Strange...

4WD is a mixed bag when it comes to handling. In a straight line it's great, but once you start turning you are forcing the tires to slide. Normally with properly functioning diffs it'll only be two wheels sliding and the other two gripping, but if it's that slick it's hard to say. This can introduce a lot of instability to a corner.

I know from first hand experience that things can get mixed up after an accident. Are you sure you didn't start sliding counter-clockwise and correct and swing the other way?

 

Steve do you have limited slip? Sounds like you might have got kicked around by it.

 

I did a real bad hydroplane in my car a few years ago. To me it was about the same. Off the gas, turn into the skid, brought it around back the other way, turn in again, then it swung into a circle and over to the guard rail we go.

My outcome was better though. Just missed the rail. No damage, except my pants.

I am sure I did everything right...

 

Tom, I know what you mean about things getting mixed up. On my report I put I was going around a turn to the right and then realized it was to the left. I know I slid left first because there was on-comming traffic and I knew I was in their lane - I had to, I couldn't counter-steer the other direction and throw the truck in to a death spin. There was some distance between the on-comming cars and I just reacted. The truck went the other way back across my lane. I based my orientation of the road to the direction the truck first slid. Not the case. I oscillated 3 times and the last one was the rear end going out to the left and putting my nose to the right in to the ditch.

Its a longer way down there than it looks.

 

looks and sounds like you had some black ice contribute as well. and I think as mentioned u have limited slip rear.. when both tires are without traction the fun really begins..

glad to know you are ok..

Sam

 

So the truck was in the oncoming lane, but facing to the right? I'm just trying to wrap my head around this.

So it looks like this was more than a simple single-vehicle loss of control; you had to get out of the way of the other cars coming at you! This in itself can easily be enough to loose control during a fishtail, as it appears that to minimize the swing and countersteer effectively would have kept you in their lane risking a bad accident.

In that case you reacted exactly as you should have. It may not see that way after a rollover, but far better to go off the side of the road than plow someone head-on with an 8,000 lb truck.

Whatever you do, don't second guess yourself. Loosing control happened and can't be changed, but your reaction was the exact right thing to do. Nobody got hurt, and the truck will be replaced. Considering all possible outcomes, it could have been much worse.

 

Steve , glad your ok. I guess the air bags didn't go off because it wasn't a front impact. I would of thought with that force off roll it would have been set off?

New Ford in the horizon but sure are easier and safer ways to get them. Once again glad everything turned out all right. On another thought did you feel beat the next day from the accident?

 

Tom - you got it. In the picture there of the road you can see the turn to the left. I went across in to the on-comming lane first.

No the air bags did not go off. The hardest impact was when I went down in to the ditch and the corner of my bumper hit the other side.

I don't think I ever specified, but yes it did have a Limted Slip axle. Piece of crap.

As is to be expected I am sore from the incedent. I didn't sleep the first night or eat hardly anything until last night. I just need to relax and try to get back in to my "normal". That is the underlying reason of posting here on FTE. I am a Ford Truck Enthusiast - like everyone else here. I learn a lot here, others have helped me, I have helped others, and I enjoy browsing the forums. Sometimes I am bothered by the things some people say, and sometimes others my be bothered by what I say. I am one to learn and understand, not sit and wait for things to happen or take everything as it comes. In this situation I can't change what happened. I have to deal with it so why not share my experience? Maybe it will help others, maybe it will make others think, maybe looking back through everything I will find an answer to a question to which is yet to be asked. What I cant possibly convey is what it really felt like. Only someone who has been-there-done-that can relate, and to that point I hope it never happens to anyone. Its not fun. So many people never have a chance to make it out. The difference between making it through uninjured and being cut out to be carried out on a stretcher isn't easy to define. I shaved that line with a razor blade. If the truck settled another inch or two I wouldn't have made it out of there without being cut out.

 

Steve, glad to hear your OK. Live here in Ohio myself and the roads have been aweful so far this winter. What kind of tires do you haveon that truck. My new truck has Continentals and I can't replace them fast enough. They are downright horrible in snowy conditions.

A word of caution to us all... and please inform your freinds and families. Municipalities do not have the funds to dump copious amounts of salt on the roads like they did in the past, so the conditions are going to be crappy. We are noticing it big time here in Ohio. A ton of wrecks on what would have been a very passable section of road in years past.

Be safe.

 

I figured I would post a quick update. The insurence company is cranking on working up the value. I haven't got the final word, but I'm not holding much hope in it being repaired. I have a few 6.7's to look at. I will try and get one picked out soon so as soon as everything hits with insurence I can jump. It will be interesting if I can line up a loan like the one I got the last time - great rate.

I got back to the office today. I lost my drivers license in all the hoopla so I couldn't get a rental right away. I went to the DMV and got a replacement then had to wait until Monday to get my rental. I lucked out and they gave me a new chevy silverado 1/2 ton - crew cab with 4x4. I thought I was going to get a sedan! I forgot how soft a 1/2 ton is. This one feels like a bowl of jello - when you come to a stop it even rocks back and forth. Then when you take off the rear end squats. It sure beats a sedan though.

It feels real good getting back in the swing of things at work. It takes some of the anxiety away, though I still have my worries with the overall outcome of this in the long run. That and I have to pass the same *****hole I crawled out of every day. Its a longer way down there than the pictures show.

 

wow that looked bad

 

Good to hear things are moving along Steve.

 

You are certainly lucky considering the way the roof collapses on these trucks, you would think they could make them stronger. It makes me want to get rid of the new continental tires I just got, but it doesn't snow around here. Don't forget they make you buy gap insurance when you purchase the vehicle in case your ins. co. doesn't pay it off.

 

Hang in there Steve. It will all work out in the end.

Scott

 

Wow


Sorry to see, that certainly was a beautiful truck.


But more importantly, glad to see you walked away largely unharmed, you got lucky!