Ok, I'll start . . .While traveling on I-80 on the south side of Chicago yesterday, we became part of a huge traffic slowdown. We made about 7 miles in an hour.Turns out two semi-trucks were involved in a accident ahead of us.As we passed the accident site, traffic speeded up again, and we ended up behind one of the wreckers removing a semi from the accident site.Almost as soon as we were up to speed, a large part of the semi fell off the wrecker and onto the road. There was no time to get out of the way and it banged into the bottom of our Class A.Immediately after we were hit, our Newmar started driving heavily and we thought we had a flat tire.So I pulled over on I-80 (no mean task) and looked underneath -- tires fine, but a bracket was hanging down between the rear wheels.We started off again, but driving got even worse so we pulled off the freeway into a K-Mart parking lot.The rear end of the motorhome was WAY down. Bad mojo.Called CoachNet and in an hour road service arrived. The problem? A bolt sheared off on the rear air suspension ride height adjustor which caused the rear air bags to deflate.He fixed it in less the 30 minutes for about $120. Whew!Our new rule -- give major cities major clearance. We saw more******(kid's bike, sofa, . . .) near or on the roadway. It could have been much much worse.What's you story?

$120 isn't bad so it probably didn't exceed your deductible, but this would have been covered by your insurance had the damage been worse. And your insurance would have gone after the tow company insurance to pay for it since the piece fell from their truck. It would not be too difficult to identify the tow truck. You could actually go straight to them and make a claim to get your $120 back, but it may not be worth the effort.

Bird flew out of the bushes in the center divider and hit the window in our overhead camper. Broke the window, luckily no bird parts inside.Another trip out of the corner of my eye, I saw the car next to us hit a piece of metal, it flew up and hit the truck just in front of the wheel well. Put a 4 inch long dent in the fender.Two years ago a Toyota Tercel cut across in front of my MDT. My front bumper nearly ripped the driver door off of it's hinges. That was the biggest piece of debris I've ever hit...pushed it for 6 feet before I could stop.

2011 Tulsa, OK. hunter in front of us had his ATV and deer tree stand in his pickup not tied down. Lost the deer stand and traffic on both sides of my MH with nowhere to go and hit the stand with passenger side front end. Stand flattened on impact and turned the mud guard into a plow bending it into a "V". $11,000.00 damage to front cap but the guy stopped after he tried to flee and was insured. We had the motorhome 1 and 1/2 weeks at that time.

Traveling west to Ft. Davis from Dallas and just exited I-10 west of Pecos onto a State hiway south. Was following a farm pickup when I noticed a State Trooper doing a flip-flop behind me, red lights flashing. I figured we was after the pickup, but no, he pulled in behind me. I stopped and we chatted. Turns out I was speeding about 4-5 MPH over the posted limit. I mentioned that I was just following the pickup, and he looked up just in time to see the pickup disappear down the road. I got off with a warning, but while we were stopped another north bound pickup went whizzing by hauling a load of gravel on an uncovered flat bed trailer spraying rocks all over Hell's Half Acre. One landed on my windshield creating a nice big crack which cost me a couple hundred dollars to have replaced.Moral of my story, there is a Law West of the Pecos!

Traveling on a "scenic byway" in CO, a narrow curvy road with grades was getting a newly painted centerline. The road crew had large marker cones making the lane pretty darn skinny. Well, someone before me hit one of them and it was now in my lane - no where to go but over it - I was going slow anyway, irritating the guy tailgating behind me :( - the cone spit out the back of my rv - right into the tailgating pickup - no harm to rv or to tailgater - but he did back off a bit after that :)

Road-Debris-Hit-My-RV Stories | Good Sam Community

11 Replies

Groover
Explorer II
Aug 22, 2013
I have not hit much but many years ago I was going through a construction zone in my car approaching Atlanta and a wheel cover came off on a rough spot. It went over the concrete divider and was flying like a frisbie the last time I saw it and was going into 5 lanes of traffic coming the other way. There was nothing I could do but I have always wondered what kind of stories the northbound people would tell now.

I had some neighbors towing a fifth wheel heading south on I-65 in a construction zone with both directions squeezed together north of Birmingham when they felt a severe jolt. After the jolt everthing seemed to be fine and there was no shoulder in the construction zone so they continued on until the road widened again. When they got out to inspect the rig they found a small car upside down in their living room. The driver of the car had lost control, hit the divider, flew over it and into the fifth wheel. Everyone was OK but the camping trip had to be called off.
kjburns
Explorer
Aug 22, 2013
Not exactly road debris, but the glass part of our mirror fell out going into Oklahoma City. There was never any damage to the mirror. It just started wobbling and before I could get off the freeway, it flew off and slapped the side of the coach. Later, the cover on the back of the mirror housing fell off too.

Unfortunately, you can't just buy a part for the mirror. You buy the whole thing, which cost me $1077 plus shipping. Replacing it wasn't hard once I figured out how to get at the one connection. The local dealer wanted $1460 for the mirror
Mr_Mark1
Explorer
Aug 22, 2013
Following a semi truck on the I-5 north of Los Angeles I realized the truck in front of me ran over a truck mud flap laying in the road. It became airborne and started rolling like a square donut. I couldn't avoid it but tried to pull into the left (center) lane.

The square rolling donut hit my front passenger side bumper then slipped under the front wheel where it slapped the first cargo door. It put a huge rubber mark on the bumper and a scratch on the cargo door. I was able to get the rubber marks of off of the front bumper and had some touch-up made mixed up for the two 3 inch scratches along the edge of the cargo door. The damage came from the metal piece that was at the bottom edge of the rolling square donut.

Other than that, I've missed a lot of stuff in the roadway. You just never know what is coming up next.

MM.
J-Rooster
Explorer
Aug 22, 2013
I was heading South one year on Interstate #5, M.P. #49, Castle Rock, Washington State I went by the southbound on ramp it was at night and very dark with a hard rain. A ambulance was behind me with all his lights on so I pulled over to let him pass. As I pulled over the fog line I hit a tire casing from a semi. The casing flew up and put a big dent with a black tire mark on my rear storage cabinet door.
ferndaleflyer
Explorer III
Aug 21, 2013
Couple of years back I was rounding a turn at 55--60mph with my 30ft race car trailer in tow and saw a tree starting to fall across the road in front of me. Couldn't stop. I cleaned the ditch on the wrong side of the road and ran through the branches at the top of the tree... Had tree leaves and small branches in the mirrors and under the DP but no significant damage-----other than cleaning out my pants!
Devonm2012
Explorer
Aug 21, 2013
Our 2012 Newmar Dutch Star was two months old when we were crossing on I-90. While getting off the freeway a truck passed us on the left side, pulling a large trailer. Both were full of red rock, uncovered, with 50 mph cross winds. The entire driver side was plastered with rock and suffered massive rock chips. Over $10,000 to paint the driver side on a brand new coach. I passed the truck two miles before our exit. Had I just sat behind him, this never would have happened, and we were in no hurry. Life just sucks at times!
klm
Explorer
Aug 21, 2013
Traveling on a "scenic byway" in CO, a narrow curvy road with grades was getting a newly painted centerline. The road crew had large marker cones making the lane pretty darn skinny. Well, someone before me hit one of them and it was now in my lane - no where to go but over it - I was going slow anyway, irritating the guy tailgating behind me :( - the cone spit out the back of my rv - right into the tailgating pickup - no harm to rv or to tailgater - but he did back off a bit after that :)
bob_nestor
Explorer III
Aug 21, 2013
Traveling west to Ft. Davis from Dallas and just exited I-10 west of Pecos onto a State hiway south. Was following a farm pickup when I noticed a State Trooper doing a flip-flop behind me, red lights flashing. I figured we was after the pickup, but no, he pulled in behind me. I stopped and we chatted. Turns out I was speeding about 4-5 MPH over the posted limit. I mentioned that I was just following the pickup, and he looked up just in time to see the pickup disappear down the road. I got off with a warning, but while we were stopped another north bound pickup went whizzing by hauling a load of gravel on an uncovered flat bed trailer spraying rocks all over Hell's Half Acre. One landed on my windshield creating a nice big crack which cost me a couple hundred dollars to have replaced.

Moral of my story, there is a Law West of the Pecos!
Dave_T_
Explorer
Aug 21, 2013
2011 Tulsa, OK. hunter in front of us had his ATV and deer tree stand in his pickup not tied down. Lost the deer stand and traffic on both sides of my MH with nowhere to go and hit the stand with passenger side front end. Stand flattened on impact and turned the mud guard into a plow bending it into a "V". $11,000.00 damage to front cap but the guy stopped after he tried to flee and was insured. We had the motorhome 1 and 1/2 weeks at that time.
the_bear_II
Explorer
Aug 21, 2013
Bird flew out of the bushes in the center divider and hit the window in our overhead camper. Broke the window, luckily no bird parts inside.

Another trip out of the corner of my eye, I saw the car next to us hit a piece of metal, it flew up and hit the truck just in front of the wheel well. Put a 4 inch long dent in the fender.

Two years ago a Toyota Tercel cut across in front of my MDT. My front bumper nearly ripped the driver door off of it's hinges. That was the biggest piece of debris I've ever hit...pushed it for 6 feet before I could stop.

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Road-Debris-Hit-My-RV Stories

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