They say most accidents occur close to home.
For the last roughly 50 miles of my trip, a Trailblazer kept playing the "I'm going to pass you then slow down" game with me. About 10 miles from my parents house (my final destination for the return haul from SESM 2010), he was about a half a mile ahead of me and tapped his brakes. Why, you might ask? Fuck if I knew at that moment in time.
About 2 seconds later, a pretty sizeable deer is staring at my truck. I dropped from the speed limit (70) to no lower than 65 by the time I was on him.
The actual impact was barely noticeable, save for the crunching crushing noise and small thump. Truck did really well in that respect.
After I stopped and surveyed the damage, the deer was missing one hoof, all of his insides were... outside. One antler is just fuckin GONE, and I'm fairly positive that his fur is the only thing holding his head on his body.
As for Sheila (my truck)... Well, it did alright I think. The Tedge Bar deflected most of the deer. The grille is cracked (chrome crossbar is in the bed of the truck). Front bumper plastics are half gone, as well as driver side fog light. There are 3 dimples in the chrome bumper from the Tedge Bar flexing from impact. The two tabs for mounting offroad lights, and the driver corner of the bar impacted it. Driver side fender is tweaked a bit. If I put the steering wheel straight, I turn to the left pretty sharp. It's definitely not driveable right now. I was able to pop the grille back in place with 1 or 2 of the clips. The driver side bottom clip next to the headlight won't clip in anymore, the metal that it clips into on the body is bent all to hell.
There's also SHIT all over the side of the truck, and fur stuck between the wheel and tire.
I'll post pics in the AM, right now I'm going to go cuddle a pillow and wallow in pity.
The hood is untouched from what I could see, as well.
For the last roughly 50 miles of my trip, a Trailblazer kept playing the "I'm going to pass you then slow down" game with me. About 10 miles from my parents house (my final destination for the return haul from SESM 2010), he was about a half a mile ahead of me and tapped his brakes. Why, you might ask? Fuck if I knew at that moment in time.
About 2 seconds later, a pretty sizeable deer is staring at my truck. I dropped from the speed limit (70) to no lower than 65 by the time I was on him.
The actual impact was barely noticeable, save for the crunching crushing noise and small thump. Truck did really well in that respect.
After I stopped and surveyed the damage, the deer was missing one hoof, all of his insides were... outside. One antler is just fuckin GONE, and I'm fairly positive that his fur is the only thing holding his head on his body.
As for Sheila (my truck)... Well, it did alright I think. The Tedge Bar deflected most of the deer. The grille is cracked (chrome crossbar is in the bed of the truck). Front bumper plastics are half gone, as well as driver side fog light. There are 3 dimples in the chrome bumper from the Tedge Bar flexing from impact. The two tabs for mounting offroad lights, and the driver corner of the bar impacted it. Driver side fender is tweaked a bit. If I put the steering wheel straight, I turn to the left pretty sharp. It's definitely not driveable right now. I was able to pop the grille back in place with 1 or 2 of the clips. The driver side bottom clip next to the headlight won't clip in anymore, the metal that it clips into on the body is bent all to hell.
There's also SHIT all over the side of the truck, and fur stuck between the wheel and tire.
I'll post pics in the AM, right now I'm going to go cuddle a pillow and wallow in pity.
The hood is untouched from what I could see, as well.
