Archived Friend hit & ran a moose over. HELP!

[retirednak]

I've got a friend who is a big game guide here in AK was heading to his summer camp in his '02 3500 4x4,manual trans with a basically stock engine with 233K miles. He was pulling his 5th wheel horse trailer loaded with 6 horses, saddles and other gear. He was getting ready to pass a tourist bus when the bus hit the moose, my friend drove up & over the moose, the moose flipped out the back hitting his trailer hard enough to cause him to spin out and end up on the other side of the road side ditch. He can find no damage to the truck at all other then a bit of hair & moose **** under the truck. The horse trailer has a healthy moose size dent in the front. The problem is the truck refuses to start. Turns over just fine, has good fuel pressure according to his auto meter gauges. He drained his airdog filters. He said the truck has been running great with no issues, I don't think his truck has ever been to a dealer.

What say you? I don't want to drive the 500 miles to rescue him, but I sure will load up my tool boxes and head up there if it can't be figured out here.

Come on fellas,get the thinking caps on, I'm not sure where to start.

 

[Missouri Mule]

Make sure connections and wires are Ok in engine compartment especially ECM and VP44.

Also check to see if any fuel lines are loose or gone (depending where his fuel pressure sensor is).

 

[JR]

Yep, I'd agree with Mule. Must have torn something loose or possibly popped a fuse somewhere. Gonna have to go over every inch of it and check all connections and grounds. Glad to hear he's ok, a guy plowed a horse around here not too long ago and didn't fare as well.

 

[Sticks]

My memory is a bit fuzzy on this one.

Don't these truck have an impact or rollover switch on them in case of accident, it would shut the truck down an not restart?

I am inclined to agree with the above, check all fuses and relays, and be double sure of the wire harness under the truck. The PDC in the engine compartment has IIRC 2 fuses and one relay to control the engine running, and that's it. Not much to keep them from not running given that all else is in functioning order (engine does not have catastrophic damage). Worst case is the ECM took a hit.

 

[Grizzly]

I've heard of a Furd Mustang, who's airbag went off on a rollover and landed on it's wheels, that wouldn't start. Someone pulled a lever to allow fuel to flow and it started. Some kind of safety device in case of a collision. Do all vehicles have such a safety device?



george

 

[JR]

Most all Fords have inertia switches like your talking about I'm not aware of any on the dodges

 

[jgillott]

Most all Fords have inertia switches like your talking about I'm not aware of any on the dodges

I'm not going to say for sure that they don't, but we had an engine here out of a rollover (a 2000 if I remember correctly). It had run upside down for long enough to drive a couple of valves out of #6 through the valve cover. If that truck had one, it didn't work.

 

[retirednak]

A local had stopped and pulled him out of the ditch and down the road a ways to a place where it was safe to work on the truck/trailer. I got up there pretty late in the night worried bout the horses and my friends paying customers if he had any booked this weekend. We spent a better part of the am going over & under the truck and didn't find a clue why the truck won't run. Good FP,no blown fuses, no hanging wires ,nothing but blood, a tad bit of guts and lots of moose poo. I dragged him and the horses the rest of the way to his place so they could feed & water & do horse things. The moose hit was pretty severe, I could see neither truck or trailer were tracking right. Once we dropped the trailer, his truck still wouldn't start. Finally we drug his truck down his dirt road for close to 3 miles and it finally fired off and ran. Never guess what we found ... ... ... he has an after market air filter system with a ram air tube that draws air below the bumper. When he drove over the moose, it pushed the air intake up enough to be over looked. It was packed full of moose hair and goo,and the engine couldn't draw enough air to run till I drug him down that damn wash board road! You could hear the motor starving for air once it was going, what didn't fall out of the tube, got caught by the pre-filter. Sure would be nice if the state would change their mind on who gets the moose when one hits it. I've hit three, and has caused well over $90K in damage, I should have first choice in my opinion. By the way, if someone hasn't had the pleasure of working on a vehicle that has ran over 1000lb moose at 65mph, that was first hit by a tour bus to tenderize it just a bit, and dealing with unseasonable 95* temps, and being harassed by our state bird the mosquito, along with their buddies the horse flies. I do recommend it. :-laf Thanks to all who helped. This is what sets us apart from all the websites.

 

[JR]

Glad you got it figured out, I never thought of that. Cold air intakes have always scared me on a 4x4, I' feel much better with the draw being up as high as possible to keep mud, snow and water out of the intake. Or, in your friend's case, Moose :-laf

I'm going to look at a Ranch Hand bumper today. I run the roads very early in the mornings and am always coming across deer and the occasional loose livestock. If I was in your neck of the woods, it would be standard equipment

 

[retirednak]

I've got a Volant system that is similar to his, and we both over looked his intake crawling under it. I've been happy with mine, and send a oil sample in every oil change to make sure my filter is doing its job, if I was off roading or in a dusty area I might reconsider my choice.

 

[Missouri Mule]

Vehicles with electric fuel pumps I thought were supposed to shut down if something happened. My 88 ford van which had two electric pumps had a switch by the passenger door that could be reset.

I never saw anything about an emergency shut down switch on my Freightliner.





Glad you found the problem!

 

[retirednak]

With the 3 that I hit, I would have been able to drive off, and my bags didn't deploy. The engines never shut down, which was great for me since it was winter and a bit on the chilly side.