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Johnnylunchbox
| | Posted on Monday, February 04, 2008 - 09:47 pm: | 
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Igneroid
| | Posted on Monday, February 04, 2008 - 10:37 pm: |
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Wiping must be "LasVegas" if you know what I mean...heh... |
Rich
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 06:12 am: |
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A good friend of mine caught a mattress that was tied onto the roof of a Jeep with string. Took him right off his Harley. He didn't die right away, we got to say goodbye to him. RIP Steve.
No tickets were issued. |
Mr_grumpy
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 06:21 am: |
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Badlionsfan +1
You want to know the worst places for stuff on the road? well it's easy, it's the first open stretch of road leading away from a Home Depot or similar DIY store.
My wife works at one of these places & I've seen people with a over a ton of tiling in a Renault 25, but roof racks are THE most dangerous things, VW Golf with a complete garage door (2 miles), Mitsubishi Pajero with knocked down garden shed (200 yards)
The roadside is littered with broken plasterboard & insulating boards too.
I keep saying to myself one of these days I'm going to set myself up Killboy style to take pics & video.
Another dangerous thing is a cycle rack, I've had bicycles come off cars (with & without the rack) in front of me a number of times.
Be careful out there & always secure your load, it's your responsibility once you've left the loading point! |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 09:04 am: |
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I gotta fess up here and admit I did loose a mattress off the top of the minivan once.
I had the thing tied down with that polypropylene bailing twine stuff. I would guess there were 15 to 20 different loops tied down in different places.
If you are not familiar with it, it doesn't look like much, but it's got like a 600 lb breaking force. So 15 to 20 loops of it should have allowed the minivan to go airborne before anything broke.
That was the plan anyway. That twine has two critical weaknesses though... it melts easily with heat, and it cuts easily on a sharp edge.
I got about 8 miles from home, driving a max of about 45 mph, when I saw the first corner start to go. It was a cascade from there over about the next 15 seconds, but that was enough for me to get down to about 20 mph and "aim for the shoulder". It was just over a rise, so I just about wrecked the minivan getting it off the road, and went running to where the mattress was still in my lane, and (with the power of shame and adrenaline) threw both the box spring and the mattress into the ditch so they were out of the road until I could sort things out.
Being a motorcyclist, I was mortified. Still am to this day. I thank God nobody was hurt by my stupidity.
What happened was that the string was rubbing on some sharp edges in my Toyota roof rack. There are seams that will catch the string in most directions, and they have a sharp little edge. So some significant percentage of the strings got cut, and it cascaded from there.
So my point is just, as a motorcyclist, just don't be around big loads like that when you can help it, and assume that any load in front of you is about to come off. Its hard to secure them when you know what you are doing, even harder to do it when you don't know what you are doing, and entropy happens  . |
Badlionsfan
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 12:01 pm: |
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the biggest danger regarding trucks on the highway is tires blowing. my truck got new tires on it in november. back in january another guy was driving my truck when i took a night off and he blew 2 drive tires. they were less than 2 months old and had maybe 20k miles on them. a few years ago a state trooper had a car pulled over. while he was standing at the car a semi passed, blew a tire right then. the tread came off and killed the trooper. scary stuff. |
Ulynut
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 12:41 pm: |
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When I got my drivers license, my Grandfather ( a biker for more than 60 years! ) told me to never follow construction equipment. Good solid advice for motorcycles and cars. This was a close call, and I'm glad I could share it in this forum. Ride safe. Remember, retreads become untreads in a hurry. |
Mr_grumpy
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 04:05 pm: |
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I have to say, I've never seen so many bits of blown tyre on the road, than in the US, I don't know if it's due to the type of tyres you run there or road surfaces, higher loadings or higher speeds.
Here in Europe all trucks made after '85, over 7.5 ton gvw, are (or should be) restricted to 56mph max.
Makes for veeerrryyyy loooonnnggg overtakes sometimes though.  |
Djkaplan
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 04:19 pm: |
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The oddest thing I've ever run over was a car hood that was laying in the road. |
Torquemonster
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 04:55 pm: |
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Anyone ever travelled behind a dump truck @ 65 mph that engaged the dump whilst approaching an overpass?
One word...
Pantspoopable.
(Message edited by TORQUEMONSTER on February 05, 2008) |
Mr_grumpy
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 05:03 pm: |
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Must have been one hell of a wheelie!! |
Torquemonster
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 05:33 pm: |
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Only a few inches of bed mustve made contact, because the truck shook like the dickens and the overpass ripped off the header(?) of the bed. I thought for sure that the overpass (and my party) was history.
Lesson: Chevy Cavaliers dodge sparking steel pretty well. However, boxer shorts do not keep "posterior discharge" quarantined in an acceptable manner. |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 06:18 pm: |
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I once worked trucking glass. The Horror!
Did you know that there is only a tiny lip on the rack keeping the glass from sliding forward & none on the back, at all?
When it rains it lubricates the glass.
On Rt 104 east of Rochester, NY they had a sheet of glass slide out from between 2 others, flip through the air, & cut a following Ford from the top of the windshield to the top of the back seat, before the glass shattered. Driver was decapitated, then blended.
When I was hired, I climbed in the truck, looked at the fresh welds on the mirror mount, noticed the mirror was new, and asked about it. I was told never to hang your arm out the window, as when you panic stop the glass slides out & removes mirror, elbow, hand, whatever. I was also told it's funny to watch your reflection in sheet mirrors, & when you see your own face with an odd expression, to duck to avoid the explosion as the sheet hits the pavement.
I don't follow glass trucks. |
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