Not a scratch on your vehicle, but everything covered by the plastic bumper is caved in.
Suspected Hit and Run Vehicle April 12 2019
- Thread starter lulu5kamz
- Start date
Not a scratch on your vehicle, but everything covered by the plastic bumper is caved in.
I have Toyota Tunrda that I keep armed with an extended trailer hitch/ball on at all times. Many years ago, while on a crowded expressway, I had a guy in a newer sports car riding my tail so close that I thought he'd start pushing me. Because he was so close to me (and the ground), I knew he couldn't see the stopped traffic about 1/4 mile up the road. So, I deliberately waited slightly longer than I should have to apply the brakes - which resulted in a harder than normal stop than he was expecting. He compensated well, so I released my brakes a bit, getting even closer to the stopped traffic, and then I hit them again pretty hard. Not expecting a second hard stop, the guy overreacted and locked them up, nailing my hitch. The impact occurred at less than 20MPH.
The schadenfreude feeling was extreme. Especially when I saw the steam of his punctured radiator rising above my tailgate. I got out and inspected the damage. The guy got out of his car and said "Well, it looks like there's no damage to your truck". I agreed, and wished him well and left. He was stranded. Rather than accepting that I caused the accident, I prefer to look at it as performing a public service. I would hope that the a-hole will reconsider riding someone's ass in the future.
FWIW, I really had no damage to the hitch, receiver, or truck. A class III can do a lot of damage to smaller vehicles before transferring energy to the host vehicle.
The schadenfreude feeling was extreme. Especially when I saw the steam of his punctured radiator rising above my tailgate. I got out and inspected the damage. The guy got out of his car and said "Well, it looks like there's no damage to your truck". I agreed, and wished him well and left. He was stranded. Rather than accepting that I caused the accident, I prefer to look at it as performing a public service. I would hope that the a-hole will reconsider riding someone's ass in the future.
FWIW, I really had no damage to the hitch, receiver, or truck. A class III can do a lot of damage to smaller vehicles before transferring energy to the host vehicle.
xmfan
Getting the hang of it
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I'll take this kind of video any day from the cameras than to see some thugs breaking into a house and rampaging the place.
Firefighter
Getting comfortable
- Jun 18, 2014
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As someone in the automotive field, I would like to take this opportunity to clear up a common misconception. Energy in an accident has to go somewhere. Your plastic bumper cover houses a crash bar underneath that's designed to absorb minor impacts in a sacrificial way. This way, it gets crushed and then replaced cheaply while sparing the unibody or frame. It also absorbs forces so the occupants don't. This is the best and cheapest place to have someone hit you.
A trailer hitch is bolted to your unibody or frame. It directs all crash energy into the frame and nothing else. This is the last place you want this energy as it transmits forces to the occupants and also is the most expensive damage to fix (usually leading to a total loss). Visually your paint and bumper are fine, but frame damage has occurred underneath. Worse yet, you think it's fine, wave the guy off, and you're stuck with frame damage to be discovered later when it's too late.
This happened to a client of mine, who was rear ended a few months before coming to see me. He told the heroic tale of how he got smacked in the back, and the other car was obliterated. It went straight to the junkyard on a tow truck. His car, just some paint on the hitch. He was very proud. Now, how can that be? They shared all that force equally, where did it go on his car?
It went here: (hitch is shown in black on the bottom: crinkled frame just above)
