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egh33's avatar
egh33
Explorer
May 18, 2014

Debris on road way

Here is a little story.
We were traveling in the Motor Home towing a Jeep on I-35 south, north of Waco, Tx. I seen this piece of plastic on the road and I was running about 60-65 and could not move over into the left lane due to heavy traffic, so I just straddled the plastic and kept going. I looked in the rear view mirror and did not see the plastic. So I thought maybe it blew up on the front of the Jeep. But when we got to College Station, Our grand son said he thought my spare tire cover had blown off the Jeep and was dragging the ground.

So I went to check and it was that plastic, it had wound it's self around the front differential of the Jeep and it was not just a piece of Plastic, but a big plastic sack of chicken guts. I mean it was a mess.
Took me about 2 hours to cut it off there. I have chicken grease covering the complete undercarriage up all over the engine. I tried a pressure washer, no help, so I guess I need to find a place to get it steam cleaned. So the next time you see some thing in the road way think twice before running over it, I know I will.

36 Replies

  • Outside Bridgeville, PA I hit a piece of steel that had come loose from a bridge and it put a hole in my main fuel tank. A little sooner and it would have come thru the floorboard and me.

    So, a little chicken stuff is nothing.
  • Yep. Burn off the chicken, and smack a deer. That's the Texas way.
  • Go for a drive through the lovely TX countryside. The grease on the engine will burn off soon. As for the rest of it - think of it as a free lube job ;)
  • FWIW - consider yourself lucky!!
    I am on the freeway in Houston (regarded as the city with the worst drivers) at speed with the traffic in the middle lane (my usual lane to avoid the fast driver to my left and non-looking merging drivers on the right).
    Suddenly, the small car I was following made an abrupt shift to the right - cutting off the car that was alongside of me.

    It was then that I saw the 2 foot long piece of 6 inch 'C' channel iron!! I had no way to miss the thing - there was other traffic on both sides, moving at about 55!! Yep, it ruptured my right front tire. Fortunately, I had installed a 'Steer-safe' and eaily maintained control until I could move to the right and then to the shoulder. I carry a mounted spare (22.5 - I cannot lift it!!) but the Good Sam guy easily removed the blown tire and mounted my spare. I asked him about obtaining a replacement and he advised there was a good dealer about 3 exits further along - where I replaced the spare. Repair to the compartment behind the tire was actually a rebuild of it and the steel bent the steps so bad (they were in the retracted position) they too had to be replaced.
  • You did the right thing by not trying to avoid the debris when it would have endangered someone else. I just hope your jeep does not smell like a KFC on wheels:)