This is making me want to pull the in-cab fuel tank out of my cab and put it somewhere else... I might still get bounced around like a pinball but that might lessen my chance of being char-broiled in the process...

And then, I ran across this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5wAXA5DE2c

Of course, in a situation like this, there would be no chance in hell I'd survive in any of my vehicles. A friend of mine is an OTR truck driver and he's always been afraid of being caught up in a wreck like this - even with all the safety features his truck has - mainly because he knows he'll most likely wind up killing someone...

 

I am a truck driver too and that is my number 1 fear also.

 

True that - I used to drive a logging truck a few years back, the road down the mountain was a dirt road and every time it rained it would turn into a slide - brakes or downshifting made little difference then, halfway down you start sliding and that was also the time to start praying to God, Allah, Buddha, or whatever it is you believe in, that no one meets you in the sharp right turn at the bottom where you take both lanes and both shoulders. I always chained up both the tractor and the trailer so it took a bit longer till the clay packs the wheels and so I started sliding much further down than most other guys, but still in the end that's a 50-ton pile of steel and lumber flying down the mountain. To make matters worse many of the local kid were hotshots and always tried to climb without chaining up, they'd just gun it on the level and then rely on the 4x4 and the running start to carry them up - I remember fearing for dear life of meeting one of those guys in a tight spot, I was never afraid I'll get injured but I knew they would be killed on the spot. Sadly most of them were my age (19 at the time), but with the type of attitude displayed by B-uno here - because their trucks were all steel and could handle an occasional low-speed hit in a tree or stump without sustaining damage they were deeply convinced said trucks are about as safe as it can get... I now have a big truck of my own, one that's been on the Fairbanks ice road well before satellite communications made it a fairly safe place to drive - my frame and front bumper are built to handle snowdrift busting and collisions with Alaskan moose (males get up to 1500 lbs) at full speed, even if I have this thing parked and run into it with my old '79 F150 4x4 the most damage I'd inflict to it would probably be a dent in the cow-catcher. So yeah, having a nice and high bumper don't mean squat if you're running against something that weights about 20 times more than you, and even if your pickup somehow survives the impact the sheer deceleration is likely to brake some bones, starting with the neck...

 

You guys can believe what you want, but all the saftey equiptment in compact cars will not save you against my 70's ford.

 

Well, if I remember correctly your initial statement was against modern trucks, not cars - how about a head-on collision between your truck and a modern Superduty of comparable weight, who do you think will survive the accident? I'm talking people, forget trucks, trucks would be both toast at this point. So yeah, you or the SD driver? I place my bets on the SD driver, as your own mighty 70s truck will have you crushed quite nicely...

 

here it is.. them NEW CARS.....

 

as far as cars verus an old truck, the truck will win, but most vehicles on the road are large suvs and trucks...

 

I used to test-drive new cars, as in development test-driving, the mule vehicles. You'll be surprised at how heavy a modern "midsize" car actually is, and how much damage it can inflict to other vehicles of all sorts without totally self-destructing in the process. The only thing that works in B-uno's favor is the fact that his bumper sits at most cars' windshield level, if it were a regular low truck I'd rather take my chances in a Cadillac CTS or something of that type. Oh yeah, remember B-uno, no one really cares if a modern vehicle survives an accident, the only thing that matters is will it protect its driver and passengers - if it does, job well done for the engineers.

 

I feel invincible when driving around in my nearly 3 ton highboy but intellectually i know that's a false sense of security, it's basically a death trap if i were ever in a head-on collision or T-boned at 60+ mph, no shoulder belts, no air bags, no crumple zones, not to mention 20 gallons of highly flammable fuel right behind my back, it's macho to think we have tough old trucks (and we do) but when it comes to safety features these trucks are relics of their era and far from meeting modern safety standards.

 

doesnt look like it around my parts.

 

"The driver of a pickup died after he rear-ended a street-sweeping vehicle on the Glenn Highway just before midnight, police said. The wreck happened in the inbound lane under the North Birchwood overpass. Witnesses told officers the driver of the pickup, who was alone in the vehicle, was speeding and driving erratically before hitting the sweeper, said Anchorage Police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker.
The driver’s name hasn’t been released. Police said he was a 29-year-old man from Palmer.
The driver and a passenger in the sweeper, owned by Western Construction and Equipment, weren’t hurt, Parker said. That vehicle was traveling at highway speed with a flashing yellow light and wasn’t sweeping, he said. It was loaded wth 300 gallons of water, Parker said.
The wreck was reported at 11:58 p.m. The driver of the pickup truck died at the scene, Parker said. He was extricated from his vehicle by the Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department.


<noscript><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/mi.adn00/News/Local;dcove=d;pl=story;lvl6=Anchorage;loc=ats;geop ick=null;pos=MREC01;sz=300x250;tile=3;ord=12345678 9?" target="_blank"></noscript>Inbound traffic was diverted onto the off-ramp and on-ramp for several hours overnight. A single lane reopened around 5 a..m., Parker said."

another case of new safe vehicle not being able to deal with a collision with a vehicle with no saftey equiptment.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ancho...ry/917076.html

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Lets try to keep this on topic please. A simple, legitimate question about a steeriing column has tuned into a useless debate about a Kia vs dentsides.