that must be a very application specific setup, and sounds like your explorer doesnt fall into that catagory.

Originally written by xyzer on 2005-07-21 10:30 PM

Statistics.....odds......Bad Luck........Whatever you wanna call it says a drunk or a teenage driver will take you out WAY Before an overloaded v6 Explorer with an old WDH gets you!...... I worry more about the overtrucked dude runnining 75-80mph with half a load, tunes cranked up foot on the dash..with a cell phone hainging out his ear..not a care in the world!

LOL - so true... chances are if you are overloaded - you are also white knukle driving and uuper attentive... you're right that's probably safer!

I know I am!

Talking about bad drivers, now I have to tell my story...

I'm coming back home, about 4 weeks ago, from a 400 mile round trip where I just picked up my stallion from the breeding farm. Making good time.  We have a 2 lane highway out here with a very bad reputation for killing people. It is traveled by truckers, avoiding the congestion of LA and by people coming or going to Las Vegas from LA.  The speed limit is 55 and it is heavily patrolled.  The truckers don't speed, this ticks off the Las Vegas risk takers (gamblers), so they are always weaving in and out trying to pass. So I'm toting along at around 60mph but I'm not going fast enough for this moron behind me. He decides to pass, but the problem is there is on coming traffic up ahead.  He goes for it anyways and just barely avoids a head on with less than a second to spare.  Now since he is in front of me, I would've had no choice but to run right through the wreck.    And beleive me, I would've  aimed for the guy that was willing to risk my life.  But, he made it and there was no wreck.  So 15 minutes later, I exit the highway and proceed home on side streets.  I pass through one intersection where there has just been an accident.  A women in a car was evidently T-boned and hit so hard, her car knocked over a light signal post. She was dead, in plain view.  Fire engines hadn't even responded yet.  I drive about a mile up, to a 4 way stop sign.  There are about 5 cars ahead of me and I can see a Sheriff's deputy desperately trying to direct traffic to turn right.  I figured there was another traffic accident up ahead.  I didn't want to go right, that is where I came from, home was left.  So as I watched the cop up ahead, I looked left and noticed there was a dirt lot I could pull across and get to the other side so I could continue home.  I was just about to pull out and proceed across when I thought to myself, no, just take your time and be patient. That's when all hell broke loose.

As I turned back around to look at the intersection ahead, I couldn't beleive my eyes.    Imagine sitting in the cab of your truck, with no where to go, and seeing an airborne 30' RV sailing through the air right towards you!  Really!  The RV banked to the left, fell to the ground and began sliding right along the lane next to me.  The RV's rear end was beginning to slide over into my lane of traffic, still heading for me. Fortunately, it hit a car, two cars in front of me (didn't hurt anyone) and this redirected it past me by a mere 3'.   By the time it stopped sliding the rear of the RV was at my driver's side window.  I thought to myself that the driver must not have seen the stop sign.  But then I looked back and saw  20 Sherriff's cruisers right behind him, about 20 deputy's jump out, with handguns and shot guns drawn.  Holy #$%&, I'm in the middle of a high speed pursuit!   Keep in mind, the drivers window of the RV was perfectly aligned with my stallion's window, so he had a perfect view of what was going down, the poor guy.  I jumped out of the cab (cars are stopped in front of me, no where to go) and took cover behind my big STEEL trailer (an unknown advantage of steel trailers: they offer cover when you find yourself in the middle of a gun fight) and waited for the sound of gunfire. My poor horse I thougt to myself.  I wondered what he thought about all this.  Fortunately for my horse, there was no gunfight, unfortunately, the POS driver was taken alive.  Turns out the earlier accident I passed was caused by him.   Killed her for being in the way.  Also turns out this guy (deliberately) just ran over a car full of teenagers at the stop sign I was stopped at.  Their car acted as a ramp and this is what catipulted his RV in the air.  The car he ran over slid around 200 feet and came to rest about 20' from where I finally stopped.  The driver and the front seat passenger jumped out, the 2 guys in the back were not so lucky.  About 10 minutes had gone by and here come all the fire trucks, right next to my trailer, with the sirens blaring at my poor boy stuck in the back.  Then the Fire Dept. helicopter lands around 100' from us.  My horse didn't like that, a black hawk is pretty loud when it's landing.  The fire crews worked on getting those guys out of the rear of the pancaked car for about 10 minutes. 1 lived, 1 died later that night, 16 years old.  To make matters worse, the parents somehow showed up right in the middle of getting them out.  Talk about drama.  It was awful.   The accident happened around 3:30pm, they didn't let us go until 9:30pm, since the site was declared a crime scene.  Fortunately, it wasn't hot, and I had food and water for my horse.

Had I began to turn to cross that dirt lot, I would've been screwed, me, my horse, my truck and trailer, all to save a few minutes.  So no matter how safe you drive, what kind of rig you have, you can never predict what some moron will do in front you.  THe lesson learned:  take all the precautions you can with a big truck and strudy, well built trailer, don't be in a rush, and stay alert for the scumbags and morons out there.  

"THe lesson learned:  take all the precautions you can with a big truck and strudy, well built trailer, don't be in a rush, and stay alert for the scumbags and morons out there."

AMEN!!  

Wow Rich.  That's a helluva story.  Glad you came out OK.

Happy Trails,

Michelle

Thanks for sharing your story.  It's all to true.  My own brother was killed 9 years ago while he rode his motorcycle to work.  A truck driver (I am not slamming them, my brother was one too!), was in a hellfire hurry and pulled into traffic (he figured they would get out of his way) and my brother was killed instantly, not a chance.  Guess it doesn't matter what  your driving or pullin, be careful and think about what your doing, it could change someone's life. 

Just my 2 cents, I would not pull a trailer bigger than a 2 place with an SUV.  I was always told that the wheel base made a difference, but I haven't known anyone have an accident pulling that way, so maybe just a myth?  Just boils down to personal preference and what you can afford!  We have a 2004 F250 ext cab and a 3 horse slant GN.  BUT, I didn't start with that!!  Thank god for 2 place trailers!  This thread brought up alot of good points!