Ok,enoughs enough......I give up....

[Hammer]

Today,,FINALLY the rest of my parts come in and my truck gets finished at the shop,,I crawl in her,twist the key and lite her off for the ride home,,Roll her out driveway,row it thru the gear box and off I go into the sunset smiling oh so happily,,I get to the traffic light near my house and stop,,As I sit waiting for it to cycle thru... ... . BANG !!!!!..... the rear of my truck goes into the air slightly,,out the door I go to see the damage and am met by a arrogant driver who tries to blame me because I "have a vechicle that sits so high",,I kindly ask what in the blue blazes he means by that as its obvious to me he rearended me(his Chuby Lumina is under the trailer hitch of my truck),,His response was he could not see the traffic light because my "lifted truck" had it blocked,,Told him and showed him when cop got there my truck still has factory part numbers visible on all the springs and he was upset the cop was going to site him not me,,, Damage to my truck visible to me was a scratch to my rear bumper and a trashed Cummins hitch plug, while his grill,both headlights,bumper cover and hood were trashed,,Cop told me not to worry as it was evident that this guy was speeding and could not stop,,I give up this week,maybe I'll just skip right thru till next week... sheesh... Andy

 

[DarrellB]

What you need is

A sticker on the tailgate that says" Smile as you go under"



Had the same thing happen to me at a stoplight a couple years ago. This women drove right under the rear bumper of my truck. You know it's amazing what a 6" drop hitch will do to the hood and plastic engine cover of a Honda Cevic. Had to lock the truck in 4wd and pull it off the top of the car. The woman mamaged to bed my drop hitch and that was it. They had to load her car onto a rollback to take it off. My drop hitch ended up in the passanger side of the windshield and she ended up with a brown stain in the driver's seat. :-laf :-laf



Sorry about your luck, but be glad you weren't in a small car becasue the dumb a$$ would have knocked you through the inersection into someone else.



Darrell

 

[Sled Puller]

Somebody is testing you Hammer, prolly a GOOD thing you won't be around Muncie this weekend.

 

[ACoyle]

I was driving home from NYC the other day and a lady changed lanes right into my right dual. When I got out of the truck she says "You hit me. "



I asked her how I could have made my rear end go sideways. She says that she started to change lanes and I didn't move.



Go figgure.

 

[Shovelhead]

Hammer,

Just remember, parts is parts..... at least you were OK.



It's amazing how many morons are toolin' around in 3,000lb+ missles with their heads up their nether regions, and then want to blame someone else for their screw-ups.



I guess we can thank our American judicial system for that. :-{}

 

[TPCDrafting]

Just remember not to take any blame until your in front of the judge. And even then, only when it's completely and obveously your fault. If somebody rear-ends you, it's automatically their fault. NO questions asked. Glad to hear you're OK.

 

[JConley]

I dont have a 4X4 but I still keep my reciever hitch in place to give me another 7 inches of impact area before they get to the sheet metal bumper. As soon as the rear bumper gets a ding, I am going to replace it with a good solid steel one.



Glad to hear you are OK

 

[Mark_Kendrick]

I have a 200# Ranch Hand wrap around rear bumber that 's been tack welded (to keep it from moving while towing, of couse) in place for moments just like that.



The motor would have been sitting in his lap. It has a 12" drop made from 3/8" plate.



Good luck,

Mark

 

[cdpsrjc]

JCONLEY, you might want to reconsider waiting for an accident to replace the bumper. I backed into a pole right after I got my CTD and tore up the bumper, and the bumper tore up some sheet metal. You can't believe how little a 'bump' those bumpers can't take.







Replace it now...



Richard

 

[JCockrell]

Ranch-hand

I have been rearend three times. With the Ranchhand on only "cosmetic" scratches. Some lady, talking on her cell phone, hit me right behind the passenger rear wheel. She was pulling out of a parking lot. The Ranchhand caught two inches behind the drivers side headlight. Ripped it completely out. Took the front facade, grill, and part of the hood with it. She gets out and asks me were I came from... . Wood Knot be w/o my Ranchhand.

 

[rich m]

Re: What you need is

Originally posted by DarrellB

A sticker on the tailgate that says" Smile as you go under"





there's already one on the tailgate that says "DODGE"... what other instruction do they really need??? maybe add exclamation points? "DODGE!!!!" (or DUCK!)



The woman mamaged to bed my drop hitch... ...

did'ja get pictures?? She must'a been bored waiting for the tow truck!

 

[KennyM]

Hammer, Sorry to hear, glad your OK. Better get that fixed before the next show and shine.

 

[Bill Lins]

Re: What you need is

Originally posted by DarrellB

The woman mamaged to bed my drop hitch and that was it.

She probably couldn't do THAT right, either.

 

[brucew]

the accident

mr. lins : your humor regarding someone not being able to do that correctly was indeed some good natured humor !! however, with some of the politically correctness being evidenced on this board i'm shocked you didn't have your fingers slapped !! again, i enjoyed the comment and agree with you !!!!! bruce

 

[dan_gilson]

Hammer, I hope you are OK. Also, glad that the cop saw things the "right" way. I was not so lucky and the report went agaist me. I had to use my engineering skills to do a resonstruction on the accident to get the insurance to deny the claim.



A couple of more practical lessons that I learned: The OEM bumper is a piece of S#$%! The dealer wanted $575 and insurance billed it around $500. The base price for my Renuel was $540. You should be able to find several after market rear bumpers for around the cost of the OEM.



When I got my hitch, I was talking with the guy who sold it to me and he was explaining how he recently had several repeat customers who were in because they got rear ended. The drop hitch that I got was around $250. It is pretty stout. It is cheaper than the bumper and far cheaper than the body work.



Here is the kicker. When a car rear ends a truck with a hitch, the hitch generally goes through the raditor and breaks the fan blades. It sometimes does even more damage before even getting to the truck bumper. This is a instant tow for the car and normally you can pull the pin on the hitch and ease the truck forward and you are clear. Wrangle the hitch loose and swear out the report. And when you have cleared the scene, you can laugh like hell at the bad driver who just lost their car and smile at the hitch for saving you rear.



My $. 02 worth. Best of luck getting things fixed!

 

[Got Smoke?]

Y'all are really making me want to swap out my 4th brake light (Rams Head) for my reciever hitch.



I went through hell just to make that damn thing work (had to buy a 7-to-4 pin adapter b/c my truck came with a 7 pin pull behind hook up on it not 4).



I think I have used my reciever hitch 3 times since I got my CTD (use my gooseneck more, like 3 times more!). The more I keep hearing about these storeis the more I want to put my reciever in.



I was nearly rearend one morning by a Lumina. 2 cars in front of me stopped, had a Jeep Wrangler in front of me with a trailer on it, looked in my rear view thinking "man that woman sure is coming up quick" Then I noticed she wasn't paying attention..... HELLO LADY 4 NICE RED BRAKE LIGHTS LOOK'N AT YA! She looks up and does the "OH I TRIED TO BY-PASS THE CUSSING FILTER" face and slams on her brakes. Car does a nose dive as I tense up waiting for impact.



At the last second she swerved as she was still attempting to stop, and she finally came to a halt on my passenger side even with my tire/wheel.



Traffic started moving and I left her in a cloud of smoke thinking a few choice words to myself. She stayed about 2-3 tractor-trailer length's behind me till I turned after that.

 

[rich m]

Here's an engineering-type question from a non-engineer....

In the scenarios mentioned, the Dodge takes the impacts on the lowered drawbar of the hitch. The impacts have been passenger cars, and comparitively soft structures (in order: grille, A/C or transmission cooler coils,radiator, front-edge of hood at some time during this, fan, and maybe, if traveling fast enough, engine block )



All these "soft" objects absorb a lot of the energy by deforming.

All actions and energy not absorbed by the deformation of the "soft" materials DO get transferred to the truck via the draw-bar..... I'm not gonna worry about the truckframe, since it's pretty much longitudinal with the car's direction of travel... . how about the crossbar of the hitch? they're designed for pulling, with gradual stress being applied, and not really for sudden impacts with a drop-hitch being used as a twisting lever, tending to torque the hitch assembly towards the underside of the truck.

(Remember, a hitch rated at 10K for towing has that rating with a straight drawbar... subtract 10% for every inch off-level... . f'rinstance, a 10K receiver with a 6-inch drop drawbar installed is now trustworthy at 4K and questionable at 5K, and possibly downright dangerous at 10K)

Now, how many tons of impact-related torque were applied to your hitch during the course of the accident?



I'm not sure I'd trust the hitch to do its job, anymore. I'd replace it.

 

[Shovelhead]

Rich, good point.

But a coupla hundred $$ for a new receiver beats the heck outta several THOUSAND $$$$ for body work , rental rides, and lost driving time.

 

[nickleinonen]

my tahoe has a 4" [i think] drop receiver that is pin'd in place with one of those anti theaft hitch pins and i [don't] know where the lock is had a little lowered rice burning civic rear end me. i braked quite hard to stop for an amber [would have ran it, but some landscaping guy with trailer was turning left. . ] and i felt crunch. went out to look, and the civic's bumper was almost touching my fuel tank skid plate [fuel tank is located aft of the rear axle just behind the bumper. ] not a scratch to my bumper [never touched it] and some scratches on my hitch and draw bar and a broken 7way plug. his ricer, leaking green real good. draw bar through the grill, rad, fans. i think it hit "ricer headder" on it. lol... all he could say [oriental kid] NO COPS NO COPS!!... NO INSURANCE I HAVE!!! i said fine and got his vitals [licence plate #, drivers licence #, vin #, regestration #] and i put my 'hoe in drive and drove of it. the nut on the bottom of the ball pulled the bumper cover off... stupid kid... the tow driver that came just before i pulled away was laughing his ass off.....

 

[dan_gilson]

I have an adjustable drop hitch, Roto-Eze from Action Manufacturing in Stockton, CA http://www2.cnewsusa.com/ads/22029.html. The hitch comes on 2 colors: Red or black.



The way it is designed you could put your 4th brake light in it.



Like I sad previously, I was talking with the owner when I got the hitch. He mentioned that it takes 75K#'s to bend this hitch. He also stated that the metal is designed to bend but not shear (break).