Goodbye to our Beast- a 1973 Sportscoach
It was our retirement trip. Planned 6 months duration, We'd been out 6 weeks. Driving along in New Brunswick, a lovely morning, almost no traffic on a 2 lane highway, approaching Bathurst, NB. W...
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Yes, that was our accident. The Sportscoach has a ladder frame, with a beefy I-beam left to right, just ahead of the engine. Two short I-beam studs project forward and the steel bumper is mounted on them. The accident ripped off the bumper and the two forward projecting stud I-beams. The battery, power steering, master brake cylinder and other steering components were mounted on the steel that was ripped off. Fortunately, we were going slowly uphill, and braking, plus foot off the gas got us pretty slow by the time of impact.
All 3 vehicles were totalled, but we bought back the Jeep toad and had it repaired to get us home. The Jeep transmission was damaged when stuff hit the shift lever, but after replacing it, we were left with just a lot of dents..... Not too bad for a 4WD toad..... Adds character. Much of the final impact energy for the toad was taken up by the tow hitch (1/2" steel), which turned into a pretzel, and by my motorcycle racks, which also pretzeled. Even the 2" ball tow hitch was bent, and that's 3/4" steel.
All 3 vehicles were totalled, but we bought back the Jeep toad and had it repaired to get us home. The Jeep transmission was damaged when stuff hit the shift lever, but after replacing it, we were left with just a lot of dents..... Not too bad for a 4WD toad..... Adds character. Much of the final impact energy for the toad was taken up by the tow hitch (1/2" steel), which turned into a pretzel, and by my motorcycle racks, which also pretzeled. Even the 2" ball tow hitch was bent, and that's 3/4" steel.
