It's toast

Stick a fork in it, it's done.

Let's all remove our hats and have a moment of silence for the Chevy Silverado 2500 HD. My Son totaled his the other night and to show the build quality, he walked away from it. He's got tossed around, beat and banged a bit and he's sore, but he's ok.

He lives in Central Illinois and it was spitting snow and sleet the other night on his way to work. Going around a curve the rear broke loose and he managed to sort of get it back, but went off the road, hit a 4 ft ditch and hit hard enough to bounce up through the ditch and ended up in a corn field. Suspension, upper and lower control arms and sway bar are still there.....sort of.... the front end has a definite upward tilt, so I'm pretty sure it bent the frame, one of the CV axles are broke off inside the transfer case, the right front tire is still attached to the truck by all the dangling parts but it's tucked up under the truck, so God knows what else is wrong and I can see all that just from the pics he sent.

The good news...

He's ok. Yeah, it was a nice truck. As long as my Son is ok, I don't give a single damn about the truck.

The night he wrecked was his last night before he started his 2 week vacation, so he has time to find another one. He has a little putt putt car to get around so he still has wheels.


I'm going up in the morning and get to go look at new trucks !!

Yes I just got a new one last year, but.....I get to shopping for new trucks ! .....and this time I don't have to pay for it !!!!!

a reply to: DAVID64

Modern cars come with their challenges and headache like the cost of maintenance for features we maybe didn’t even ask for.

But there is a common misconception that newer vehicles “aren’t made like they used to be”. That crumpling they do absorbs a lot of the energy so we don’t have to.

Happy to hear your son is OK. Insurance usually takes care of the things that can be replaced 👍

a reply to: DAVID64

Modern cars come with their challenges and headache like the cost of maintenance for features we maybe didn’t even ask for.

But there is a common misconception that newer vehicles “aren’t made like they used to be”. That crumpling they do absorbs a lot of the energy so we don’t have to.

Happy to hear your son is OK. Insurance usually takes care of the things that can be replaced 👍

I hope he had full coverage on the truck if it was a newer truck. I usually keep full coverage on my newer vehicles and have comp on the others so if a deer jumps out or a flying rock from someone's tire or ice hits the windshield, I can collect enough to repair it without any copay. Still have zero deductible on the comp on our car and truck.

The truck I have with the plow is an eighty seven chevy 5/8 ton with thirty three thousand miles on it. I just keep comp on that, if I do get into an accident, the parts are worth quite a bit to others who have that style of truck.

I'm glad your kid didn't get hurt in that accident, a vehicle can be replaced, but a severe injury can make life more difficult for the rest of your life.

a reply to: DAVID64

My neighborhood party store owner has a Tesla Truck...I said "why?"

Happy hunting!

PS Honorable mentions: Ford Raptor....those are really bad...4 wheel back axle!

a reply to: rickymouse

It's a 2005 that he took very good care of. My Wife put it on Facebook about the accident and we've already got people making offers to buy it for parts. It only had liablity on it, so it covers his medical bills but not the truck. It was just too much for insurance. $130 a month for full coverage and that's just ridiculous for a 2005. Hell, my new Tacoma costs that much. I know he's 27 and I'm 60, but damn......

Glad your son is okay!

Talk about crumple zones and kinetic energy absorption...

Back in 2003 I leased a Honda Accord for a job I was working on in MI. About 4 days after I got it I was driving north on I-75 and getting ready to take the ramp to eastbound I-94. Normally it's a high speed ramp, but it was raining that day and traffic was backed up down the ramp. I rolled to a stop. I was in the exit lane.

Next thing I knew...KA-BLAMMO!!!! Some one rear ended me. I didn't see anyone behind me, so I had no idea where he even came from. It's funny the stupid stuff you think when you're in a big wreck. At the time, immediately after impact, I thought to myself...'Gee, i'll bet this bastage just dented my brand new car!' (Heh, yeah, he'd dented it alright!)

It was then I realized my view had changed; I was no longer looking out the windshield at the van in front of me, but rather out of the sunroof at the sky. I went to open the door to get out and couldn't find the door handle where it normally was. This was because the driver's seat was now laying on what was left of the back seat, and my headrest was actually the vertical cushion of the back seat. I pulled myself upright using the steering wheel and grabbed the door latch to open the door. It wouldn't open. I had to crawl out the passenger side door...through the broken window. It was then, once I was out of the car, when I realized the damage.

As I stepped away from the car, I saw the whole back end of my car was completely gone! Just gone! There WAS NO back end anymore. The car just ended at the rear of the front seats (and it was a 4 door). Then I looked at the car which hit me. It was (and I stress "was") a full size Caddilac Seville, and the front end of it was gone. The transmission of his car had come up through the floor, gone through the center console and was sitting in the back seat. I couldn't see the driver because of the airbags, but I'll be honest...I was pretty damn mad so I wasn't much caring about his state of well being at that moment. I was still in shock.

This dude had hit me so hard the driver's seat of my car had broken off. The entire 6 feet of the back of the car was now compressed into about less than 1 foot. I couldn't even see where the wheels were on my car. About five law enforcement agencies responded because it was right on a County line, and all of them concluded he'd never even attempted to brake. He'd hit me at freeway speed (which was 75 mph), and I was at a dead stop.

I walked away without so much as a scratch! That Honda Accord saved my life that day!

I called up the leasing company the next week and told them I wanted another one just exactly like it, same year, same color, same interior! No sense in messing with a good thing! Bought out the lease and kept that car on the road for 300k miles.

a reply to: DAVID64

Day-um!! $130 bucks a month for just one 19 year old vehicle? That's a hose job and a half. Our insurance is too high, but we only pay $360 bucks per month to insure (2) trucks, (3) cars and (4) trailers. We'll be shopping around this year because that's too much. Insurance is such a ripoff!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Who with ? I need to check them out. I've got State Farm and it's getting stupid. I've got my Tacoma on a loan so I have to carry full coverage.


The thing that gets me is my Son has a clean driving record. No tickets, no accidents and they STILL try to gouge him.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: DAVID64

Day-um!! $130 bucks a month for just one 19 year old vehicle? That's a hose job and a half. Our insurance is too high, but we only pay $360 bucks per month to insure (2) trucks, (3) cars and (4) trailers. We'll be shopping around this year because that's too much. Insurance is such a ripoff!

Hard to disagree 😂

But also, location matters. If I remember correctly you are in a very rural area and that will definitely help.
State also matters. Some states like Illinois and California are higher cost of living so everything is more expensive.

My daughter is 22 and she drives a 2017 ford edge. We pay $125 a month for her insurance as well. No tickets, no wrecks..

They say newer cars are safer than old cars - they have to be because newer drivers don't pay attention as much as the old drivers used to. These current drivers are too busy texting or talking on their cell-phones or other distractions and don't devote the required attention needed for driving safely and correctly. Hence, more wrecks. They should design better drivers. I swear, everytime I'm driving somewhere, half the cars I pass are being driven by somebody using a cell-phone. I value my life much more than that, so I concentrate on driving safely. It's my life I'm concerned about after all. Everybody should have the same concerns. Not giving your full attention to your driving could result in this:



I took this picture on August 22nd, 2023. An entire family of three dead on impact. Their car is just to the left of the telephone pole. They hit a semi head-on.