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My Avalanche Got Banged Up!

hyper

Charter Member
Full Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2002
Messages
124
Location
Northwestern Oklahoma
My 4 week old avalanche got hurt this morning :cry: :cry:and i may be going into a state of depression(not really).

My daughter and I are driving from western oklahoma to chicago this morning to pick up the wife and son....I am thinking this av is pretty nice and i want to take it for a long road trip and chicago sounds good to me. ?Anyway we leave home at 0430 and i am letting my daughter drive...she is usually a pretty good driver...well usually. :cautious:now

The plan was to take turns driving but i never got my turn :( ? I was reclining in the passenger seat snoozing until all the bouncing started.....that will wake you up real quick let me tell ya. ?I am looking out and my avalanche is going at highway speeds in the muddy roughs on the right side of the devided highway. ?I am watching as my daughter is gradually starting to get it back on the highway....until. ?Directly ahead there is a side road that ties into the highway and that kinda makes a ramp and we hit it hard....I didn't think it could happen but the av can fly ;D ;D ?Not very well and not very far.

?The tracks it the mud didn't look to me like we were airborn but the highway patrol said we were. ? Being airborn does make the story more interesting :D

when my daughter hits the ramp she looses control, ?she does however manage to get back on the highway. ?The only problem now is that we are sliding down the highway sideways and talk about squalling tires WOW

well now were sliding sideways and were headed for the center median and its gooey mud with a little grass in it....yuk....and at the bottom of the median their is a concrete drainage ditch. ?the front wheels hit the mud in the center median first and that spins us around backwards and pulls us further into the median. I don't know how fast we were going now but there was still plenty of forward momentum.

Front and back tire on the passenger side hit the concrete drainage ditch evenly and we bounced out of that and came to a stand still. ?What a ride...what a rush....WOW

AND THE BEST THING OF ALL IS THAT NOBODY GOT HURT A GUY COULDN'T ASK FOR MORE THAN THAT.

Now here is the interesting part, ?when the av came to a stand still the engine was tached out running full bore wide open. ?i shut it off and restart it and it tachs out again so i shut it off. ?I get out and do a walk around but can't see any damage because it is still dark.

So now i get an :0: i'm gonna push that little onstar button. ?the onstar operator answers, i tell her the situation she sets up a conference call with the highway patrol and then sets up a conference call with ?AAA and gets a wrecker on the way. ?Onstar is great!

Well the sun finally came up, the highway patrol showed up and the wrecker a little bit later.

I finally made that external visual inspection and it looked terrible, mud packed in around the tow hooks, up in the fender wells and here is the worst part the top of the fenders next to cab were smashed into the doors on both sides(frame damage). ?That put a lump in my throat. :C: :C: :C: :C:

the tow truck gets the av to the chevy dealer and the mech inspects my runaway engine problem(I was thinking about driving it home). ?He finds the intake manifold ?busted. ?i am looking at it and the intake manifolds are made of plastic ??? ??? ???

So i didn't make it to chicago and my daughter and i are home alone without our av :cry: :cry:

I may have to send it a get well card ;)


If any one wants to see picture i have them but they will need to be developed first.

Thanks all for a shoulder to cry on.

Here is a link to some pictures of my banged up av.

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=856344&uid=570363


 
Man sorry to hear that. I thought I was depressed when I backed into a standing pole. Glad you guys are ok, just think to yourself it could have been worse if you would have hit oncoming car. Hope your Av gets fixed and back on the road soon.

Question: How did the cladding hole up to the damage?
 
Sorry to hear about your Av :cry:but very happy to hear that you and your daughter are uninjured! :) :) :)
 
Glad to hear you and your daughter were not hurt. Too often we take things for granted. The AV can be replaced but you and your daughter can't. Don't know if you are a religious man but thank God you purchased a vehicle as strong as the AV when you did. That decision very well could have been the difference between no injury and something much worse. Sounds like the she protected the both of you.
 
That sounds like the opening plot for a James Bond flick, glad neither of you were hurt! Be interesting to hear what made your AV go beserk, they are generally well behaved. :)
 
Thats the good thing about all avs. They are committed to giving up their lives to save ours.
 
Wow that must have been scary! Sounds like it was the Avs fault not your daughter's. She must have a good head on her shoulders to maintain the control she did.
 
yes my daughter really impresses about a lot of things and she has a level head most of the time.... well on second thought she is seventeen.....she thinks she nows more than and her mother and I put together...... that probably makes her twice as stupid.....now i am really confused.....i don't know what i think now ;D ;D


 
I bet the chicago traffic would have been more harsh on the av. Its a jungle there
 
Sorry to hear about the Av...and the turn of events that transpired.....glad everyone was ok....the Av could always be fixed and on the road again in no time.... :B:
 
Hyper

I was on vacation when this was posted and never ran across the story.

I have to say WOW... I am glad your daughter and you are OK and I was glad to read the AV is out of the shop and running good.

The AV isn't a Timex, but it still takes a licking :)
 
Congratulations.
You and your daughter win The Darwin Award for the week.
However for some reason, known only to God, you and your offspring beat the natural selection process.
Therefore you are disqualified.
In your next attempt please try not to endager other members of the species.
 
yulhateme said:
Congratulations.
You and your daughter win The Darwin Award for the week.
However for some reason, known only to God, you and your offspring beat the natural selection process.
Therefore you are disqualified.
In your next attempt please try not to endager other members of the species.

Au Contrere, It seems that she handled the emergency with aplomb and skill. The Darwin Awards are aimed at folks who do incredibly stupid things.

Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it in really stupid ways."

I would refer you to http://www.darwinawards.com/ or if you prefer German Die Oscars f?r die d?mmste Methode aus dem Leben zu scheiden. Sehr sehenswert :rolleyes:
 
Hey gandolph,

I think that was just some passerby trying to stir up trouble.If you'll notice he has only 1 post.

BG! 1 Post guy :rolleyes:
 
I would like to point out the fact that the Av did not roll over. I realize the crash test rating measures only probability, but if it doesn't roll sliding sideways, that's a pretty good test!
 
HMMMMM...

If your daughter really had a RUN-AWAY, she could have turned off the key...

Notice to Driver's Ed Instructors. Teach your students to turn off the key if their vehicle is WOT without their foot on the gas!

Somehow, I don't think the AV is like an Audi 5000!
 
yulhateme - well you now have 3 post..... we look forward to your 4th post being more constructive :)
 
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