Had an accident

[BHiggins]

I got into an accident yesterday, no injuries but some damage to my Smittybilt Nerf Bar on the driver's side. The body shop can't find a listing for 1989 - 1993 for a replacement step. I tried JC Whitney, EBay, just about every after market parts place I can think of, and nobody has a replacement. I need a price for the insurance company to complete their estimate, anybody know of any place that still has Smittybilt nerf bars (or the equivalent) for first gens?

 

[Makaio]

Brian,



Try www.smittybilt.com. I'm sure someone there could give you an answer or point you in the right direction. Another option would be to simply have a new one fabricated. Those nerf bars are steel tubing that have been mandrel bent. I had a pair that was damaged while four-wheeling. I fabbed my own using black pipe (sch. 80?) and it's solid. Only thing is I couldn't achieve a tight radius with a 16 ton pipe bender but it is VERY functional. Hope this helps.

 

[DonTX]

Not an answer to the question you asked, but I would be very surprised if an insurance company will pay for it anyway. They have this policy of only paying for what came on the truck, not extras. I had to "eat" a new fiberglass topper, trailer hitch, and even a brand new set of radials on my last "total" of a truck because of that.

 

[BHiggins]

Don,

I got hit by a Suffolk County Police car (entirely his fault), they told me they are "self insured" whatever that means. I told them I probably wasn't going to file a claim since the damage was so minimal to my truck (the police car was pretty bad though) The supervisor on scene said Suffolk County does whatever they have to to get your vehicle back to the way it was before the crash, so I'm hoping that will include the nerf bar(s).

MBoliver,

Smittybilt doesn't have a listing for our trucks on their website, only 2nd gen and up (no surprise there). My body guy says he should be able to fix the one on the truck if he absolutely has to, but obviously would rather just replace it.

 

[vciesielski]

Found them here.

http://www.autostyles.com/surestep.htm

 

[tugboatphil]

Brian,



I hit a police car about 23 years ago. He had jammed his brakes at a stop light. I almost reacted quickly enough, but "tapped" his rear bumper. It literally did no damage. Not even a mark on the dust. The official accident report indicated "zero" damage to their car.



Several weeks later, I get a letter from a company that services the city (Norfolk, Va. ) and they are going to seek money from me for the damage to city property. I later found out it is a standard practice, and if I had not saved the report, might have had a battle on my hands.



Keep all your paperwork and beware of the hired accountants!!

 

[BHiggins]

vciesielski,

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Phil,

Thanks for the advice, luckily I had a passenger, and the cop had a dashboard camera... witnesses :-laf . It went down in the accident report that he was on his cell phone when he blew a red light and hit me, so I should be OK as far as who was at fault.

 

[hotram03]

BHiggins do you have any pics of your Smittybuilt bars on your truck, I found them also at truckaddons.com, but was wondering what they look like on a 1st Gen, or if you know anyone who could post some on here, thanks

 

[BHiggins]

Here is the best pic I could find of the bars. I had to re-size the picture to get it to upload, so sorry for the small size.

In the picture you can also see the tie down brackets installed by the previous owner for a slide in camper (under the bed in front of the rear tires). This bracket, which broke off during the accident, in addition to the nerf bar is what saved me from body damage. The police car that hit me didn't fare so well :-laf .

 

[TKingsbury]

Don,

I got hit by a Suffolk County Police car (entirely his fault), they told me they are "self insured" whatever that means.

I work for Sacramento County, and we are also self-insured. Pretty much what it means is we pay any claims out of our budget. From what I've seen we will pretty much pay for anything within reason, and sometimes I think we get snowed pretty bad.

Travis. .

 

[BHiggins]

Travis,

Thanks for the info, I was wondering what "self insured" meant. I'm not looking to make a profit, If they give me a new set of steps (you can't buy only one) and pay to have that bracket welded back on, I'm back to the way it was. That's all I want. His bumper and headlight assembly were stuck under my truck, so when I moved out of the intersection all I heard was plastic dragging on the ground. I thought it was my dually fender and I know how hard it is to find those. I was quite surprised/happy that I had no sheet metal damage. Incidentally, the cop was talking on his cell phone when he blew the red light and hit me.