asutherland
VA7 HDT
Hey everyone,
I know I haven't been on here much lately. I wanted to give an update as well as a build thread of sorts.
End-game spoiler pic...
The Story: A few of you may know my HDJ81 "The Fat Lady" that I imported from Japan-land almost 10 years ago. Well, the Fat Lady has sang. Much to my surprise, not on some crazy overland adventure, not on some sketch 4x4 trail or some buggy trail in Sooke...
Early last January, just outside of my town here in BC, I took my family out for tobogganing and a campfire/hot dog roast. On the way back into town, we had an accident. Thank God (or whomever you thank) that no one was injured. I have 3 little girls, at the time the youngest was only 8 months old. We came around a corner on a well-plowed road. We had dedicated winter tires on, and were only doing about 40-45km/hour, which I didn't feel was too fast for the conditions. I was wrong.
As we swung around the corner, the right two tires fell down a few inches into a plowed-over shoulder. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically where the plow levels the road OVER the edge of the actual road, giving the illusion of road being when it's NOT. I made the mistake of trying to pull OUT of it, I should have just driven INTO it and ditched the truck. As the two right tires fell in, it grabbed, and swung us sideways down the road, up on 2 tires where we hung almost comically, (no one incl. me thought it was funny though) and PLOP over onto the side.
Had we been going faster, I have no doubt we would have rolled. It was almost graceful. But having my 3 little girls in the back, hanging from their car seats, screaming - it was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced. My friend following in his tacoma was headed right for the cruiser's exposed belly - ready to t-bone us - but luckily he ditched it and did not hit us. An instant later he was on top of my driver's door, helping us out. I've never escaped out the top of a vehicle on it's side - it was actually a lot harder than I figured.
Once everyone was out, and checked over, we called my neighbours, who conveniently are also ALS Paramedics, out to pick up my wife and the girls and take them home. A couple kind red-necks with large Ford trucks happened behind us moments after, and helped winch the truck back onto it's tires.
I was happy I had the mind as the truck tipped to kill the ignition. I didn't have any doubts of it's ability to drive, however, I was concerned with ATF loss, and since we were so close to town and my wife has BCAA, we simply called a tow truck and had it dolly'd back to my house.
The next few days were 100% family days. Later in the week, my friend came over, we checked over everything we could, and turned her over. She started right up like nothing had even happened. The damage however cosmetic was significant, the flat rack had damaged the entire left side of the roofline, and no panel on the left was straight. After further inspection, other things were wrong.. the inside of the wheel well was all cracked up, the windshield had popped out, the doors on the left had all moved/damaged, and the ENTIRE ROOF-LINE had "shifted" slightly over.
I know I haven't been on here much lately. I wanted to give an update as well as a build thread of sorts.
End-game spoiler pic...
The Story: A few of you may know my HDJ81 "The Fat Lady" that I imported from Japan-land almost 10 years ago. Well, the Fat Lady has sang. Much to my surprise, not on some crazy overland adventure, not on some sketch 4x4 trail or some buggy trail in Sooke...
Early last January, just outside of my town here in BC, I took my family out for tobogganing and a campfire/hot dog roast. On the way back into town, we had an accident. Thank God (or whomever you thank) that no one was injured. I have 3 little girls, at the time the youngest was only 8 months old. We came around a corner on a well-plowed road. We had dedicated winter tires on, and were only doing about 40-45km/hour, which I didn't feel was too fast for the conditions. I was wrong.
As we swung around the corner, the right two tires fell down a few inches into a plowed-over shoulder. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically where the plow levels the road OVER the edge of the actual road, giving the illusion of road being when it's NOT. I made the mistake of trying to pull OUT of it, I should have just driven INTO it and ditched the truck. As the two right tires fell in, it grabbed, and swung us sideways down the road, up on 2 tires where we hung almost comically, (no one incl. me thought it was funny though) and PLOP over onto the side.
Had we been going faster, I have no doubt we would have rolled. It was almost graceful. But having my 3 little girls in the back, hanging from their car seats, screaming - it was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced. My friend following in his tacoma was headed right for the cruiser's exposed belly - ready to t-bone us - but luckily he ditched it and did not hit us. An instant later he was on top of my driver's door, helping us out. I've never escaped out the top of a vehicle on it's side - it was actually a lot harder than I figured.
Once everyone was out, and checked over, we called my neighbours, who conveniently are also ALS Paramedics, out to pick up my wife and the girls and take them home. A couple kind red-necks with large Ford trucks happened behind us moments after, and helped winch the truck back onto it's tires.
I was happy I had the mind as the truck tipped to kill the ignition. I didn't have any doubts of it's ability to drive, however, I was concerned with ATF loss, and since we were so close to town and my wife has BCAA, we simply called a tow truck and had it dolly'd back to my house.
The next few days were 100% family days. Later in the week, my friend came over, we checked over everything we could, and turned her over. She started right up like nothing had even happened. The damage however cosmetic was significant, the flat rack had damaged the entire left side of the roofline, and no panel on the left was straight. After further inspection, other things were wrong.. the inside of the wheel well was all cracked up, the windshield had popped out, the doors on the left had all moved/damaged, and the ENTIRE ROOF-LINE had "shifted" slightly over.
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