16 year old son rolled his truck

[Bird]

Yep, it seems nearly all of us did some foolish things when we were teenagers and we hope our kids and grandkids won't do the same, but they usually do. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif I've never rolled one, but I did hit a utility pole almost dead center with the hood ornament on my 18th birthday.

This morning we had a very slight drizzle and 24 degrees. Most of the roads were OK, but just an occasional slick spot. We were on a major city street; 3 lanes each way; 40 mph speed limit, and I was driving about 35 mph when a teenager in a crew cab Nissan Titan went sailing by us. And about 2 miles farther on, we caught up with him. He was cross ways in the median against a tree; just literally ripped the outer panels off both doors on the driver's side. Fortunately, he didn't seem to be injured but another expensive lesson.

 

[RobertN]

Glad to hear he is ok; that is scary stuff!

I am glad that when I was young, me and a couple buddies used to mess around on wet roads. There was hardly anyone around here then. I could take my Roadrunner and fishtail it totally side to side and hold it there, or just keep wagging it for long distances. It would do it on dry pavement too, but was not good on tires /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I have been in a few scenarios over the years where things happened, my fault or not, and was able to control the vehicle. If I had not messed around years back, I do not think I would have known how to control sudden slides and stuff.

That truck don't look too bad. As someone else mentioned, pound that roof out, put a windshield in, and run it., Would be a great truck around the property. It may take a smidgen of duct tape and silicon to seal the windshield, but it could work. I see it occasionally around here. Folks will tip one on the Rubicon, pound the thing out, and run it. Not pretty, but /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Bird]

Robert, during my last year and a half in high school, there were two guys in the school who had the reputation of being wild stunt drivers. The other one was in the car with me the night I hit the utiliity pole trying to get that Chevy up on two wheels. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

So, yes, my stunt driving experiences served me well in high speed chases and emergency runs as a police officer, and in avoiding a number of other problems over the years, but the fact that we survived to grow up and never hurt or damaged anyone else or anyone else's property or got caught was probably more a matter of luck than anything else.

I've always thought that every area should have a good big off road facility so that youngsters, as well as a lot of older drivers, could experiment, practice, and get it out of their system without doing it on the streets. I'm afraid not too many people want tax money spent for something like that, but I wonder if insurance companies wouldn't save money in the long run if they provided such facilities.

 

[Egon]

Bird:

"Such a facility"
should be included in everyones driver training.

When young most of my driving was on gravel roads which can be a little forgiving compared to pavement. In the winter we also used to find frozen over sloughs to practice on.

Was that the chev you got practice on replacing a real axle? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bird]

Nope, Egon, the broken rear axle was on my first car, a '46 Chevy. It was a '52 Chevy that kissed the utility pole. Of course I had to fix both of them myself. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Just had to replace everything in front of the water pump on the '52.

 

[RobertN]

This area was much more rural back then, with less stuff to bump in to. And, for teens, we were amazingly choosy about where we goofed around, although that is never a gaurentee /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

For racing and going fast, the dragstrip in Sacramento has been open for a long time. For years now, they have had "fun" drags every wednesday night. It's like $6 to get in, and another $6 if you want to run your vehicle(you can run all evening long) on the strip. They have a basic safety inspection, and then you line up to run. We used to go run out there. You can bring anything too, as long as it meets basic safety requirements. I could even take my Kubota out there /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I've seen mini-bikes out there, that took like a minute ET /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I think too, everyone should go out on a skid pad.

There's no place here on the streets that you can open anything up. There is so many more cars and people; on a couple open sections of road where we used to open it up a bit, you're lucky to even make the speed limit these days.

 

[Bird]

It's about the same here, Robert. I first started learning to drive on dirt and gravel roads. And the two lane asphalt farm-to-market country road where we did a lot of drag racing when I was a teenager is now a six lane major city thoroughfare. And we do have one dragstrip in the area where anyone can run on weekends, but I don't know what it costs since I haven't been there since I was a teenager. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[shepherd]

such a facility does exist(sp?) if you live on a large enough farm which sadly many ppl don't so what can you do

 

[RedRocker]

It's a wonder any of us live through raising teenagers. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Glad he's OK.

 

[SnoFalls]

teens who wanna "drive hard" should be introduced to autocross solo-II events. You can drive *anything* ... learn to really drive, but do it in a safe manner. http://www.autocross.com/

I think the best autocross is bone stocks ... that's some true tire squealin fun!