Wow, you cross that bridge and drive down the road for about three miles and you find yourself in the middle of a post-apocalyptic dystopia: Avalon Beach. Holy crap, that place is creepy!” wrote another.
Another Reddit user jokingly posted that people who are crazy about trucks shouldn’t feel ashamed.
‘They’re a harmless way for people with bad taste to express themselves and if we accuse them of being insecure about their masculinity or whatever, we end up with shit like this.’