So yesterday I loaned my truck to the neighbor to pull their 26' gooseneck steel stock trailer and pick up some horses.  Long story short, on the way there, the trailer started to fishtail and slammed into the passenger side of my truck.  I haven't gone to see it yet, but I'm told the entire passenger side is pretty much trashed, the back window is gone.  Both the truck hitch and the trailer hitch and post are twisted although they did stay connected.  The truck ended up in the ditch with the trailer still on the road.  Was towed out of the ditch and driven about 20 miles to a friend's place. The truck was a 2007 1 ton dodge mega cab.  Very mint, now not so mint. 

I have to wait for the insurance adjuster until Monday for their verdict.  Maybe it's a write off. I'm crossing my fingers that there's no damage to the frame, or the corner post in the cab.  Anyone experience similar?  Did the truck survive?

All depends on your insurance company.  With the replacement cost of new trucks now days the insurance companies do everything they can to fix the vehicles.  A rule of thumb that my insuance man uses is if the cost to repair is 50% or more than the value of the vehicle then it will be a total loss.

Not the same accident, but my husband just rolled our 04 Chev 2500 HD Duramax (luckily he and his car pool passenger were both fine - not a scratch) and they wrote it off... but the body shop said that our insurance company worked on a 80% rule... so you may fair better (or worse depends on what you are hoping for here). Our truck only had 1 fender, 1 door (it's a 4 door) and the hood left for body, everything else including the roof would have needed to be replaced, but it was ok otherwise - they were driving it around at the body shop.

"I am really curious how that happened with a gooseneck? Only time I have heard of that happeneing was when someone lost control on a wet icy road and the gooseneck came around to meet them when they plowed into a ditch and the truck stopped. "

Well, that's EXACTLY how it happened.  Although the claim is there was no loss of control of the truck intially.  Travelling slow through a small town where the roads were slipperier than on the highway.  I'm wondering if she didn't touch the brakes to slow down for the reduced speed and had the trailer start swinging.  Possible she didn't adjust the brake controller for her trailer and the trailer didn't slow down with the truck, but kept up some of its speed.  We'll never know.

I would prefer to have the truck back (unless there's frame damage) for several reasons:

1. 3 years of truck payments remaining, insteading of starting over at 5.

2. It took a LONG time to find that truck and we don't want to do it again. 

3. It's possible that we would actually pay more now for the same model year then we did then when the economy was in the toilet.

4. I just booked my horse trailer in to get repairs and a furnace installed and it's a 4 hour drive.  Now how the heck am I going to do it?  If I have to wait until I buy another truck, I could be spending another year in a cold LQ shell.

Yeah, I'm whining. I know.

Yes, it has an exhaust brake. I doubt it was on.

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

In PA the original title is pulled, if the truck is totaled and the ins co pays its current value. The truck is then sold as scrap and cannot be licensed. If the truck is purchased and rebuilt, it has to be inspected and if it passes, it is given a salvage title which allows the owner to license and use the vehicle.

In my case, the ins co that originally insured the vehicle, reinsured the same vehicle after it was rebuilt.

Since I'd never told her we even HAD an exhaust brake, I doubt she looked for it or used it.  The switch for it is closer to the stereo than anything else, so she probably just wouldn't have recognized it at all.  I do agree, though, that using it could cause jackknifing. 

We finally went to see the truck today and it's not as bad as we thought it would look.  The passenger side of the box is quite damaged, a few dents on the top of the tailgate, too.  Then the back corner of the roof of the cab, still passenger side, is crushed.  It looks like the upright corner post there is still intact, but when the roof was crushed it took out the back window, damaged the headliner and interior panel in the corner, and even bent the headrest on the front passenger side seat.  Didn't expect that.  The roof bounced back quite a bit since it's in near normal position now, not sitting on the seats.  The back door on passenger side will need replacing, but the front door is fine.  The running boards are shot.   On the drivers side there's a couple dents in the lower rear door that are pretty minor and could be popped out easily.  The hitch looks undamaged, but I think I'd insist on it being replaced, just to be sure.  The truck is driveable, and even the interior light over the back window still works, surprise, surprise.  All in all, I'm hoping the adjuster thinks good things on Monday morning, particularly as recent internet surfing has revealed that the same used truck is now priced higher than when we bought it.  Never saw that one coming.

As for MY trailer going to the shop, I could borrow a truck, but right now when it's -30C (oh joy) and there's still frozen poop the horse compartment, I think I'll just wait a while and make a new appointment. 

The damage to the top is very expensive and may take it over the "total" amount.  My insurance company said it totalled a car if the damage was 80 percent of the value.  If they total it, you can try to buy it back for salvage value.  Sometimes they issue a salvage title and sometimes they leave the title intact.  Personally, I don't see much difference between the two as the equifax will most likely reveal the accident and you would want to mention it to a prospective purchaser anyway.

The insurance company has to repair it in a certain way and that makes it much more expensive for them.  If you buy it back, you can repair it as you want, and that may be a lot less expensive. Many years ago, Allstate told me my little pickup was worth the same in seriously wrecked condition as it was in mint condition, so wouldn't let me keep it if they paid for the repairs.  I kept it and they didn't pay anything at all.  But most companies aren't that dishonest. 

My son's car was rear ended at a redlight.  The car in front of him had stalled and didn't move when the light turned green.  A pickup, expecting the cars to move sped up and rear ended him hard, driving his car into the stalled car in front of him.  No injuries (a bit of a miracle in my son's case that he wasn't serously injured)  but three seriously damaged cars.  His car was totaled.  I found parts on a nearly identicle car the same color and in perfect shape.  The man we had bought the car from took those part and redid the car.  It was about $2,000 rather than $9,000 and a few other things were repaired in the deal. - and that included straightening the frame which was seriously bent behind the rear wheels.  (That little 4runner was hit very, very hard.)  Bent frames don't worry professional body repair people any more in cars - a truck I don't know, but I wouldn't assume it's not fixable.   They have machines that test those things anyway.

Good luck on the truck.  Like others, I wonder what caused the accident.

Buying it back is certainly an option when you see how much perfectly good truck is still remaining.  I know that's what my husband is wanting to do.  He's a mechanic so I think he would have a pretty good feel for that.  Originally he didn't seem to want to do that, and I think it was partly because in his head he had this perfect truck, and to think of it having a salvage title and a blemished past was just hurtful.

The insurance adjuster gave their estimate this morning - $19,000.  Roughly half is labor. Apparently we now wait for the body shop to give their verdict.  Looks like I'll need to hire my dad to haul my trailer down to the shop, cause it's going to be a while yet before I have wheels.