Wrenching Gone Wrong: Driver Ticketed For Swapping Steering Wheel For Vise Grips

What crafty hack would you come up with to replace a steering wheel? Photo: Dean Mouhtaropoulos (Getty Images)

Here at Jalopnik we love a good automotive hack or bodge that keeps you on the road longer. Maybe you found a sneaky way to make your tires last for more miles, or a neat way of maximizing your trunk space. Whatever hack you uncovered, I hope it was a bit less janky than this driver who was caught using a wrench instead of a steering wheel to drive his car around Canada.

Forget Autonomy, Drivers Still Want Control

Officers in Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, pulled over a driver last week only to find they were controlling the car with a wrench strapped to the steering column, rather than a wheel, reports CBC News in Canada.

The driver was pulled over on April 17 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who ticketed the man behind the wheel. As CTV News reports:

Around 1:30 p.m. on April 17, a traffic services officer pulled over the suspect on Range Road 3063 in the Shellbrook detachment area, according to an RCMP news release.

During the stop, officers saw the vehicle had no steering wheel and the driver was using vice grips “to guide the vehicle.” Police say the driver also had no license.

As well as a ticket for driving without a license, the man behind the wrench was also told to take their vehicle for inspection – I assume so that experts could determine that no, he did not in fact have a steering wheel in the car.

This is surely one of the sketchiest steering wheel upgrades we’ve seen here at Jalopnik, right? But how does it stack up against some other automotive hacks that you’ve seen out on the road? Here are some of the most surprising car hacks that you’ve seen work in the real world.