Hit a splash guard at 60 mph

Sounds to me like you handled it just fine, but without being there it's hard to say. Swerving is an easy way to lay the whole truck over, which not only would have cost far more in damages, but could have damaged or even killed you. No load or equipment is worth that. If you were in the hammer lane, with next to no shoulder on your left, you pretty much have no choice. If you were in the slow lane, you might have been able to get over enough, but again, it's your call.

Only way to avoid stuff like this is to scan well ahead of your truck and watch what vehicles in front of you are doing, but even that's not enough sometimes.

 

^^ Right on.

Realize that sometimes it's just impossible to safely avoid running over debris. Or deer. Or raccoons....or armadillos.

You did the right thing. It's expensive, but you did the right thing.

 

I had something like this running southbound on I-35 just north of Dallas. I was in the 2nd lane over, fair amount of traffic, and coming around a turn. 4wheelers in front of me were keeping a bit to the right, just small swerves, nothing major. Finally got up to the spot and saw that in the left side of my lane, right where my left tires need to be, is a plastic box of some sort. No way I could move over far enough to avoid it without crossing over the zipper, so I took it down the left side. Had some kind of powder in it. First chance I got I stopped and looked, no damage. Whew!

 

I know it's my last week of training but from what i've been hearing from my instructors is you did the right thing!

One of our instructors had a door on a car come open to only have the big family dog step outside with the little girl holding the leash from inside the car and he had 80,000 # on his truck and had no time to miss the dog. Needless to say the little girl was left holding a leash and no dog and A LOT of blood mist in the air because fluffy was nothing but vapor

 

It's gonna happen sooner or later. You can't always miss every bit of road debris out there.

 

Maybe no damage for you, but it sure ruined Billy Mays' day.

Sorry, that was harsh, but just couldn't resist.

 

If you would have seen it sooner, mabe you could have slowed down to let the cars pass so you could use that other lane? I dont know, but you didnt do something you werent comfortable with...so I think you made a good call.

I was on a snowy Wisconsin I-90 last winter when I saw something large in my lane. The hammer lane was only half plowed, and the right shoulder wasnt plowed at all. I didnt feel comfortable swerving onto unplowed road or unplowed shoulder. When I came up to the object, I did my best to line the center of the truck up with it. Well, it ended up catching the ICC bumper on the trailer and somehow wedging itself between the airbag and the inner dual tire. It gashed the sidewall of the tire, but didnt harm the airbag(thank goodness). BTW, it was a metal tire ramp for loading cars on a trailer.

The driver before me swerved onto the shoulder to avoid it. I was certain he was gonna lose it, but he didnt.

 

Ya, coulda woulda shoulda. Anytime something like that happens I always end up going over it again and again when I stop for the night. Coulda left more following distance, coulda stayed in the far right lane, coulda looked further down the road, coulda slowed down when I noticed the other cars moving a bit. Live and learn. Any one you walk away from, right?

And ouch on hitting that car ramp. Did you make it to a TS to get the tire repaired or did ya have to sit and wait for service?

 

Harsh, but funny. Honestly not sure what it was. Seemed a bit more powdery then detergent or sugar, almost like flour. But the container was definitely plastic, almost look industrial, not commercial. Eh, whatever it was, it wasn't there after I got done with it.