The Car Haul Damage Thread:

Well, the driver may not have been injured in the crash, (I refuse to call this stupidity an accident,) but I'm betting he carried his butt away with both hands, after he got done being fired.
Good to see you RM!

 

Actually, I've pulled trailers during the 80s where I only had to bleed the air off the trailer system so as to get safely off the road or on to a repair shop using only tractor brakes and leaving plenty of following distance.

 

Speedy I am glad you didn't get hurt bad. If you are like me it's just a new scar on top of an old scar. Stay safe out there!

 

1) Rock chips on a painted bumper
2) A 1" scratch under the driver's door
3) A ding and paint chip in the hatchback door

 

If the dealer coded the hatch as 52-34-1
That one, at least, is considered warranty.

Must have had that big one in the belly? Montana puts down some serious, sharp rocks for traction. Makes that tough to avoid without curtains.

 

I guess you already know this but, you said it was your first load of new units from a railhead. These units were handled many times and may have been on several different trains and maybe one car carrier before you hauled it. Where you picked them up was very far from where they were assembled so lots of opportunities for damages. I haul almost exclusively from a railhead now and you have to really look them over good. Sometimes I will still miss things and sometimes damages occur on your rig that you can't control. Rocks bouncing from road and other road debris. Since you are so far from home I assume you don't know how picky that dealer was going to be so you just have to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Some of my worst regular dealers as far as inspections never turn a minor claim in, they touch it up and sell the unit. Maybe this is one of those dealers for you. Good luck!

 

Yes, you are completely correct.
I'm 59 with 20+ years driving and 1 of them, cars, but like many with wisdom, every day you learn something. And even now I have no qualms about approaching another driver to ask his/her opinion, and always thank them for taking the time to help. In the case of the rock chips, the driver I'd asked said that was the best unit to place in the belly. Upon reflection, a chrome bumper pribably would have faired better but he meant well.