Ghostwalker's wreck hits me (and probably many of us) close to home, as my 6 year old daughter would have been in her car seat where the rear seat of the truck used to be. Even more so since I drive a Gen I 2 door.

I had already been thinking of putting a crash cage in the truck, but this drives it home.

To that end, I'd like to pick apart the wreck in hopes of making a stronger truck.

The photo shows that the rear frame seems to be fairly intact, indicating that the bumper was torn off and pushed up over the top. The whole rear of the vehicle was crushed forward 12-18", but without the frame.

The roof folded as it should (the force has to go somewhere) and other than being cut off, the B pillar seems to have fared well.

The front did excellently, all things considered.

The real failure, it seems to me, is that the rear sheetmetal tore free from the frame and crumpled forward.

Suggestions?

Interesting idea but before you take it too far, I think we need to ask how realistic is it to reinforce our rigs enough to survive being sandwiched by 2 big rigs? It suspect it may require more than just a cage.

While cages survive fine in racing wrecks I suspect the impact is NOTHING like the impact forces faced by this kind of an accident. Not sure about this and I think we should discuss it before we can start discussing roll cage or vehicle modification options. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Always leave plenty of bailout room between yourself and the vehicle ahead - even when you stop...... and always keep your eye on the rear view mirror.

You won't keep the body on the frame in an impact like that unless you put a massive roll cage in it that is welded to the frame. A tractor trailer weighs about 70,000 lbs loaded.

Frank

Trucks is Cali can transport at 80K pounds, in Nevada to about 100K when they run triple trailers. Wow!

I think it explains the extra set of mounts the factory added just in front of the axle on the V6 models. They get disconnected on body lifts... Something that may be worth reconsidering for those of you with lift kits.

Kevin

The only way to protect yourself from this is to be somewhere else when it happens. I leave room to go off the road right or left and I watch the rview until I get some sacrificial mass stopped behind me, just like Frank said. The only way to survive out there is to drive like I learned to on a bike - every sob out there is out to kill you, actively hunting you to pull out in front of/run into/slide into/get knocked into you, 'cause they're the guy in the black suit with the grimy bandaid on his cheekbone...

I like these trucks because they are tough as nails and light enough and just quick enough to get out of the way when they have to. If you loaded it down with another 600lbs of roll cage stout enough to protect you more than GW's gen1 did, (a) you might die from the impact accleration without the crumple zone, or (b) you might not get out of the way or roll over in the evade maneuver because of all that mass up high. 35mph is enough to kill you - it's not the speed, it's the sudden stop at the end.

I was nearly in an accident like this, when all of Rt 80 got shut down and deverted to side roads. I was stopped in traffic behind 1 semi in slick conditions at the bottom of a downhill slope. I look behind me to see a set of vibrating headlights. I locked the wheel to the right and jumped into the grass just before an 18wheel with all its wheels locked up slammed into the back of the 18 wheeler I was behind. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> This was in my Subaru so I have 100% confidence I wouldn't be posting if I was hit that night.

I have a 2 year old and a 3 month old, so the car seats were the first thing I thought of when I saw the picture. Here is a second picture that is on Ghostwalker's Photobucket profile - this angle shows the frame took a pretty good beating.



My dad always taught me to look for the older heavier cars in case of an accident (that had something to do with my Montero purchase). But looking at this picture I don't know that a crash frame would have changed anything.

Ryan

My first thoughts of the picture was at least my son is safe where he sits.
I think the middle row seats are safe, as a matter of fact i think kids in car seats in the middle row would have been in the safest part of the vehicle. it looks bad in the picture because the seat has been reclined to extract the driver, not trying to talk you out of a roll cage but i think you are over thinking this. Imagine the seat in a normal upright driving location and passenger location in relation to the roof and front seats.

I have also been involved in a wreck in one of my old monteros (not nearly as bad) It was T-boned at roughly 45 mph by an early 2000's Chevy Malibu. The malibu looked similar to the above montero while my montero looked like it was just a spectator in the event, as a matter of fact the police and fire dept were accusing me of concealing the identity of the real vehicle involved. I showed them the malibu corner lens imbeded into my wheel plus the paint from that car on my frame and rocker panel. This wreck bent my axle and i drove the truck home, I can post pictures of the t-boned truck later. I think Ghostwalkers truck did extremely well considering the speed, mass and height of the other vehicles involved.

The topic of elastic collisions and inelastic collisions is covered in your typical physics textbook. To react or over-react is on a case by case basis. I was riding my bicycle home from school one day and was pushed off the road (hit) by a loaded concrete mixing truck who didn't even feel the nudge. I later smacked the side of a school bus pulling out from the loading area at my second high school, same bicycle. No damage to the heavier vehicle because of my relatively low mass and angle of impact. My bicycle and I suffered little, again because of angle and elastic collision. The mixer driver kept on going, the bus driver was horrified.

Metal and people both bend and distort during collisions. The unfortunate parts for the people are unfortunate. I've been lucky to have had well built vehicles in subsequent collisions. Have I been statistically safe? Probably not, just lucky. Remember, too, that I work around heavy equipment where speed and mass will kill me dead if I'm hit, and the cleanest flat blade shovel may not get all the pieces.

In this photo, the Caterpillar 657E scraper is traveling down a 15% grade at about 45 mph, loaded to approximately 150,000 pounds with rocky soil, and unable to stop for approximately 500 feet. When nearly stopped, the operator performed a u-turn before returning to the cut area. The contractor operated 22 of these machines without incident during the project. However, my geotech opposite accidentally ran over and crushed my Ohaus field scale (an approximate $700 loss for the company I worked for) on the same day as the photo. Note the flying sand off the tire as the scarper 'flew' by me.