Mountain Dew as hub cover: 2024's worst inspection fail? | Overdrive

Law enforcement sees all kinds of ridiculous things inspecting commercial motor vehicles, and we've documented plenty of them. From trucks rolling up to the scales while actively on fire to various examples of "brakes by Bluetooth," inspectors have posted some pretty gnarly examples, but one huge fail recently spotted in Tennessee might just take the cake.

[Related: Roadcheck fails 2024: The best of the worst?]

Behold the following: "An MC+ Trooper stopped a CMV in Shelby Co when several safety violations were discovered with one being a suspended driver and one axle was using a Mountain Dew box as a wheel cover allowing a wheel seal to leak oil," Tennessee Highway Patrol posted on Twitter. "The driver and vehicle were promptly placed out of service."

And: there's pictorial evidence, too, shared by the trooper:

Perhaps the driver's suspension meant they'd forgotten the Mountain Dews and Mountain Don'ts of trucking.

Funny enough, the name of the long-running "Mountain Dew" soda is after old slang used by moonshiners of the Smoky Mountains for the beverage they produced.

Mountain Dew was in fact originally formulated in Tennessee. But it was made as a soft drink, not as a wheel seal or hub cover replacement, whatever the case may be. While the trooper might have appreciated the historical homage to the state's forefathers, it wasn't enough to keep this driver moving. We've seen a coffee cup used as a hub cover before, but that one actually seemed to do the job. Here, one wonders what the driver was thinking.

One imagines them polishing off the twelfth can, surveying their work: "Spectacular. That'll do it ..."

[Related: Roadside inspections, safety scores should be preventive, not punitive]