Glad I bought Fiberglass, not Aluminum siding

[rexlion]

Some nut pulled onto the expressway right in front of me, and I had to swerve to miss him (or her). Unfortunately, as a result my trailer had a small altercation with the pickup that was coming up on my left side.

The pickup was dented behind the door and in the box. It had to be at least $1000 in damage, perhaps two or three times that.

I got my trailer fixed today at Bell's Camper Sales, where I bought it, for less than $80. Makes me feel pretty good about the toughness of a trailer's fiberglass gelcoat siding.

Before:


After:


Can you imagine how badly dented (perhaps even punctured) my TT might have been if it had aluminum siding?

[Mike_Up]

deleted

[DiskDoctr]

Did it go something like this?

Steering wheel

:B

[goducks10]

From all my MC riding years I have gotten into the habit of moving over to the left or center lane when approaching on ramps. Trouble with being in the right lane is what happened to the OP, you get in a jamb. When riding MC's I always moved over to the left or center lane when approaching on ramps because being in the right lane leaves you venerable to the cars entering the freeway as well as the car next to you in the center/left lane that suddenly remembers that the off ramp you're approaching is the one they need. Most freeway on ramps are just past the off ramp. In the Op's case it sounds like he didn't have a choice, and fortunately things didn't get worse.

[DiskDoctr]

rexlion wrote:
Some nut pulled onto the expressway right in front of me, and I had to swerve to miss him (or her). Unfortunately, as a result my trailer had a small altercation with the pickup that was coming up on my left side.

The pickup was dented behind the door and in the box. It had to be at least $1000 in damage, perhaps two or three times that.

I got my trailer fixed today at Bell's Camper Sales, where I bought it, for less than $80.

Well, if you gotta have (and avoid a possibly worse) an accident, that small rub is the way to go 😉

Glad no one was hurt and your damage was minimal!

[2012Coleman]

fla-gypsy wrote:

2012Coleman wrote:
People merging on to the expressway have the right of way - unless they have a yield sign. However, they are supposed to speed up and match the speed of the vechiles they are merging with. This is the reason is called a on-ramp. If I'm in the right lane comming up to an on-ramp and see that the merging traffic is not gaining speed, I and others have no choice that to either slow down or get into the next lane to the left. So the OP is correct - if he had hit this person, it would have been his fault, even though the idiot didn't know how to correctly merge on to aab expressway. Glad yo got it fixed.

I have never seen an on ramp to any expressway system that didn't have a yield sign. I hold my ground if I cannot move over and the idiot in the on ramp will have to hope for the best when my 8 tons of rolling stock hits him if he does something stupid like not yielding!

My drivers training was in another state, and I explicitly remember this being the training given because of a particular circumstance. It never occurred to me that in Florida it may be different, and even though I do not see Yield signs on the multiple on-ramps I use and observe in my daily commute, I checked.


Entering and Leaving Expressways
Vehicles can enter and leave expressways only at certain points. Because expressway traffic is usually moving at or close to the maximum speed allowed, you need to know how to enter and exit safely.

All expressway entrances have three basic parts: an entrance ramp, an acceleration lane, and a merging area. Follow these guidelines to enter an expressway safely:

The following is from StateofFlorida.com

On the entrance ramp, begin checking for an opening in traffic. Signal for your turn.

As the ramp straightens into the acceleration lane, speed up. Try to adjust your speed so that you can move into the traffic when you reach the end of the acceleration lane.

Merge into traffic when you can do so safely. You must yield right-of-way to traffic on the expressway. You cannot always count on other drivers moving over to give you room to enter, but do not stop on an acceleration lane unless traffic is too heavy and there is no space for you to enter safely.

So it appears that I am incorrect and will adjust accordingly.

[fla-gypsy]

2012Coleman wrote:
People merging on to the expressway have the right of way - unless they have a yeild sign. However, they are supposed to speed up and match the speed of the vechiles they are merging with. This is the reason is called a on-ramp. If I'm in the right lane comming up to an on-ramp and see that the merging traffic is not gaining speed, I and others have no choice that to either slow down or get into the next lane to the left. So the OP is correct - if he had hit this person, it would have been his fault, even though the idiot didn't know how to correctly merge on to aab expressway. Glad yo got it fixed.

I have never seen an on ramp to any expressway system that didn't have a yield sign. I hold my ground if I cannot move over and the idiot in the on ramp will have to hope for the best when my 8 tons of rolling stock hits him if he does something stupid like not yielding!

[2012Coleman]

People merging on to the expressway have the right of way - unless they have a yeild sign. However, they are supposed to speed up and match the speed of the vechiles they are merging with. This is the reason is called a on-ramp. If I'm in the right lane comming up to an on-ramp and see that the merging traffic is not gaining speed, I and others have no choice that to either slow down or get into the next lane to the left. So the OP is correct - if he had hit this person, it would have been his fault, even though the idiot didn't know how to correctly merge on to aab expressway. Glad yo got it fixed.

[rexlion]

I had my eyes on the cars coming off that cloverleaf, so I wasn't at all sure if the pickup had caught up to me yet. This car didn't stay in the merge lane, it just wandered right over the line 2-3 feet and for all I knew was going to keep moving over. If I'd stayed in my lane I would have hit him for sure. Faced with that, I jerked it over enough to miss him. That put me over the centerline 2-3 feet myself.

If I'd stayed put, hit him and gotten bounced to the left by the collision, then hit the pickup besides, I would have been like a pinball in an arcade game... very hard to maintain control.

At least I was not ticketed by the police trooper. But yes, my insurance probably will have to fix that pickup. He and his insurance have put in the claim against mine.

I just didn't want to risk life and limb to collect evidence of the car driver's at-fault status.

You guys may be right, the points of impact being primarily on the access hatches might have spared even thin aluminum. Not sure. But after seeing what it did to sheet steel on the pickup, I still feel pretty good about my TT.

[fireman41]

Good thing no one got hurt.
But if you would have hit that truck a bit harder you might have broke the trailer wall and like another poster pointed out the best way to fix the damage would be to replace the whole wall.
Tho you do get some extra credit points for not over reacting after hitting the other person and losing control of everything.

[Mike_Up]

powderman426 wrote:
If given a choice between someone cutting me off and an innocent other driver, the guy cutting me off should brace for impact.

Exactly, the merging driver was at fault but now it's your fault for hitting some other driver. You now are responsible. I never move when there's other vehicles around. It would be my fault for leaving my lane and hitting another vehicle. I'll let the merging driver hit me and have it be his fault and his liability.

[jerem0621]

Mike Up, I agree with your assessment. For me personally, it will be stick and tin trailers. I have zero interest in Filon sided trailers. Right now I have to repair some wood work in my trailer. It's going to cost me about $50-100.00 in materials and a weekend here at the house. I'd hate to see what it would cost if it were a Filon trailer.

In our local campground about 50% of the fiberglass sided trailer have massive delamination... Especially on the front and back caps. These trailers are in the 5-15 year old range.

Everyone has choices to make, fiberglass sided trailers look amazingly beautiful, but a tin walled trailer will be in my driveway for the foreseeable future.

Thanks

Jeremiah

[Mike_Up]

I agree with the others, I don't see any contact with the gel coat sandwiched wall. Good thing because you'd be getting a new wall if it had.

That's why I went stick and tin because after being at the StarCraft factory and seeing an entire wall replaced for $8000 ($4000 wall, $4000 labor) after it was hit in an accident. I wouldn't want to deal with that headache. Sure it could had been fixed half @ss but it was new and the repairman at the factory said this was the only way to correctly fix damaged laminated walls, 'replacement'. He said if it were stick and tin, most it would be would be a grand.

But you do have protection from hail damage. I wanted protection from delamination that I see so much.

Good luck with it and I'm happy to see only access doors were damaged, and not your body.

Stay safe.

[6_7_tow_rig]

I don't see where it even touched the camper other than the access panels. I love my smooth sides but in this case I don't see what it mattered unless the pics just aren't showing up good

[powderman426]

Rexlion: Be sure to check back with me in about 17 years. Lol.

They both should hold up over the long haul. If given a choice between someone cutting me off and an innocent other driver, the guy cutting me off should brace for impact. I'm happy to see that it didn't amount to much.