cloaking device turned on.

[grizz272]

I bought a 2018 F350, ext cab, long box, 4x4, diesel pickup in March. Nobody an see this big truck. It is silver. I have had more people pull out in front on me or turn in front of me in the last 2 months since I bought the truck then in the previous 10 yrs.
Over this last weekend we were driving with friends if I were leading and I turned the followers missed the turn because they did not see me turn even though I had the turn signals. One of them almost backed into the truck because she did not see it.
Any suggestions on what to add to the sides, front, and rear of the truck so people see this truck.

[mkirsch]

Campinghoss@51 wrote:
Reading this post brought back a memory that may help explain this. Years ago while living in the Norfolk Va area I had a old VW fox. Mechanically it was in great shape but outwardly it looked awful. The clear coat was applied over the original paint and it had started peeling off and sometimes coming off in small sheets. It did not have a/c so during warm weather the windows were down. I could merge on all the interstates,especially the downtown tunnel so easily. Folks would actually see me coming and put on brakes so I could get in front. BUT let me drive the same highway on my shiny, big supercab 4x4 and it was horrible merging. I think folks know we are not going to mess up our shiny rigs but when they see a hunk of junk in their mind they think we don't have anything to loose and will merge anyway.

I use the same logic when shipping things via UPS and Fedex. Put it in a beat up box, and it will make it to its destination unscathed.

[grizz272]

gmw photos wrote:

spoon059 wrote:

drsteve wrote:

My experience is that people don't see that either...

I have a buddy that is a retired firefighter. He tells me stories about how drivers "failed to see or yield" to the firetruck complete with lights and sirens on.

I am a retired Firefighter. I know the stories. I drove the big red trucks for years. As far as fire trucks go people would deliberately ignore us because they did not want to stop for us. With my truck people just do not see the darn thing.
As far as defensive drive class I had to have that to drive the big red trucks.
Did you know if you sit the lime green fire trucks out in the sun they will ripen to a nice fire engine RED. Honest, I would not lie.

[deltabravo]

Hella Sharp tone horns are pretty good at scaring off the idiots.

[turbojimmy]

pasusan wrote:
To the OP - we had that problem also, even though our truck is red and white. Our solution was to get an air horn. Strangely that negated the cloaking device immediately. Never once actually had to blow it since we installed it in 2009.

I had to use my air horns just once. They're surprisingly effective at getting people's attention. But in my case they continued doing the stupid thing that almost got them killed. The 'ol Allegro still has some stop in it.

[mowermech]

I, too, have a silver/grey 2500 4X4 truck that people don't see.
They really should see it; it has a huge black front bumper with grill guard and winch, a black stripe around the bottom, black after-market fender flares, a black grill, a 20 inch ham radio antenna in the middle of the cab, and a white fiberglass topper. People will still pull out in front of me, even though the truck is 19 years old!
However, when I drive the same roads at the same time of day in the white ("vanilla") PT Cruiser convertible with the black top, I never have that problem.

[JAC1982]

B.O. Plenty wrote:
A Defensive Driving course will teach you how to deal with and avoid this problem.

B.O.

How does you driving defensively prevent other people from driving distracted/without looking over their shoulder/badly in general?

[Campinghoss]

Reading this post brought back a memory that may help explain this. Years ago while living in the Norfolk Va area I had a old VW fox. Mechanically it was in great shape but outwardly it looked awful. The clear coat was applied over the original paint and it had started peeling off and sometimes coming off in small sheets. It did not have a/c so during warm weather the windows were down. I could merge on all the interstates,especially the downtown tunnel so easily. Folks would actually see me coming and put on brakes so I could get in front. BUT let me drive the same highway on my shiny, big supercab 4x4 and it was horrible merging. I think folks know we are not going to mess up our shiny rigs but when they see a hunk of junk in their mind they think we don't have anything to loose and will merge anyway.

[pasusan]

spoon059 wrote:

drsteve wrote:

My experience is that people don't see that either...

Good one... :B



To the OP - we had that problem also, even though our truck is red and white. Our solution was to get an air horn. Strangely that negated the cloaking device immediately. Never once actually had to blow it since we installed it in 2009.

[B_O__Plenty]

A Defensive Driving course will teach you how to deal with and avoid this problem.

B.O.

[gmw_photos]

spoon059 wrote:

drsteve wrote:

My experience is that people don't see that either...

I have a buddy that is a retired firefighter. He tells me stories about how drivers "failed to see or yield" to the firetruck complete with lights and sirens on.

[FishOnOne]

DRL is a good recommendation.

Also it never fails when you get a new truck it seams like everyone want's to run into you.

[grizz272]

I drive with all the lights on. My 5 yr old Grandson told me I should have 10 layers of the red and white reflective tape on my truck. I am beginning to think he was right. I am thinking about some type of striping along the sides and around the back just not sure what color.

[JAC1982]

I just think drivers pay less attention when the weather warms up. I've always had a long work commute so that is just based on my own observations.

I will say, when I drive our Fusion commuter car, I have a lot more people seem to not see me than with my Explorer. But maybe that's because my Explorer gets mistaken for a police vehicle sometimes. Both vehicles are the Magnetic dark gray color.

[rexlion]

This won't help the OP's situation, but I think it might be a good time to remind everyone that we all have a 'blind spot' in our normal field of vision. Thus it is absolutely important for us all to look twice in each direction before pulling out. Failure to do this probably is what killed my mother a few years ago when she turned left in front of a pickup going 50 mph and got T-boned. I consciously try to move my eyes up and down somewhat, too, to get past the 'blind spot' problem. I think more and more drivers let themselves get in a hurry and only glance once each way.