Those little dangly rubber things...

NathanE

NathanE

NathanE

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Joined
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You know the rubber things some people attach to their car's back bumper and scrape along the road surface?

What are they? Why did they get so popular in the early nineties? Why do you rarely see cars with them anymore?

It's a conspiracy! :p
 
I thought they where earthing kits so static charges dont build up and you get that little zap when leaving a car sometimes.
 
It's a static "discharger" to stop you getting a shock when you touch the metal work of your car as you leave the car. I used to get the occaisonal shock from one of my cars - though I never bothered to fit one those as it hardly ever happened, and they look naff :p They sold them as car sickness cures - which is of course silly :p
 
Freefaller said:
It's a static "discharger" to stop you getting a shock when you touch the metal work of your car as you leave the car. I used to get the occaisional shock from one of my cars - though I never bothered to fit one those as it hardly ever happened, and they look naff :p They sold them as car sickness cures - which is of course silly :p
Click to expand...

Eh...?
 
Shocks are nothing to do with static build up on the car, it's purely the static build up on YOU as you slide your backside out of the seat. Holding some conductive part of the car's bodywork (door lock mechasim is usualy handy) as you get out will prevent the shock by disipating any charge as it's made.

The rubber "lightning" strips are also pointless as tyres have a considerable amount of carbon in and are conductive, at least enough to rid the car of any static charges. Car sickness has the generic name of "motion sickness" which is what the root cause of the problem is. Static can give you a shock but it doesn't make you feel sick. If the rubber strips work for you then it's down to psychology, not science :D
 
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