WOW

ladders are one of the most common chunks of road debris to avoid here. Why a contractor wants to lose a $150 ladder because he's too lazy to tie it down is beyond me.

Due to the heat, we get a lot of big gators too. (separated truck tire treads for those of you not familiar with trucker terms) it sucks when someone in front of you runs one of those over and flips it up on your hood.

And this site is educational as well as entertaining.....I learned a new term today.

A few years back heading to long beach a truck in front of me on the 710 loaded with crushed cars lost a hood off of one of them. I had to duck as it flew right over my head. At the time I was in my MG with no top and if I was car that was any higher it would of come through the windshield.

When I lived in az I was replacing windshields on average every 15k miles. I always waited till the 3rd or 4th major rock hit to change them out. AZ roads just plain suck.

Glad to hear that your ok. That is really scary. Back in 04 when ours was new we had the same thing happen to us but with a smaller pipe and it luckly hit sideways so it only shattered the glass. My mom was really shaken up because she was sitting in front of it. Again glad to hear your ok. Your really lucky.

Just in case anyone has any ideas about backing into a tree.



Note the Weed Wacker as cause!

The morning folks on KOOL FM, about the only radio station I listen to, have a white board and they note the stuff people see on the freeways. They gave up counting ladders because they had to many, they have some pretty weird stuff on there at times.

Amen on the ladders. I was towing a small trailer with a couch on it on I-10 when the truck in front of me hit a bump and it slid right off.

It kept sliding and stayed parallel with the flow of traffic so I just straddled it. Looked back and it had veered over to the shoulder. Well trained ladder.

holy crap man...that's freakin scary.
Glad no one was speared.

I haven't had any experiences like that in my X (knock on wood) but heading out to a job site in the company truck going eastbound on the 101 early in the morning while it was still dark I was in the middle lane and this old pickup in the right lane just ahead of me. His driver side rear wheel came off, brake drum slamed the ground sending out a trail of sparks, his tire passed him kept to the right, bounced over the wall and across an on ramp. I think it was around 56th street. Crazy.

Then heading up to Flagstaff a few years ago, all of a sudden a set of duely wheels from a semi came bouncing across the median from the southbound side. Crossed the northbound lanes just behind us.

Az-ted--Glad you dodged that bullet. But really, what is that brown stuff on your hood?

I-17 this week, one base to a jack stand, narrowly missed and one Who Knows What that I ran over after the persons in front of my shattered it into a million pieces. Of course they slam on the brakes and I do the same just in time to look in the Rear-view mirror to see a tanker truck coming up my ass fast. Gave it all the skinny pedal in my Cirrus 2.5L and got out of the way.

Going down Glendale at about 31st Ave a whole side of a tree was in the road and had no choice but to plow it over, thankfully I was driving the X. I think the city buss took it out first.

We'll see what's in store for me next week.

Copperlake, that brown stuff on my hood is called mud. (See the AZXC Fat Tire thread for more pics)



Conundrum, man, how much bad luck can one guy have?

I stopped asking that question as there seems to be an endless supply. :rolleyes:

There's always that siver lining right?

Bout 5 years ago I was west bound on I-10 in New Orleans slightly behind and beside a truck pulling a speedboat on a trailer. It was night and I couldn't help to notice the glow and shower of sparks emitting from the boat trailer axle/wheel area. Seems he hadn't greased his trailer bearings in a while. Well I immediately sped up to get his attention to let him know he had a big problem. I got his attention and he nodded and started to slow and try get to the shoulder of the road. The wheel failed on the trailer as he tried to get over to the shoulder. Sparks and chaos everywhere! The trailer dug in the road and eventually decoupled from his bumper, slewing to the right and trying to dump the boat on the road...thank god for safety chains. If that trailer had come totally loose and got sideways in traffic, I shudder to think of the consequences.

Well now I can add a little of my own.
No where near the pipe incident, but I took a full size tire/rim on the beeline during holiday traffic this weekend. Who knew an Xterra could jump a tire at 60mph.

I was in caravan formation behind two Jeeps and somehow, unbeknownst to me in the rear, there was a trie/rim combo sitting in our highway lane. All of a sudden I see the first Jeep, the only one who had a chance to see it, swerve crazily onto the shoulder, then the second Jeep, my sister's, swerve as much as she could (as she tried and failed to stradle it) and bounce around a little and then all of a sudden in my view, a tire/rim flies out from under the Jeep, pops up a little and flies right at the X. Luckily we were holding form pretty tight so it didn't have much of a chance to get high enough to come through the windshield. I had no time to do anything so I took it how it was served. It all happened so quickly, but I believe it hit the bottom of the bumper (just a tire print on the Shrockworks), went under, I jumped it too, and then there were a few fast jarring thumps from the undercarriage and then my side view mirror let me see it shoot out behind, bounce once and shoot up over the cars behind me. It bounced so high I lost it in the mirror until it bounced again on the shoulder and took off up the hilly road side.

I just knew something had to be busted, a wheel an arm, something. The lead Jeep knew it could be bad so he pulled over immediately and we followed. A little shook up we did an inspection for damage on the Jeep and the X but could visually see none.

Imagine if it had been a car, or if we had been further staggered. I guess, strangley enough, it was actually good that it was us.

Remember Adam, "Inside every silver lining, there's a dark cloud."

about four years ago, my tire fell off of my bronco II and bounced over a cement divider and into a small lake by my house. it put a nice flat spot in my front brake rotor. luckily no one was around. being it was march here in WA, i had to wait all day for the tire to float across the lake. when i put the spare on, it was flat and did not hold any air.