Well I just couldn't miss all of what was left of a re-tread laying on I-75. Blew out the passenger side rear inner tire and took off part the fiberglass wheel well trim. No other damage as far as I can tell. Just waiting now on the new tire and repair truck from Knoxville.
Oh well, after so many years of working and driving during midnight hours I've always looked out for them but this one caught me. So much for trying to get ahead of the storm lol. At least we are all comfortable while we wait!
I caught one last trip out too. No way to avoid it but no real damage. Sorry to hear you have some.
Got one on I-10 in Florida last trip. Only other car on the road decided to stay beside me so I couldn't lane change until we hit it. Real courteous. >:( All I could do was lay on the Hadley's and give him an earful.
Fortunately we had no damage to the toad or more importantly the coach.
Dean
Me too, had to straddle it and it broke my exhaust pipe to the Aqua-Hot. I never did like the way they ran that pipe to the outside of the rig. It makes about a 3' long target for anything big enough to hit it.
Being a pipefitter years ago, I decided there was a better way. Where the pipe turns to run to the outside of the coach, I rolled the 90 degree elbow on a 45 degree up above the front bulk head flange and then with another 45 I ran it nearly to the wheel well and then with a combination 90 and 45 brought it out on a angle just under the edge of the coach, add a nice chrome tip. This reduces the potential target from about 3' to about 2" where the 90 rolls up at the center of the coach. Something to think about if you ever have to replace the exhaust pipe.
Any one use their spotlight while driving at night. I've thought about it but just dont do any night time driving. Seems like it would give more visibility for road hazards. ---- Have a great day ---- Fritz
On the way home from FOT. several years ago , I could not miss that damn road gator because I was in the show off lane passing a string of big trucks . Hit that thing hard with the curb side drive axle and tag axle wheels . Then it caught my Honda CRV. I watched as the CRV. went off the ground about a foot and a half on the curb side . Pulled into the next rest area and found that the right side door on the CRV . was bent in about four inches with black marks all down the side . Those cold caps from big trucks weigh about ninety pounds and can be about ten feet long if in one piece . They can have wire in them if the tire blows along with it and the wire part is where the term (road gators) come from as they can cling to your coach tires and wrap around the axle .This is now really a bad thing to deal with , and that is one of the reasons I stopped driving at night . Being retired , old , fat and slow between the ears figures in there some place as well . ;D ;D ;D Brad Metzger
Driving at night in forested areas I would shine the roof spotlight along the shoulder of the road a hundred yards or more ahead.
Stopped people from pulling out from side roads onto your lane and froze the deer so they did not jump out in front of you either. Miss my roof light. On my list.....
I just try to drive a little slower at night. One of these days I'll do a headlight conversion and get rid of the original worthless ones
I don't agree with the "slow between the ears" part.
The road gator I hit in FL took off the wiring tween the coach and toad. Spent hours rewiring and finding new parts. I guess everyone will hit a gator sooner or later. And I agree worse time is at nite.
Gary B
You guys keep watching for the gators. I'll keep a eye out for those hoofs and antlers. And I thank my HP that I don't have to put up with those big 1000 pound, 4 legged critters, that they have running around up there in Maine!
Last year late at night just outside of Kayenta, an oncoming pickup hit a cow. With the headlights in our face, we would have never seen it if it had been on our side of the road.
Reminded me of night driving on the Yucatan. We had a couple of close calls with livestock so were following very closely a bus through a small town close to Palenque, letting him avoid the animals. We were only about 10 feet back at about 35 mph when a mule raced between the rear of the bus and our Fiat 850. How he missed the bus and us is still a mystery. Remember he kicked up his heels as he just made it.
Lots of spots here in the west and south of the border where it does not pay to do much night driving especially on reservation lands where there are no fences and no cell coverage in case of an accident. Where we live, the deer outnumber the neighborhood dogs, 10 to 1. They just love to wait until the last minute before crossing in front of you.
Pierce
Buddy put piaa bulbs in mine and the brightness is incredible.
The original what did you do to your coach thread included an owner running different power wires to the headlights as he said they only had 11 volts at them.
At 13 volts he posted a much brighter headlight.
headlight relays! Power straight from the batteries, and relays to turn the power on and off.
Pat - those large antlered critters are closer than you think. There was one on the Taconic Parkway in Putnam County, NY earlier this month. Fortunately RVs aren't allowed on the Parkway but unfortunately for the moose it lost the battle with a car.
I met Bob and Faith Rozek in South Dakota. They have a coach of similar vintage to ours, but with FBP and new projector headlamps. I commented on the headlamp upgrade from Xtreme. Bob replied that the upgraded headlights didn't supply much improvement in night time visibility until he rewired them with adequate wires. Big supply wires and relays for the headlamps apparently can provide for a significant improvement in headlights for night time driving.
The problem with those guys is their long legs. The bulk of the moose's body is just about windshield height for a car or truck. Look where this one ended up. :o
Another problem with moose is their eyes do not reflect the headlight beem. So it they are in the road, which happens very often on I-95, you really don't see them until it is almost to late. With smaller cars the driver is ofter killed. They end up with at least 1000 lbs or more in their face. So heed those signs that say MOOSE.
My old Saab car had overbuilt front windshield pillar posts for running under moose.
Sure could use the info on what was done and how?
The old "what did you do to your coach today" had it in there. Don't know how to find it.
The piaa bulbs even with low power are really impressive. Probably blinding to opposite traffic?
Power rewiring is more my time and budget versus a drive to extreme and lots of coach bucks.....
Bob
Bob,
Checkout BArry's motorhome tech section, look under headlight for some hints.
Headlight Modifications on Older Coaches (http://beamalarm.com/Documents/headlight_modifications_on_older_coaches.html)
I'll take the road gator over a moose or deer any day of the week!! I do have some body work to do...bummer
It seems to me that a year or so ago I saw a picture of a moose or elk that actually ended up INSIDE the car! I guess the older 'Birds (FC and PT models) with the steel fronts would stand the best chance in such a collision. Isn't there a picture of a Foretravel with some sort of extra steel in front just for such incidents?
We just arrived home after a trip thru H--l as the weather in Nevada in the Great Basin was attricious. Woke up to NO batteries-dead because of bad connections and intense cold. Truckers saved us-freezing rain and snow. Next day in Boise Idaho again frozen freeway and vehicles in all ditches and yes, the truck in front of us way haead lost control and finally because I had no retarder working and throttle cable problems I could not slow it down quick enough so I slammed in back of his trailer as it cut off my escape route. Luckily not too much damage, just some fibre glassing!! But Ruth I think had to change clothes almost!! Now after christmas I have many more issues than I thought I was buying to fix but time will heal.
Did have a nice stay in PHX with friends and they helped start to clean coach up with us.
Glad to be back--safe.
John H
Wow, so glad you and Ruth got back safely, John!!! I'm sure you are both very grateful to have made it home. We were wondering how things were going with your trip after leaving the warehouse. Sounds like it was a nightmare and certainly makes me glad we decided not to go to Canada till next spring/summer, even though I missed out on visiting my family this year.
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Years...after surviving a trip like that you have much to celebrate!
Tys and Don
John, Sorry Casper is not the cream puff it sounded like, instead of the dog in need of massive TLC. Sure makes it difficult to consider buying sight unseen with such miss info.
Know you will get it back into shape. You got your project indeed :o
Hope Ruth survives the RV trip from he_l with no lasting thoughts.
Merry Christmas and glad your home, safe for the holidays.
Dave M
John,
Bummer about the truck trailer. Hope you have the glass bumper instead of the stainless and didn't hit any higher. Cold weather always brings out any faults plus is a pain to work on things when it's chilly outside. Craig will probably have tips on the throttle cable. You may be able to force a lubricant through it unless it is too worn.
Glad you made it back safely. Snow is still here from a couple of weeks ago.
Best for the holidays to you both.
Pierce
Merry christmas to you all too.
Winter here in Kaleden and just not used to it, Brrrr.
Pierce, yes the glassed one and the panel below for lites is broken and some scars on main bumper but all in all very lucky as we thought on impact that it was going to be a real mess..
There were vehicles all over the place in ditches and what the guy in front said was that the car in front of him suddenly shot off the road and he was watching that instead of keeping his eye on the road and he hit his brakes and that caused him to lose it and go back and forth across the road, his trailer going the opposite way to him!! We were well back of him and tried to slowly slow down and I was heading for the centre median out of his way but he cut across again and I had no way out.
It is funny really as he had a big ad on the back to tell he made very powerfull bullets and a big Machine gun picture. When he passed us we both booed him and that I guess is why ultimeltly the accident happened later to get back at us not liking his advert.!!!
John H
Last week our company flew us up to Washington State. On I84 headed east it was cold and somewhat moist, so I kept the rental Jeep's speed down to less than the posted limit. Somewhere along the way someone in a small car passed us, moving quite a bit faster. As that car moved back into the right lane it started fishtailing, and then did a 180 followed by a 360. I moved over to the shoulder and gently applied the brakes. The little car didn't hit anything at all, but I suspect that some cleaning might have been necessary inside. We said a quick prayer of thanksgiving and continued on at an even slower pace. I probably should have stopped and walked back to see how the driver of the little car was, but I hate trying to walk on ice (I tend to fall over and that hurts).
From Dick Masons webpage Headlight Mods (http://www.masonclan.org/Motorhomemods/ftheadlights.html)
"I mounted two relays in a box and wired them to a new lamp socket and a homemade plug made from the base of an old bulb. This allows the relays to be plugged in between the bulb and the old harness without modifying the wiring. One relay controls low beam, and the other the high beam (on the outer headlight only). I made the relay box with an easily changeable connection to accommodate either bulb type. I ran a 10 gauge wire from the headlight breaker to the relay box. I actually made 2 of the relay boxes and used one for the left and one for the right. I decided to do this rather than run multiple wires up over the generator across the front of the rig. I made no change to the inner, high beam lights, as after the re-aiming, the high beams were quite good already and with the improvements to the outer lights, they will only get better.
The addition of the relays has increased bulb voltage by 0.7 volts by reducing the voltage loss from supply to headlight to 0.3 volts.
The results of these changes are quite remarkable! The illumination is much brighter, extends farther down the highway, and makes driving on a dark road quite easy. "
How to Turn Left in the UP :dance:
YouTube (http://youtu.be/YeqG0CqzHq4)
Elliott,
That looks like the hill going down to the bridge to Houghton from Hancock.
I once had a truck wheel bounce over the median barrier and pass in-front of me by a few feet and go off into the undergrowth on I94 in Chicago one night. One never knows.
Keith
A buddy of mine and his wife are driving from Florida to San Diego in their BMW sedan. He called me this morning and said they hit a deer on I-10 after dark last night in central Texas with the cruise set at 85 mph.
Messed the Beemer up pretty bad but they are going to try to make the last 1000 miles with one headlight and the hood folded up.
Fortunately they were not hurt, but he said they are rethinking the night time travel!
Hi Elliot;
I think that guy turned left to get off the camera so he could change his underware. LOL
Norm
I used to like to drive at night but there are a LOT more deer out there than there used to be. DW gets up at 5am and tells me that she sees them strolling down the streets in town and herds of them along the road during her 35 mile drive to work.
They used to have those ultrasonic whistle things to attach to a vehicle that were supposed to alert the deer to stay away from your vehicle. I never bought one and find myself wondering if they work.
Craig
All my 25 year ago rural Foretravel owners had those ultrasonic whistles mounted on both sides of the front bumper
Amazon sells deer whistles here: Amazon.com: Bell 22-1-01000-8 Black Deer Warning: Automotive (http://www.amazon.com/Bell-22-1-01000-8-Black-Deer-Warning/dp/B000CC4O58/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1388811651&sr=1-1&keywords=deer+whistle)
I had a friend from VA who swore by these; but FWIW, the (kinda lengthy) article below (from Wikipedia) makes ya wonder. Gotta admit though, they are cheap as dirt and they are quite unobtrusive......and hey, they got chrome ones too. ;D
The deer whistle is the most widely studied and scrutinized form of deer-vehicle collision prevention method. Deer whistles are products that attach to a vehicle and act as an alarm system for deer and other wildlife. The manufacturing of deer whistle products has emerged into a multimillion-dollar industry. [11] Their manufacturers advertise that ultrasound, which they say deer can hear but humans cannot is emitted as air passes through the whistle.[9] Most deer whistles are about 2 inches long and are bullet shaped. They cost between $20 and $25 and are designed to be attached to the bumper of a vehicle. When a vehicle moves faster than 35 mph, a whistle sound is induced which is believed to ward off animals from a roadway. The deer whistle is marketed to prevent deer-vehicle collisions.[12] The effectiveness of deer whistles is disputed among agencies because of the conflicting reports available. The study and documentation of deer whistles is generally poor, and a conclusive decision about the effectiveness of the deer whistle cannot be made.[6]
Some research has been published about the function and capability of deer whistles. Deer have an auditory range of two to six kilohertz (kHz), but only a select few deer whistle products have ranges within that of a deer's. Some manufacturers claim that deer can hear the whistle up to a quarter-mile away, but no research has solidified that claim.[13] Another point of concern is that the amount of noise from a vehicle may compromise the clarity of the deer whistle. Because the whistle is vehicle-mounted there is little that can be done about mitigating vehicle noise. Others also argue the whistle's location on the vehicle as being susceptible to dirt and insects which would eventually clog the passageway of the whistle, rendering it useless. The idea of a non-air-activated whistle has been discussed but little research has been done on the effectiveness of such products, and is highly recommended. Deer whistles generally have a questionable level of effectiveness but are advertised as aiding in the prevention of DVCs. A concern amongst studies is the impact the whistle has on the psyche of the driver, and the driver's sense of security.
Have used the whistles before, never hit a deer. However I have a friend who used them and claims they act as a call button. They hear the whistle and come running. He has hit at least 4 deer while using the whistles. I guess the old saying applies, "YMMV".
Larry
Most happenings occur do to over driving your lights and not paying proper attention to what is going on, such as
Driving too fast
Little too many Li vations
Talking on cell phone
Reading your favorite book or news paper
Reading a map
Talking to others in vehicle
Tired & drowsey
Many more reasons than ex cusses
Yes, Everyone is the very best and most skilled driver
At least better than anyone they have ever met
Yes, we all have heard all the excusses
Happy New Year
Be Safe
Dave M
I have used the Sav-A-Life, Deer Alert, Deer Whistle, Deer Alarm, Deer Collision Alert, (http://sav-a-life.com/deeralert_brch.htm?gclid=CPLH5aLb5LsCFbB9OgodVmkAsg), and found then to be excellent. But the way a deers ears are designed, they have to be pointed directly toward the on coming vehicle to be able to hear them. If they are on a dead run on a 90 degree angle with the road, they don't have a chance, and neither do you.
But anyone who has experienced the European "E-Codes" knows that they are better than our US DOT codes, and not as glaring to the on-coming driver.
But anyone who has experienced the European "E-Codes" knows that they are better, all around, than our US DOT codes, and not as glaring to the on-coming driver.