Bad Thunder Storm!

WilliamsVMAX · August 11, 2009

I was at out at work last week, in Northern Alberta, and a bad storm past through in a matter of minutes. I never seen anything like it before...hail was massive, some about the size of large marbles or bigger. There was nothing I could do since I was in the bush. Truck got banged up quite abit. Dents, all along the driver side, roof and hood. Plastic vent up by window where wipers are got a nice hole in it as well. Happy no windows or sunroof was broken. Still debating whether to get it fixed through insurance, or if its even worth it.

Erichcb · August 11, 2009

Sorry to hear about the truck .That’s the one thing that I dread the most when I see a Storm rolling in. And I’m stuck at work and cant do anything about it.

Do you have any pictures?

Unknown123 · August 11, 2009

WilliamsVMAX - that sucks, i know what its like around calgary is seems like we are always getting big hail storms. If you dont mind me asking what do you do for work?

spikesputnik · August 11, 2009

To quote Bill C., "I feel your pain"

ShoddyHog · August 11, 2009

I feel your pain. Not only did I get hail damage on my GTO, but was also struck by lightning.

I decided not to have my damage fixed becase it is so slight, but at least around here, body shops to a fantastic job of fixing it. I don't know how they do it, but it sure looks perfect afterward.

Crazy Canuck · August 11, 2009

I feel your pain. Not only did I get hail damage on my GTO, but was also struck by lightning.

I decided not to have my damage fixed becase it is so slight, but at least around here, body shops to a fantastic job of fixing it. I don't know how they do it, but it sure looks perfect afterward.

You were struck by lightning or the GTO was? I thought that cars/trucks were not prone to lightning strikes as the tires were insulators to ground.

Darkanion · August 11, 2009

Sorry to hear that, Blair. I'd suggest getting it fixed. Those paintless dent repair guys can work wonders, these days.

cerbomark · August 11, 2009

Darkanion · August 11, 2009

You were struck by lightning or the GTO was? I thought that cars/trucks were not prone to lightning strikes as the tires were insulators to ground.

Yeah, I've heard that, too. Back in the late 90's, I knew a guy whose car was struck by lightning, while we were at work one day. It came down through the antenna, out through the passenger front tire/wheel area, and down through the concrete. It fried some of the electronics in the car, flattened the tire, and shattered some of the concrete. At the time, I felt kind of bad for him... Later, I found out it was just karma and that "feelin' bad for him" part went away...

Stevens03 · August 11, 2009

Dang, that sucks... We just had a storm the other day that produced large hail in the next town over, but it just missed our area. I was sweating it though.

Sorry brother!

Nick The Great · August 11, 2009

That's too bad

I was looking at my truck the other day and noticed a few dings on the bed rails. I didn't even know they were there . . .

longhorn_giant · August 11, 2009

You were struck by lightning or the GTO was? I thought that cars/trucks were not prone to lightning strikes as the tires were insulators to ground.

Sorry, I've got to put on my nerdy glasses...

It's not that the tires insulate to the ground so much. Think about it, if the lightning is going to travel through air from mile(s) above in the clouds, is an inch or so of rubber and a couple more inches of air in the tire going to really stop a lightning strike?

Your car acts like a Faraday cage, which protects the occupants from injury. basically the metal frame/body transfers and contains the electric discharge from lightning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

Seriously though, that sucks about your truck getting hailed on. My old SUV took a major beating when I was in college because of hail. The hood looked like a giant golfball. Paintless dent removal is quite popular in TX since we have a fair amount of hail storms, and I've seen them do pretty good work for a decent price. In TX most of them even make house calls, but I remember the one time I needed them in Seattle they didn't do that there.

ShoddyHog · August 11, 2009

I feel your pain. Not only did I get hail damage on my GTO, but was also struck by lightning.

I decided not to have my damage fixed becase it is so slight, but at least around here, body shops to a fantastic job of fixing it. I don't know how they do it, but it sure looks perfect afterward.

You were struck by lightning or the GTO was? I thought that cars/trucks were not prone to lightning strikes as the tires were insulators to ground.

That's what I thought too, but I guess not:

Here's video. I knew we were driving into a bad one and had never seen so many ground strikes...asked the wife to start taking video. Strike hit the car, and the EMP tricked the camera into thinking my 4 GIG card was full...only had 1/2 gig used...and the video captured it.

FWIW, none of us in the car knew it happened...we just knew something strange happened. We didn't figure it out until I got home and checked out the video.

Car is fine, and I've never found a burn mark...took her to the track the next weekend and made seven passes just to make sure

jrrod2004 · August 11, 2009

Get an estimate on the repairs and then decide on your insurance...

WilliamsVMAX · August 11, 2009

WilliamsVMAX - that sucks, i know what its like around calgary is seems like we are always getting big hail storms. If you dont mind me asking what do you do for work?

I work in the oil patch. I was up north of Grande Cache when the storm blew through. When I had my house built I made sure I had a big enough garage for this main reason because I know they have bad storms here. Last week up by Carstairs, siding was ripped off houses, windows broken and everything with the hail. Sometimes, they move in so quick, there's no time to react.