Truck DOWN...

And probably out.

Yesterday morning on my way to work Traffic came to a sudden stop. dodge dually diesel in front of me towing a flat bed trailer, with two giant bags of grain on it. slammed on his brakes and locked them all up, even the trailer. I slammed on mine locking them up, didn't think i would get her stopped in time but i did!! only to look in my mirror and and realize that the guy behind me is not going to stop. next thing i know i am looking up at the sky and ceiling of my truck. the back of my seat broke and I am in the reclined position. I sit up and am confused as to why i am so high up in the air. Then i realize he hit me so hard that i got pushed on top of the trailer in front of me all the way over the wheel wells and into the bags of grain when the highway patrol showed up he thought it was a two car accident until i explained to him that i was driving the green truck that was now on the trailer. anyway my truck took the most damage. he bent down my hitch which in turn sheared some bolts and bent the frame some. the bumper is all bent in and down and some of the mounting hardware is sticking through the bumper. my tailgate is smashed in and bent. the drivers side front tire is destroyed from being shoved into the trailer, i can put my hand into several of the gashes. I have a lumber rack that had lumber on it, the straps actually snapped. luckily the lumber stayed up there, just all jumbled. the cover actually came off my steering wheel. i thought my truck had an airbag, but i guess not. my guess is they are going to total it because of the frame. anyway onto some pics, i will get some more later today when i go by the yard to look at it.



part of the bracket sticking through


here is the trailer i ended up on ant the fender i destroyed in the process

I you look at the bags you can see where my passenger tire and the nose of the truck were pushed into it



Steering cover came off


here is the kicker, the truck that hit me was also a dodge diesel dually with a flat bed, towing a flatbed trailer. i was sandwiched between identical trucks, both white, both 3500s, it was kind of crazy. here is a pic of the truck that hit me.

Generally, trucks don't get totalled from frame damage unless it's damaged in front of the engine. Behind the engine can get fixed on a frame machine. So you should be able to fight it if your insurance company tries to total it. Either way though, you should be able to get a decent deal on the truck buying it back from your insurance company if they do try to total it. Don't let them screw you on "fair market value" though. Force them to give you the NADA or blue book value. "fair market" to them means looking them up on craigslist and averaging the prices out from the lowest ones to give you their "replacement value". It's a sham.

Thats good news. i can't see any damage in front, but it is hard to see. very possible from slamming into the trailer then bouncing up. the frame in back is definitely bent. you can see it from the side, you can see a hump in the bottom of the bed and the rear axle is cocked slightly. hopefully they don't total it, but even if they do, you better believe i will fight them tooth and nail over how much it is worth. they always try to screw you on that.

sorry about your luck! is this an F350? if they total it, buy it back, id love to purchase those axles (in the most respectfull voice possiable)

Thank the diesel gods you're okay and that it wasn't any worse!!

Any idea what caused the truck in front of you to make the panic-stop?

One- good to see you're ok. you're going to be very sore for a few days, if you can find a hot tub to soak in, you'll feel better in no time.
two- the truck is a goner in kali. start combing CL, of better yet. PM me with an email, I've saved many CL postings on these trucks.
three- start hitting CL for a replacement truck.
if you need help dealing with the ins co. drop me a pm also. it's what i do daily.

Dang dodges were trying to take out the better truck. Lol

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Sorry about this mess. Sounds like the guy in front of you was not watching the road but. Had you been following the correct distance back you would not have hit the guy and the guy behind you would not have hit you. Or at least you may have been able to swerve to avoid all this. But happy you are safe and not hurt. Towcat is really the person you want on your team when it comes to the rip off insurance company. He does deal with them daily with his shop. That shop is one I envoy too.

IDIoit said:

sorry about your luck! is this an F350? if they total it, buy it back, id love to purchase those axles (in the most respectfull voice possiable)

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It is a f-250.

The Warden said:

Thank the diesel gods you're okay and that it wasn't any worse!!

Any idea what caused the truck in front of you to make the panic-stop?

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yeah the force of the impact was amazing, my truck took a lot of force and i think the bouncing up and onto the trailer helped too. lots of whiplash and a very stiff neck, but other than that nothing wrong. even got checked at the ER as a precaution.

towcat said:

One- good to see you're ok. you're going to be very sore for a few days, if you can find a hot tub to soak in, you'll feel better in no time.
two- the truck is a goner in kali. start combing CL, of better yet. PM me with an email, I've saved many CL postings on these trucks.
three- start hitting CL for a replacement truck.
if you need help dealing with the ins co. drop me a pm also. it's what i do daily.

Click to expand...

Just got back from the body shop said the same thing she is a goner. still have not talked to the other guys insurance, but they said no way they would repair a frame as bent as mine on a truck so old. so i went home got on cl and started looking, also came on here to give an update. I will definitely be shooting you a pm here soon. need to make some more calls. and take some more pills for my neck. as you said very sore and stiff, cant turn my head, have to turn my whole body.

icanfixall said:

Sorry about this mess. Sounds like the guy in front of you was not watching the road but. Had you been following the correct distance back you would not have hit the guy and the guy behind you would not have hit you. Or at least you may have been able to swerve to avoid all this. But happy you are safe and not hurt. Towcat is really the person you want on your team when it comes to the rip off insurance company. He does deal with them daily with his shop. That shop is one I envoy too.

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To clear up what happened, the was construction ahead, two lanes down to one, but we had not gotten there yet in fact it was just the warning signs, no cones yet. I was following the correct distance and did not hit the guy in front of me, I thought I might, but I was able to stop in time. It was the guy behind me who was not paying attention and could not get his rig stopped. I honestly don't know if he even hit his brakes. He hit me hard!! As to what caused the truck in front of me to stop I don't know. My guess is someone cut someone off up ahead and it caused a chain reaction. There was an exit just in front of us, maybe someone cut across to get off to avoid the construction, not sure. I know the guy in front said he thought he was going to hit the car in front of him, but he didn't. I actually thought about swerving, but to the left of me there were cars, and i would have sideswiped someone, and to the left was a small shoulder not wide enough for my truck with a guard rail and large drop off on the other side. no where to go but ahead.

edit i have some new pictures of the damage, but they will have to wait, i used my wife's fancy dslr camera, and i don't know how to get them off. so it will have to wait til she gets home.

Wow. What a day.

Glad it wasn't worse. Hopefully you'll remain in the Ford IDI realm.

As usual the person who f'd up and likely caused the accident has no idea what they even did and went on unscathed (car who started this whole 'come to a stop' thing). Obviously the guy behind you messed up too and takes the ultimate fault. Glad youre ok, truck appears to have taken the hit well all things considered. Going forward like you did dissipated a lot of the energy of the impact. Take it easy on that neck and best wishes on feeling better. And on finding a new truck :/


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Wow quite a scary sounding situation and glad to hear your ok also!!! From the looks of your pics your truck didnt suffer too bad a damage really...I'd say buy it back too if they total it cuz' these ol' idi trucks are gettin harder to find every year. Heck i see people drive cars that look worse than that around here in PA. This is also one of the main reasons i drive an older larger truck with a nice big frame underneath....they are safe!!

if you keep your truck, here's a chassis in need of a motor.....
oh yea...good luck getting the seller to answer his damn phone.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4716196655.html

Only the F-150's had airbags on the OBS.

The 250 and 350 didn't get them until the Super Duty.

Their steering wheels look like this:

here are some more pictures. it is hard to see how bent the frame is in the pictures, but in person it is very obvious. in the first pick just look at the space under the wood and you can see the bow in the bed real well.