Fri Jun 15, 2018 8:19 pm by cornbinder89
Sad to say the cabover that is the subject of this thread may be finished. Weds morning in Montana, a car that was on the right shoulder of the road, decided to do a U turn right in front of me. I dove for the left shoulder so not to T bone the car in the drivers door and kill both occupants. While I couldn't avoid the hit, I could keep it a glancing blow to both vehicles. I was only doing about 40-45 mph when the hit happened, but it was a bad one, pushed the bumper into the steer tire, and hit the springs so hard it cracked the bracket that holds the bottoming pad with the U bolt. It must have pushed the axle sideways a fair bit because it broke off one of hyd lines for the cab tilt from the tilt cyl. The SUV continued down the side of the trailer ripping off 4 of my tie downs, fortunately I put on more than the required minimum and the load stayed put. Hit the tire on the front trailer axle so hard it deformed the rim and the bead lost its seal.
The good news is we all walked away from it, how the occupants of the SUV did, I'll never know? They didn't even need to go to hospital!
The hit was so bad, I still don't know the make or model of the SUV.
After all the paperwork and the law was done, the tow truck for the SUV pulled my bumper clear of the tire. I took my bottle jack and jacked the trailer rim back to some short of roundish shape enough to hold air somewhat. This was no small task, as the trailer has Aluminum rims which are more prone to cracking than bending. I had 37 miles to the next town and help, and has over 51,000 lbs of lumber on the deck. With axle loading that high, a single tire wouldn't support it.
My boss knew someone in the small town of Belle Fourche, SD who also had a small trucking company, he called and said "bring it to my shop", and when I got their, he gave me his pick-up truck and called the testing site he uses, so I could get a post accident drug and alcohol test to cover my butt. He didn't know me from Adam, but was of the old school, where truckers help eachother. When he got back from running another load of gravel, we pulled it inside and he pulled a brand new aluminum rim out of a storage trailer and we changed it out. The tire survived, surprisingly. Then he sent me on my way, with just a handshake and a promise that Jim will send him a check!
It was a good reminder that with all the scammers and bad people, there are still good people out there, of the old school who will help a fellow in need.
I drove the rest of the way to Iowa, delivered the load and am home. The steering wheel doesn't line up right when driving straight, so somethings out of wack, but I didn't notice any bad tire wear in the 700-1000 miles.
The cab sheetmetal has been torn, and the sub-frame of the cab has some damage, all fixable in theory, but not economical.
I think I'll invest in a used headlight bucket, and I have the steps and grab bars from another truck, so for a little more than $100 I can get the truck legal, although looking bad. I'll pull whats left of the bumper and carefully inspect the frame and springs for damage, to know that it would be safe, than park it and drive one of my other trucks. If the frame or axle is damaged, I'll pull it apart for its good parts and scrap the rest.
All in all not one of my better weeks, but at least all involved will make it home.
I have put 270,000 miles on it the years that I've owned it, I thought it would be more, but have been switching back and forth between trucks for a while. It has only been in the past few years that I have been driving it steady.