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General Lee 01

By General Lee 01
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General Lee 01 Senior Enthusiast

General Lee 01

Posted
Posted

A few days ago, I was driving somewhere on the interstate, and I got stuck behind 2 guys in this '80s Ford F-150 towing an Explorer on one of those U-Haul tow dollies (where you put the front wheels on the trailer and the rear wheels roll along).

 

Well, the truck crosses a bridge, and when the Trailer wheel touched the first bridge joint, the dollie just comes apart... The right wheel detached itself from the trailer. And the trailer tried to pull the F-150 around... And eventually did.

 

 

I stopped in time. We made sure everybody was ok (no injuries thankfully).

 

The wreckage was blocking 5 lanes of traffic, so we had to move it... The tongue/hitch was demolished. One of the 2 chains was severred. 1 chain was the only thing holding the trailer to the truck. A group of us had to pick the dolly up (after the explorer was removed from the dolly, of course :rolleyes:)

 

 

The Exploder amazingly was unscathed, other than the skid marks it's rear tires made from spinning around. It stayed on the dolly through the "crash".

 

 

But man, that was scary... RIGHT infront of me.

blue2kzr2 Enthusiast

blue2kzr2

Posted
Posted

Loaded some yard debris and an old gas grill into the bed of my truck to take to the landfill. I wanted to put it (the grill) one way, my dad wanted to put it another way. We put it his way, standing up. I did it his way because he's older and wiser, and ChemE's are supposedly better around the house mechanically tham MechE's are. He tells me to just take it easy driving there, only a couple miles anyway.

 

We take off, get out of the development (3/4 of a mile), the grill shifted a little as I turned out of the development, but I was keeping an eye on it and trying to go easy. We hit the next bend in the road and it flys outta the truck. The thing was rusted anyway, and the frame had bent when I made the turn and it shifted, the wind caught it and it took off out the back of the truck, flipping over the tailgate but doing no damage.

 

BTW, I wanted to lay the grill on its back, but my dad suggested standing it up so it wouldn't make a mess of the Line-X. Yes, I wanted to put it on its back so what DID happen WOULDN'T happen. We put it back in the truck on its back. The force of the impact on the road cracked the steel lid but the window was un-broken. Yes, there was someone behind us, but they were far enough back to pull around it...

99silveradoz71 Senior Enthusiast

99silveradoz71

Posted
Posted

ah yes, a loose load is always a good one. Several favorites are the 2 college girls in the 2 door sports car that ended up facing my folks and I while exiting the interstate going to see my brother at a fencing tournament he traveled to Notre Dame for...this was in the middle of a white out, and the girl at the info desk when directing us to the building said, "Look for the building with the white dome"

 

Same type of deal only an explorer entering the interstate here on my way to work...this is right where I'm getting into the exit lane for the next exit...sure enough, too much gas and he ended up facing me...I was able to lay back though because I saw him swaying and knew he was coming around.

 

The ultimate oh sh*t moment for me. Second week on the job, still riding with my training officer. I had started driving that week. We get a call of a fight at a club, so he jumps in and says he'll drive. Get to one intersection in town...4 lane main street we're on(doing about 40-45)...girl heading North from our right on a 2 lane residential side street. We're going East. She pulls up for the stop, then stops, pulls up and stops. Finally we're about 2-3 car lengths away and she tries to make her left. Left front of the cruiser clips the area behind the driver's rear tire on the Accord(I believe). We swerve off to the right attempting to avoid the collision...go across the lawn of this apartment building. Between 4 angle parked cars into a vacant space. The back end of the cruiser kicks out and pushes 1 car into about 2-3 others. We go through a wooden fence, and stop upon impact with 6 brand new Subarus in a dealer's lot. All toll, a 10 or 11 car accident. Both bags deployed. We both walked out of it...training officer had some cuts due to the driver's window shattering and hitting his forearm on the spotlight handle. I just had slight burns on my elbows from the airbag. One pressing thought while it was happening..."When are we gonna stop" :rolleyes:

Wingnut Senior Enthusiast

Wingnut

Posted
Posted

I bet you have more stories than all of us combined, with your line of work. :seeya:

 

 

Those car dollies from Uhaul are some of the most unsafe things ever put on pavement. I have never heard anything but bad about them. My dad had one come apart on him just like the one above...Except it totaled his Sahara Wrangler when it happened, not to mention, pulled the tow vehicle (my truck, of course :rolleyes: ) into a guardrail. It took 2 years, 3 lawyers, and a lot of headaches to get Uhaul to pay for everything.

blue2kzr2 Enthusiast

blue2kzr2

Posted
Posted

The car dollies aren't the only unsafe U-Haul vehicles on the road. Most of their fleet is unsafe. Heck, the truck I drove to help my brother move had NO low-beam headlights, shimmied at 40-45 MPH and the steering wheel was turned 90° to the right of where it's supposed to be. Among other things, I just didn't feel great driving it, but I had to go mostly highway so it wasn't TOO bad...

99silveradoz71 Senior Enthusiast

99silveradoz71

Posted
Posted
The car dollies aren't the only unsafe U-Haul vehicles on the road. Most of their fleet is unsafe. Heck, the truck I drove to help my brother move had NO low-beam headlights, shimmied at 40-45 MPH and the steering wheel was turned 90° to the right of where it's supposed to be. Among other things, I just didn't feel great driving it, but I had to go mostly highway so it wasn't TOO bad...

You'll get me to second that one...my rental from them to move into the house was a pos...and of course my experience was tarnished from the get-go when they don't bother to tell me that the truck I rented was a stick...we probably could've managed, but it had been a while since any of us had driven one. Then they give me issues about the fuel level on the return...The guy tries to tell me that I went x miles and the truck gets x miles per gallon, therefore I should have put more gas in it...Mind you the gauge matched what it had been at. Oh well, never again. My brother rented Penske's both times he hauled his stuff out to Vegas...a brand new truck each time it appeared. More $ for the rental locally, but how much value do you put on safey.

General Lee 01 Senior Enthusiast

General Lee 01

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Just curious, what kinda trucks did you guys get from U-Haul?

 

My Aunt rented from them 4 years ago.. they charged her for driving the Trcuk 100 miles, which is funny, because we never left town. :rolleyes:

 

 

Budget, Ryder (I believe they merged a while back, so I guess they're the same now.), and Penske Trucks look better anyway. :seeya:

blue2kzr2 Enthusiast

blue2kzr2

Posted
Posted

Got a 24 foot Ford cab truck. Yeah, the budget a few mins. down the road had nicer looking trucks, every one looked nicer than the one I had. He got U-Haul because the place was walking-distance away from his old apartment.

 

When he moved into the place he just moved out of he had a 17 foot Ford cab truck and that one MAY have been in worse shape, rented from the same place...

The SPEEDY Senior Enthusiast

The SPEEDY

Posted
Posted

Hmm... An oh sh!t moment... Only one comes to mind. The back tires breaking lose at 150mph at the top of a hill. Hitting a ditch after sliding down the road for about 300 yards and rolling end over end several times.

 

Oh wait that was a moment of stupidity. :rolleyes:

pacodiablo Senior Enthusiast

pacodiablo

Posted
Posted

It was raining and I was in the '02 Ranger...I stopped at a stop sign with a police car behind me. I started going forward when I got my right of way taken by a minivan, so I hit the gas and immediately the truck begins to peel out right in front of the cop car. I continued forward and the police officer followed me for a few blocks, then left. That one definately had me a little nervous.

 

One time I was driving a Blazer and came to a mud puddle. Apparently there was a dip in the puddle and when I hit it, the Blazer went up on two wheels...it came back down very quick, but for a split second I was a little worried about rolling it.

SnakeEyeSS Senior Enthusiast

SnakeEyeSS

Posted
Posted

one day I was leaviong a school event and the roads are wet(you guys walready heard this one). I powered out of the parking lot, and hit a wet spot. I lost control and headed straight for a barbed wire fencee and some trees, at which point the truck went throught and over them all, only gaining paint scratches.....

 

one day I was in the Bimmer, took a corner too hard in the wet(yeah, I have a problem with that), and was proceeding down a street in front of the state fair(one of the largest in the nation, so it was busy) sideways for about 15-20 feet at around 30 MPH until the very forgiving bimmer easily corrected back into a straight line......

 

one day when I was doing that vending job the truck was left running on a sloped street while I picked up something I had left behind, door open.......in neutral......the tuck starting rolling backwards(door still open) downhill at about 10 MPH....I was alearted to this by a honking car....I ran like no body's business, caught the truck(itr was quickly gaining speed), and literally dove into it. well the truck was still going backwards, so the A piller hit me in the head when I dove it, but I was able to slma on the brakes, and stop it..........took me a few minutes to recvore from the hit though......

s3gulit Enthusiast

s3gulit

Posted
Posted

Well, im a farm kid, i work/live on a farm and whatnot. I was just finishing up a small 40acre field and put the culivator in transport mode (raised the wings of it so it can actually go on the road) and got about 1/2 mile away from the field (just after corssing a somewhat busy highway) and the 4" main bolt that adjusts the levelness of the culivator snapped in half...the front end of the culivator dropped on the road and tore it up pretty good...no real damage to the culivator, it was all under warranty still. Still kinda scary since your in a 16ton tractor with a 4 ton culivator beside you and you just STOP in a split second.

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