No, not the football team. I'm referring to those long strips of rubber left on the road after an 18 wheeler loses his tread. The trucker's refer to them as 'gator's.

Brian , you can appreciate this. I was traveling west bound on I-20, from Atlanta to my home. The time was approximately 5:30 eastern time. I'm somewhere between Camp Creek Parkway and douglasville. There are three lanes of traffic, and I'm in the middle, cars on both sides. The guy in front of me is in a Toyota pickup. He swerves, which gets my attention, and he barely clips this piece of rubber. When he hits it, it stands on end,(width wise), and takes up the whole lane. I hit this thing going about 65 mph.The whole left front of the truck comes off the ground. When I finally gather it back in, all seems well. However, when I got closer to home, I slowed down, and got on the surface streets, and rolled my windows down. Then all was not well. There was a strange rattling from the left front, and it would pop when I went over larger bumps. Upon inspection when I got home, the left front shock had come loose at the top. The nut and large washer that holds the large rubber "donut" was gone.

I found the washer in the lower control arm. It now sports a perfect "hex" shape where the nut was forced through it.

The good news, is that two new shocks on the front, and it was all fixed up. Didn't even need the front end lined up.

Just a word of caution for everyone, and a testament to how tough these trucks can really be.

 

thanks for the advice, i always see those tires blown to pieces all over the highway...good thing semis have two tires instead of one on each side..

 

Good to see it was just a quick fix!

 

Thomas,
Glad all that was damaged was a shock absorber. That could have been much worse.
Riding a motorcycle so much has made me VERY wary of riding/driving behind something I can't see through, over or around. I try to avoid it whenever possible. I'll do whatever is necessary to avoid it on my motorcycle. Slow down, speed up, whatever.
Imagine hitting that 'gator at 70 mph on two wheels!

OBTW, just returned from my 4th trip this summer to the Tail of The Dragon.
It was - as always - a lot of fun!

 

What comes before 'gator? I noticed the exclamation mark?? just out of curiousity

 

Well the gators name is Ali.

Brian...what is Tail of The Dragon? That sounds kinda interesting.

 

http://www.tailofthedragon.com
at this site, you can read all about The Tail of The Dragon and Deal's Gap. Also there are links to other related sites.

there are some pics in my gallery.

 

Man, that seems like a pretty big bike fest. I'd love to go to one of those eventually...need to get a bike first though...and learn to ride it.

 

Bikes, aren't that hard to ride....when I was a pre-licensed driver I always used to put around on my moped, I still love those things....

 

I actually did drive a little moped at one point myself...not for everyday driving but for fun.