path.found
So, today, being a rainy crappy day, i decided to get in my truck and drive around doing errands since i didn't have to work. well, those errands ended up with my truck slamming into the back of a 1990 jeep cherokee. however, as bad as this sounds, especially inasmuch as i was going about 35mph (with the brakes on) when i so violently violated the jeep, there wasn't all that much damage. my nice new front brakes and calipers caused my truck to dip down which lined up the battering ram section of my pushbar with her bumper, which was a nice steel one, and her trailer hitch bar. so all told, i mashed in her bumper and the bottom inch of her deck lid.
my poor pushbar however, is fairly mangled. mangled as it is, it only travelled back about 2 inches so it didn't crush my transmission cooler and radiator. infact, the only damage to my truck is a small crease in my fender and my grill is pushed in. so sometime tomorrow when the rain stops, i'm going to chain the pushbar to a tree, put in in 4low and drive backwards and yank the pushbar back into alignment. i found a nice bumper for her in the junkyard and will do a little sheet metal/bondo work to fix her deck lid.
now... let's say i was driving a 2005 nissan pathfinder and she was driving a 2005 jeep grand cherokee... here's how it would have gone:
my plastic foam filled front bumper would have smashed into her trunk lid, and crumpled, pushing my radiator into my serpentine belt, most likely causing it to snap the belt which would whip around the engine compartment ripping through the wiring like a sword. then my truck would continue to push itself into the back of her cherokee most likely contacting her rear frame mounts which would push my engine back a few inches snapping the engine mounts, bending the exhaust and smashing anything between the engine and the firewall, also causing all the airbags to deploy. it would likely cause the front fenders to get crumpled back as well as the hood. grand total for the 2005 pathfinder in damage: around $6000.
as for the jeep: the trunk lid would get pushed in to the point where it caused the rear window to blow in, smashing the rear bumper, the rear fenders, and the taillights, and probably benging the frame and possibly distorting the gas tank. and let's not forget her airbags at $1000 a pop. total damage to the jeep: about $6000.
what it's going to cost with the older, sturdier, MADE OF METAL trucks: her jeep, around $200 including labor. my truck: if i chose to replace the pushbar, $650. if i go with a junkyard stock bumper, $50 ($250 new).
they just don't make things like they used to. it's all well and good to have commercials where they show how well vehicles survive accidents and how everyone has a five star crash test rating, but it's amazing how they fail to mention that with older, less sleek vehicles, an $800 accident would be a $12,000 accident. i've gotta say, this pathfinder owes me nothing, and i still intend to take it to 200,000 miles. only 21,000 to go.
my poor pushbar however, is fairly mangled. mangled as it is, it only travelled back about 2 inches so it didn't crush my transmission cooler and radiator. infact, the only damage to my truck is a small crease in my fender and my grill is pushed in. so sometime tomorrow when the rain stops, i'm going to chain the pushbar to a tree, put in in 4low and drive backwards and yank the pushbar back into alignment. i found a nice bumper for her in the junkyard and will do a little sheet metal/bondo work to fix her deck lid.
now... let's say i was driving a 2005 nissan pathfinder and she was driving a 2005 jeep grand cherokee... here's how it would have gone:
my plastic foam filled front bumper would have smashed into her trunk lid, and crumpled, pushing my radiator into my serpentine belt, most likely causing it to snap the belt which would whip around the engine compartment ripping through the wiring like a sword. then my truck would continue to push itself into the back of her cherokee most likely contacting her rear frame mounts which would push my engine back a few inches snapping the engine mounts, bending the exhaust and smashing anything between the engine and the firewall, also causing all the airbags to deploy. it would likely cause the front fenders to get crumpled back as well as the hood. grand total for the 2005 pathfinder in damage: around $6000.
as for the jeep: the trunk lid would get pushed in to the point where it caused the rear window to blow in, smashing the rear bumper, the rear fenders, and the taillights, and probably benging the frame and possibly distorting the gas tank. and let's not forget her airbags at $1000 a pop. total damage to the jeep: about $6000.
what it's going to cost with the older, sturdier, MADE OF METAL trucks: her jeep, around $200 including labor. my truck: if i chose to replace the pushbar, $650. if i go with a junkyard stock bumper, $50 ($250 new).
they just don't make things like they used to. it's all well and good to have commercials where they show how well vehicles survive accidents and how everyone has a five star crash test rating, but it's amazing how they fail to mention that with older, less sleek vehicles, an $800 accident would be a $12,000 accident. i've gotta say, this pathfinder owes me nothing, and i still intend to take it to 200,000 miles. only 21,000 to go.