Some of you know I just spent the last few days getting my Teraflex 3" lift on my jeep. I went out this afternoon and finished dialing in the suspension. I got the caster spot on, the axles centered, and the steering wheel centered. I get everything perfect and ran it around the block. It drove great. So I decided to drive it up out on the main roads and make sure everything was working correctly at speed.
Here is what she looked like before the accident.
I was going 50 mph on a 4 lane road in the right hand lane. There was a minivan in the left lane driving next to me. The chick wasn’t paying attention. There were a line of cars stopped in front of her. She was going the same speed I was, 50. She slammed on her brakes maybe 10 feet before she was going to hit the car in front of her. She knew there was no way she was going to stop so instead of rear ending that car she swerved and slammed into the side of me. She knocked me over the curb and completely off the road into the grass and I barely missed a sign.
I couldn’t believe it. I had just spent so much time and money working on this thing. I was so angry I didn’t get out of the jeep because I didn’t think I was going to be able to control myself. I was yelling some choice words so the chick didn’t dare come over. After about a minute I regained my composure and climbed out and asked if she was OK. She was fine.
Her bumper was off, her grill was gone, her right side headlight was hanging, all the trim was gone off the right side of her van, her passenger door was dented in, the door handle was hanging out and the door wouldn’t open. There was a puddle of oil under the van.
Here it is. She had put the headlight assembly back up and tried to put the bumper back up (hopeless it was only held on by 1 clip).
I was afraid to go look at my Jeep. I walked back around to the drivers side and just sat and stared at it. There was almost no damage. I kept looking thinking I just missing it. I was just dumbfounded. My big wheels and tires took 99% of the impact.
The jeep handled awesome. I never even felt the curb and the panic stop in the grass from 50 MPH was no problem.
The cops showed up and she got a ticket.
The left front wheel got a dent in two places and the center cap was removed. The tirel got scuffed up and some small cuts on the sidewall.
Rear left tire scuffed up and there is a small ding on the wheel.
A couple small scratches on the door
Some scratches on the front bumper
Some scuffs on the rear bumper