Wrecked my truck tonight..

sorry to hear about your truck, BUT thank god you all were alright.

If it weren't for bad luck. . . . . . . (Glad you guys are ok!)

Thank God no one was hurt, and thank God for FS trucks! From the sounds of it, had you been in a smaller vehicle you might have been injured. When I wrecked mine a few years back, if we had been in my wife's car (little puddle jumper at the time) she would have been seriously injured. Honest to God, I felt like I was driving a cement wall when we hit that other car; we stopped DEAD and sent the other car flying 75 feet down the road. Two days later we traded in the wee little car for a Sonoma (she was holding onto the car for sentiment as her Dad had given it to her) and now she's bugging me for a Burb or Escalade.

Anyhow, don't be totalling her out quite yet. It might take a good fight with the insurance company, but if she's worth saving, put up a fight. They wanted to total mine out (told me to get my personal possesions out of the truck as they were going to tow it to the junkyard that afternoon) and three months later I had her fully repaired and on the road again at no cost to me aside from the comprehensive deductible (other driver was uninsured).

I feel for ya bud. I had JUST finished my restoration on Chelsea and we wrecked 2 days later, so I know how it feels to have just recently dropped some $$$ on a vehicle and then wreck it shortly thereafter. Hell, even if they total it out, buy it back from them for $400 or so and fix it up yerself.

Doc

Ouch.. the good thing is everyone is OK! I was in an accident hitting a car that pulled in front of me. Hit him going 45, airbags didn't go off, I left 30ft of right front skid marks thanks to the great braking system on my 99Z71 Tahoe. Brakes have been a sorry excuse since new but that's another story and a 3 year battle with the Chevy to get it corrected vs. calling it a lemon and moving on. Tahoe won, the cars trunk was ripped off like a NASCAR wreck. Of course he didn't have insurance, didn't speak English and he tried to walk away b/c he didn't have a car that would move after the accident. Good luck in getting into the impound lot to recover anything. Here in Charlotte, the impound lot would of already stolen your radio, tires etc. As a rule most people have their car towed to their body shop or their own driveway to avoid issues with the impound lot. I have had friends go down the next day (Charlotte and Colorado Springs) and its been too late, speakers, radios, tires all missing already.. with a shelves full of 'systems' behind their counters and signs that they are not responsible for your car while in storage. Most insurance companies think the car is theirs once its at the impound lot even if they haven't 'totaled it' and attempt to protect the salvage value.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck but I'm glad that no one was injured. I lost two cars right after I dumped money into them - it sucks! Good advice about buying it back and fixing it yourself. A neighbor of mine did that and he never regretted his decision.

------------

Good thing it wasn't a motorcycle that hit you.

HDS

No actually, it's a good thing he didn't hit the truck in front of me.. it was a new F-150 with 3 teenage kids in the back.. if he'da hit them there would have been bodys all over main st....... If by hitting me it meant saving lives.. I'd much rather..

Adair

Everyone around here seems to think they will want to much for it to be worth buying back.. dude at the salvage yard where it was towed said he saw a '97 K1500 just like mine come in and it got totalled and taken to auction, and was sold for $10K just for the motor, tranny and drive trane...

Adair

Adair,

I glad to see you and everyone else are okay. Depending how much you have put into your truck, I would look at letting them total it and then by it back. Around 8 years ago my friend had a 79' truck that he had it really built up with a 454 and customs axles and such. He was with Farmers insurance and they allowed him to by back the truck after they totaled it. At the time he was paid off $6,000 and then he bought his back for $400. From that he sold the axles to beef up my van and kept his motor for a newer truck. He found another truck that had a lot of smog requirement so he sold the motor for a very good price. Just my opinion. Good luck and watch you body as it always hurts worst the net day.

If anyone wants to see some pics of my truck and the Tahoe here is a URL

Adair

Adair,

Your truck totally kicked that Tahoe's ASS! Good job dude. It's pretty f'ed up eh? From the looks of things, I doubt they'll total your truck. Here's some pics of my wreck. Keep in mind she's much older than yours with lots of miles, and they didn't total her even with the frame damage. Mind you, I fought them for a few months but they didn't total it in the end. I got to keep it with a clean title and was out just my deductible.

Doc

Doc, where are the pics? :)

Adair

They're on a website, the URL of which dumbass here forgot to post. Sorry!

Doc

I'll second that one! Man, that Tahoe looks terrible and yours looks like it just had a bad day. Definately, don't give up on yours. I got mashed in the PS rear corner a few winters ago by some young girl in her boyfriends blazer on an icy night. She crammed into my rear and went flying past on the icy highway. All I saw was headlights, taillights, headlights, taillights.... ...headlights as she slammed backward into a telephone pole. I ran to her truck and said "is everyone ok?" The first words out of her mouth, which I could have punched afterward (even though she was a female) was "what the hell were you doing!?"

My thoughts "well, gee.... ...I was idling and stopped. What were you doing - about 60??"

Anyhow, a little frame tweaking, some sheet metal and it was back on the road. Doc has seen photos of the "after" and I'm pretty sure he thought it turned out well.

"Adair Winter" sez:

Hey, just think ... you could have been driving a hybrid "rollerskate" like all the hand-wringing eco socialist bed-wetters want us all to drive and thinking how good it feels to save the planet as they were loading you into the ambulance.

VLJ

That's the idea with the "crumple zones" though. Let the vehicle take as much damage as possible while trying to keep the passengers as safe as possible. I don't think they either had them on that year truck or weren't nearly as sophisticated as they are on the later model Tahoe. I'm still uncertain if they are a good idea or not. Seems like a scam to insure more new vehicle sales to me, by making sure the vehicle is so destroyed in the name of safety that it has to be totaled.

Brandonb

-"Like a Rock" is turning into "Like a ball of tin foil with a tough center".

Mike Levy wrote:

the car manufacturers aren't to blame for crumple zones and other safety features. the NHTSA and other federal agencies (like the EPA) have had HUGE impacts on car/truck design. it'd be easy as hell to design a truck that could run full on into a concrete wall and survive more or less undamaged. however, the people inside it would look like chunky salsa. inanimate objects don't feel pain, people do.

-Bret

No, it turned out beautiful. One of the nicest looking 88-98 body style trucks I've seen. I'm sure glad my girl doesn't have crumple zones!

Doc