Woooooow I am so sorry to see this happen to you and your daughter, and I know you put so much work in that truck, I hate to see you lose it. A lesson I had to learn the hard way though, is that it is just a truck, and no matter how much work/time/effort you put into it, at the end of the day, it is still just a truck that can be taken from you, that can be destroyed, and that in the grand scheme of things, has very VERY little value. I am so glad to see that you and your daughter are doing fine, that is one of those accident's where you really can't expect to walk away but thank your lucky stars when you do. On the positive side, all the work you put into your truck probably helped that much more in keeping things controlled long enough to help some, who knows how bad off you could have been if this was a stock explorer. You'll recover and although you won't still have the explorer, you'll have your daughter and your life, and thats all that really matters.
I don't understand why you are getting pinned by insurance persons if somebody pulled in front/side of you and caused you to clip them. You should find the police reports and make sure you have the name/number of everyone that saw that person do that.
Spas said:
Did you ever notice any play in your power steering rack? I've heard that the teeth/grooves can give out when subjected to extreme force, which leads to rollovers in some instances. I ask because Blackjack's done to me (twice now!) what you and Sk1er described... it's almost impossible to get the steering wheel back under control at that point, you just hang on and hope for the best
My first time was a grassy median, the second time a jersey wall stopped me from flipping. I wonder if maybe there's more to the firestone incidents than Ford was letting on....? Or is it just me being paranoid?
Spas, I have had the same thing happen while driving the suburban, and once when I had the Mercedes out on a track... with the suburban the rear end started swinging from hydroplaning, and then out on the left side it got traction and pulled the front end left, which jacked the wheel
out of my hands, which turned the wheels to the lock to the right, etc which started a cycle of the suburban swerving at about 45mph. I had to let go and right after the wheels spun to the lock again, grab the wheel, brake, and correct the wheel as best I could with a very tight grip. With the benz, I was on dry ground, but the backend was out to my right, and with a little too much skinny pedal it came back around left, which again pulled the front end too much, but in the benz I was not having trouble keeping hold of the wheel, it was just a matter of fighting the pavement pulling the tires in the direction they shouldn't be going, if that makes any sense. I was, thank God, never in a situation where something similar happened in the explorer, but in the suburban I was lucky I didn't flip and that the highway was COVERED in water which kept traction down as I was going sideways a bit, and in the benz, things of course felt controlled enough that it was not worrysome, especially on an empty track. In an explorer though, I can imagine it would be almost impossible to regain control, especially on dry ground... is this what you experienced?
