just a test post to link people to

Oh, California drivers in the rain. Just when I start to give 'em some hope, they crash that notion real quick. Or my truck.

I was driving south on the 14 today when I saw a guy in a little white car off right side of the road stuck in some bushes. Pretty clear the guy hydroplaned off the freeway into that predicament. I don't know why, but a feeling of good-samaritanism struck me, so I pulled over to help the guy out. Way over, as far as I could off the highway - safety first and all. I ask if he needs help (he confirms the obvious) then I park behind him and pull out the ol winch. I've got the guy hooked up, pulling him back to the pavement when..

oh noes!

I glance into the rear view mirror and see pretty much the last thing I wanted to see - a car careening out of control toward me. "ooh sh*tfu*ck." The guy hits me, felt a pretty good jolt. I was pretty convinced the body wouldn't be all purty anymore, but it held up like a champ. Why? fuc*kin' steel bumper, yay! Haha, that thing definitely took a lot of the impact, but only had a bit of damage. The other guy's car tho...some little sedan thing...well, didn't make it out so well. A highway patrol stopped, saw the situation, asked if we wanted a report taken - I was good without it, the other guy wanted one. Of course by this point we had exchanged insurance info.

My truck appeared good to go, so I drove off. Then I noticed the problem. I was going straight, but my steering wheel was pointed way off the the side. And I heard scraping/rattling sound from the rear driver side. I pulled off at the next exit and saw the rear axle sure wasn't straight on the truck, and the rear control arm on that side bent. Funny, in all my offroading trips I managed to barely scratch the rear lower control arms, but then it gets tweaked on-road. That noise was the tire rubbing up against the front of the wheel well.

I go home, take off the bent arm, run down to Bruce's and he used his press to straighten the sucker out . Hooray for him helping out and that fancy press, those things are handy. I wasn't exactly sure how I'd get it back on (positioning the arm/axle and such, but he explained a nifty ratcheting strap method and I went to it, got the arm back on after wrestling with it a bit.

The problem now is that the rear axle still is not straight. Distance from front of wheel to body on pass side - four fingers. Driver side = two fingers. Like those scientific measurements?

So I dunno...bent frame maybe. I didn't see any other damage, but I'll get it checked out tomorrow.

Oh hey, how about some pics.

the other guy

http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/01.jpg

http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/02.jpg

after the accident

tire getting all up in the fender's grill
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/03.jpg

wee bend in the bumper
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/04.jpg

something's not right here
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/05.jpg

repair begins

thanks buddy
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/06.jpg

almost finished re-installing the control arm
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/08.jpg

better, but still def something wrong
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/09.jpg

the guy left me some souvenirs? light fragments atop the spare
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/10.jpg

scrape scrape scraped
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/11.jpg

you wouldn't know it, but some damage was done indeed
http://calrockx.com/etc/pics/forums/...ccident/12.jpg

so yeah, definitely could have been worse.
if i hadn't been there, the guy would hit the car i was trying to help. who knows what'd have happened then, given he was close to a downhill slope. he said he was going about 40. not sure how fast it was when he hit me, but at least he got to brake a little.

the bright side of all this?
maybe a fancy rental car while it's being fixed up in a shop?
maaaybe some bling new control arms?