Blog: Defending Donks, Bubbles, and Boxes!

[BOOOGHAR]

A good friend of mine is the head fabricator at a leading off road shop here in houtson and has built a couple of these lifted cars. He was telling me a guy came in with a G body buick and wanted 22s on it. they quoted a high price and the guy bout flipped out on the quote. My buddy proceeds to tell him if you want it done, take it down the street and have "X" shop do it, If you want it done right and not worry bout it breaking down and snapping suspension parts and leaving you stranded looking like a fool on the side of the road then pay what we quoted. The G body owner ponies up the cash and my buddy procedes to put a fab tech S10 pre runner lift kit on it and charges him triple LOL

[Mater]

i know want to make a pre-runner G-body compleat with roll cage and 4 spot lights in the front grill

[1trickpony]

It just seems to me they are pulling the broken tail light game. Pull you over, looking for bigger fines. It is annoying to get pulled over for a cracked reverse light. (ask me how I know)
But I think this is how the game works, pull you over for "big wheels", hoping you have something illegal in the car, a warrant, no DL, etc. etc.
Like them or not everyone on this forum is like the donk owners. And before I get banned, let me explain why. Each and everyone of us makes our cars our own. We do things that give the car character, go faster than the other guy, etc.
These guys started out with 2x" wheels, now they put the next size bigger on so they can be better than the other guy.

[Brian Lohnes]

Milk raises some good points. If the police are cracking down on the people IN the cars rather than the cars themselves, I understand. My junk has 22.5" wheels on it...I'm part of the problem.

[andy30thz]

I agree with Milkovich too. I don't want to have my vehicle modifications limited by legislation. But if there is an issue with a bunch of hacked big wheel cars, I can't sit here and say that's OK too.
If I was on a 4x4 truck forum and said, "yeah, I stuck 4" blocks under my front springs this weekend" I'd get crucified! The big wheeled cars I've seen are WAY worse than a red neck lift kit....

Lohnes, when you gonna weld in some spinner centers on the big green beast? Speaking of which, when we getting a body by rust update?

[Brian Lohnes]

Goliath update scheduled for Thursday!

[award69129]

Personally i like the looks of the 20's just saying but even here in rual nebraska we had a guy come through and he could barley make a turn on our streets because his tires kept hitting on the fenders but its not more than police do with 4x4s now they issue tickets for improper bumper/lighting heights ect. i dont se this as any diffrent if it is for safty. But saying that i still want the right to see 10 second cars on the road if people want to drive them.

[1badmonkey]

I LOVE donks, bubbles, boxes, hoopties- whatever you call them. that is gravy money for a wheel guy....

yes, some of those older lifted cars are flat scary...

but you can run 24's on a stock Charger-Magnum-300-challengers, also the new Camaros.

hell you can do 26's on a charger with out much work.

so, when they pull the guy over driving the 300 on 24's... bumper height-check
suspension - check
brakes - you could argue the need for bigger brakes, but honestly- check

that is just profiling-



how many good ole boys with 44" tires on old beater pick ups would pass a bumper-suspension-brake test??

just my opinion

[squirrel]

profiling...yeah....I got stopped years ago in my stock height 61 power wagon for the mud flap check (raised CG). AZ has a mud flap rule that lots of 4x4 guys have to deal with. I don't remember seeing mud flaps on either of the two donks in town (one of which is a grand marquis)

[BangShiftChad]

I cannot stand the big wheeled wonders. At all. Hate them. Don't respect them. I think any wheel company that makes anything bigger than a 20 should be fined. I have gone so far as to openly tell a wheel manufacturer at SEMA that they should feel personally responsible for the crap parked outside running their 30 inch wheels. And the tire companies that make the giant tires should be fined as well. Can't stand them. Seriously!!!

With that rant out of the way, it would be just as easy for the cops to be targeting someone for having skinny front runners or something, so we have to protect the hobby even if we don't particularly like this style of car. If they are truly unsafe, and some of them are, then prove it and move on. But impounding the car to make that determination seems backwards to me. Make the cop know what he's talking about.

If I had a quarter for every time that I got pulled over for a violation that wasn't, I would be able to buy a lot of dinner. Educating the cops on what they should know sucks.

[moparmaniac07]

how many good ole boys with 44" tires on old beater pick ups would pass a bumper-suspension-brake test??

I know my friend got pulled over all the time for it, and he only has 38's. He had to put drop bumpers on his truck, and still kept getting hassled about it. Those are the things they check when you get your vehicle inspected in PA. Shops aren't allowed to pass you if you've got stuff like that wrong.

[moparmaniac07]

But impounding the car to make that determination seems backwards to me. Make the cop know what he's talking about.

I agree, and make them carry a decibel meter if they're going to write you a ticket for being too loud. A lot of cops, it seems, have no idea and it's decesions are left up to their uneducated discression of wether it's too loud or too high or too whatever. No way to verify their decesion.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm torn on this one - on one hand, we do need to stick together or get picked off one at a time... however - as a general point -, sometimes I wonder if we're our own worst enemy defending things that really shouldn't be defended (a properly done donk is fine in my book - not my style, but it's their car)

[BangShiftChad]

I know what you mean Shrink. It's a tough call sometimes.

[Mater]

I LOVE donks, bubbles, boxes, hoopties- whatever you call them. that is gravy money for a wheel guy....

yes, some of those older lifted cars are flat scary...

but you can run 24's on a stock Charger-Magnum-300-challengers, also the new Camaros.

hell you can do 26's on a charger with out much work.

so, when they pull the guy over driving the 300 on 24's... bumper height-check
suspension - check
brakes - you could argue the need for bigger brakes, but honestly- check

that is just profiling-



how many good ole boys with 44" tires on old beater pick ups would pass a bumper-suspension-brake test??

just my opinion

my old 74 chevy truck would not pass and it was all stock with 32" tires lol