Good link. Being a Mechanical Engineer mV2 rules in general but good engineering can keep you safe. I drive the truck to pull the horse trailer and to the lake because I need the truck but I drive a 92 Audi during the week. Why? It rides nice, good mpg, good performance, and great safety.

Example:
I was in stop and go driving here in the Twin Cities and the 4 wheel disk ABS brakes of the car and less weight have saved my butt many times. Talk about good engineering, I got rear ended by a Black Escalade at 5 miles an hour and caused no real damage at all. I got out and check the car and the bumper shocks did their job so the car was not damaged and the bumper was at the correct spot just the wrap around sides came loose. I then poped the plastic sides of the bumper back into the holder on each side and exchanged info. I check the car back home and no structual damage even to the steel beam behind the bumper. That is good engineering to meet the 5 mph bumper requirements without damage in the thousands.

 

Oh, that's a "KILL"....

I'm not an engineer, but there's got to be something about the momentum of our 7K # trucks vs that of a 2K # car that affects it in an accident - single car vs head on.

I'd think in the single car, our mass would make it worse for us while in a head on, we'd just roll over the smaller car and the momentum would work in our favor. Any engineers care to chime in?

 

Like we need another reason not to buy a FORD

 

Makes me love my son's H1 even more. Steel, no plastic. Personally I'm opting for a Sprinter next time around.

 

We got in a wreck with a 98 Expidition 4wd and we hit a parked Ford ranger that was sitting in the street and had its lights off while it was 5:30am FOGGY and drizzle this all happened on 99 GrandParkway My dad slammed on the brakes, we both threw our coffee's on the dash board, my hand went through the side window some how and I looked at the speedomter and it stuck at 37mph and we were even pulling a 3,000#trailer and it didnt look nearly as bad. The ranger was t-peed so bad that you coudl almost sit down underneath it.

 

See now if your father had a nimble car he would have avoided the crash all together. But since he was driving an SUV he had no choice but to hit the other vehicle because the handling was so poor. Obviously he was driving too fast for the road conditions.

 

Al I know is if I have a head on with anything smaller than me, I will not only walk away,
but my truck will be able to leave under its own power,
and I will spend $0.00 on repairs (ok, maybe $2.00 on a can of black paint).

Whatever I hit will be totalled either by me, or at least their insurance company.

Even though it wasn't my fault, I will get sued, lose my truck, move into a box under the freeway,
spend my days arguing with my invisible friends.

I'll take mass over crumple zones thanx.


phox

The preceding was an "individual opinion" and in no way reflects the opinions of this station, it's owners or operators.

 

 

Is that tranny fluid on the ground or blood from the dummy?

"Have you died in a Ford.......lately."

 

 

Hoss,

I'd hate to see what kind of cab crumpling would happen if you hit soething like that, if you really do have that Cement bed liner. I'd have to say that you'd add new meaning to the word "Crumple Zone".

Merrick

 

Last year a Cheby Astrovan rearended me at 35mph. I was not moving, stuck in traffic. She knocked me into a flatbed truck in front of me. It messed up my front end pretty bad but didnt do much damage at all to my rear end. The repair bill was a little over $7000. I drove the truck home about a 1/2 mile!
She was messed up pretty bad. The firewall was on her legs. Both legs broken, both wrists broken, and her airbag didnt deploy!