well, at about 1am this morning I hit a patch of black ice at 65mph. fish-tailed a couple of times and couldnt save it, and off to the ditch i went. slid sideways through the other lane, into the ditch, and the tires grabbed but eventually over i went. i was lucky to be going slow enough to only flip once but fast enough to put the 7000lb truck airborne and not land totally on the roof. i then rammed into the dirt wall on the far side of the ditch. the bed is destroyed, the top of the cab has a decent dent in it, where the cab and the top of the bed meet is buckled, the driver side door wont open, two flats on the passenger side, front smashed in, and the driver side of the frame is a little tweaked. in the end, the truck was stilling running. i was wearing my seatbelt and watched the whole thing happen in slow motion out the windshield. being my first accident (a rollover at that) i will say it is quite a rush, but dont want it to happen again. i am very fortunate the man above was looking over me since no cars were coming the other way and i dont even have a bruise. just thought id share this with you all. i will be on traderonline for the remainder of the day to find a replacement.

be safe out there and buckle up, Pat

ps-all windows are intact...in my 6 years of driving i have never chipped/cracked/broken a windshield, even through this rollover.

 

WOW!!

Glad you are alright pgilles. Good thing you had your seat belt on.

~Rob

 

You are one lucky sob. Glad your alright. The truck can be replaced. But you can't.

 

I hope you had a clean pair of gonch with ya....

 

Glad to hear you came out of the wreck ok, and good luck finding a replacement. (as a side note, I wish I had your windshield luck; I've lost four in the last six years.)

 

Glad you are ok.

Hope you can salvage all your addon's to make the replacement as nice as the original.


phox

 

Glad to hear you were unhurt.

Trucks can be replaced.

 

Sounds like you had a heck of a ride Nice to hear you are OK, good luck on finding a worthy replacement

 

Glad to hear that no one was hurt. For the benefit of the rest of us, what kind of tires were you using ?

My experience on ice, smooth kind of close to freezing stuff that you literally can't walk on, is that chains or studded tires are really needed. I had chains on all 4 wheels of my truck last year during an ice storm, as the stock Michelins are worthless on ice. I've seen 4wd vehicles with popular severe snow rated tires, BFG A/Ts, stall on a hill and start sliding backwards, and I'm not as satisfied with the Michelin Alpins on one of our sedans as I was with some studded Goodyear UltraGrips.

 

OUCH!

Glad your OK.

 

I have (maybe that should be had?) cooper discovery a/t 305/70r16. BUT they needed replacing once i could acquire the funds.

when the sheriffs got there, they got out and said "whoa! it really is slick out here!" the road was crowned over and the two ruts were full of the ice, whereas the centerline and high part of the crown were ice free. then i proceeded to ask them if they were interested in buying an 02 dodge CTD, we had a good laugh...no takers.

called the insurance company this morning to get everything squared away and its most likely a "total" since it was a rollover. no official word yet.

i really loved that truck, but i love my life even more.

maybe the worst part was the fact that i just filled up the fuel tank at 2.16/gal haha.

take care, Pat

 

Good thing you were in that ram, in an import, you might not have gotten so lucky.

 

I am amazed that you didn't destroy either front or rear windscreens!! Glad to hear you are ok. As stated numerous times above, the truck can be replaced, but you are a one-off original!! Post pictures of your truck and its replacement when you can!

 

once i find a digital camera, i will take some pics.

Pat

 

Pat, did you have your cruise control on? Alot of highway spin outs are caused by cruise control on wet or slick surfaces.

When you have to use your wipers turn the cruise off. Any slow down will result in the cruise control trying to "catchup" putting more power to the wheels just when you don't need it.

Every winter here in Nebraska we pick up the pieces of "warm weather folks" that leave the cruise on and hit ice and snow covered roads. Christmas is a particularly bad time due to holiday travel.