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SAFETY....do you feel comfortable with your RV?


Roadtrek 1

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Several  people have told me so many stories about the "unpredictably" of the Mercedes Benz Sprinter and the emissions system.... and having experienced a couple of on the road failures I believe them.     

Recently I discovered a story online this past week about a couple driving their Sprinter and collided with a Ram3500 destroying the entire front end of their Mercedes Benz Sprinter 3500. 

They apparently walked away from the accident.   Here's the picture of the front of their vehicle. Pretty dramatic...and they are OK...

Even with some issues on the emissions...I'd rather feel safe and secure in my RV on the road than focus on some maintenance issues from time to time. 

Does your vehicle have electronic stability control and front driver and passenger air bags? 

One of the main reasons to purchase a newer vehicle is safety...old vehicles are more dangerous....

Apparently, the structural engineering and rigid frame ( Unibody construction)  of the Mercedes Benz Sprinter is excellent and this situation validates that. 

Does anyone have any information about the Chevy Express or Dodge Ram vehicles? 

I hope you feel as safe in your travels.   Of course the best thing is to avoid accidents and travel during better weather....these folks were traveling and the vehicle that hit them lost control on an icy road.   I try to avoid weather conditions like this and also in high winds. 

 

 

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There are some people who will not travel in most motorhomes because you are sitting way up front, over or very near the front wheels.  Hit anything really hard and you are pretty much the first thing to be hurt.  The folks who won't travel in the MH want to be in a pickup truck or even better yet a HDT (heavy duty truck).  Check out the HDT section of this forum for more info on HDT.

About my personal safety..... I pretty much take my chances and travel in the vehicle that gives me the most comfort and enjoyment for my travels.  

If I was really worried of vehicle safety, then the best bet would be to buy a car with the best safety record rating and stay in motels and hotels.   

OH! NO! Staying in motels and hotels I would be worried about fires and if the smoke alarms are working.  I see lots of stories about hotel fires and guests dying. 

Or better yet, never get on the highway.  Over 40,000 people were killed on USA highways in 2016 & 2017, and many, many more, probably hundreds of thousands are injured every year.  Many through no fault of their own.  Someone else caused the accident. 

Sometimes we worry too much about things that MAY go wrong.  

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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3 hours ago, Al F said:

There are some people who will not travel in most motorhomes because you are sitting way up front, over or very near the front wheels.  Hit anything really hard and you are pretty much the first thing to be hurt.  The folks who won't travel in the MH want to be in a pickup truck or even better yet a HDT (heavy duty truck).  Check out the HDT section of this forum for more info on HDT.

About my personal safety..... I pretty much take my chances and travel in the vehicle that gives me the most comfort and enjoyment for my travels.  

If I was really worried of vehicle safety, then the best bet would be to buy a car with the best safety record rating and stay in motels and hotels.   

OH! NO! Staying in motels and hotels I would be worried about fires and if the smoke alarms are working.  I see lots of stories about hotel fires and guests dying. 

Or better yet, never get on the highway.  Over 40,000 people were killed on USA highways in 2016 & 2017, and many, many more, probably hundreds of thousands are injured every year.  Many through no fault of their own.  Someone else caused the accident. 

Sometimes we worry too much about things that MAY go wrong.  

Great blog! WOW, you guys certainly travel .. good for you. 

And the 36 foot Winnebago Journey is really nice.  Good luck and stay safe on the road.

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We are traveling in our second bus conversion. Great ride down the road, Stability is good in the wind. The best part is we built it for us. Yes we do feel safe when traveling. Then again its a crap shoot with the odds in our favor. We try to stay out of heavy traffic and that again helps the odds.

Bill

Bill & Lynn Baxter

MCI102A3 Conversion, Detroit Diesel S50  

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You could die in the forest, alone, eat'n by a griz or cougar (and I don't mean the 2-legged kind, or maybe it could?), you could die in a car, truck, plane, bus, in a boat/ship, in your bed, in your garden, etc, goes on forever.  Why worry, just do what you like, when you like, how you like.  Don't worry about it, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.  Drive what you want, fly what you want, etc and enjoy life.  Death and taxes, can't avoid it and it is going to happen, period.  Oh, and to give yourself higher odds, drive a tank.  Press on bro (or sis).  🙂

2002 Fifth Avenue RV (RIP) 2015 Ram 3500 Mega-cab DRW(38k miles), 6.7L Cummins Diesel, A668RFE, 3.73, 14,000 GVWR, 5,630 Payload, 27,300 GCWR, 18,460 Max Trailer Weight Rating(For Sale) , living in the frigid north, ND.

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1 hour ago, NDBirdman said:

You could die in the forest, alone, eat'n by a griz or cougar (and I don't mean the 2-legged kind, or maybe it could?), you could die in a car, truck, plane, bus, in a boat/ship, in your bed, in your garden, etc, goes on forever.  Why worry, just do what you like, when you like, how you like.  Don't worry about it, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.  Drive what you want, fly what you want, etc and enjoy life.  Death and taxes, can't avoid it and it is going to happen, period.  Oh, and to give yourself higher odds, drive a tank.  Press on bro (or sis).  🙂

Of course!.... I like to lessen the odds.   It's all about exposure.

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4 hours ago, Roadtrek 1 said:

Of course!.... I like to lessen the odds.   It's all about exposure.

I hear ya!  Just don't try to follow me on my harley doing 80 down a deer infested area.... ]-)

2002 Fifth Avenue RV (RIP) 2015 Ram 3500 Mega-cab DRW(38k miles), 6.7L Cummins Diesel, A668RFE, 3.73, 14,000 GVWR, 5,630 Payload, 27,300 GCWR, 18,460 Max Trailer Weight Rating(For Sale) , living in the frigid north, ND.

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these days any crash will look very bad. thinking it is amazing anyone lived. but remember the cars, trucks, are made to give. so to take some-most of the impact, said to help keep the people inside alive.

but the bad part to this is a simple fender bender can total a car, or truck.

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The second year of doing the RV thing with my MH, we were tooling down the road without a care in the world and just enjoying the drive down a rural 2 lane road.  I watched as an oncomeing tanker semi started to drift off the road.  By the time half of the rig was on the shoulder he must have woke up or put his phone down and he yanked the wheel over just in time to miss the guard rail where it curved down into the ground!  I thought i just about saw a bad accident till i realized that he over corrected and was now in my lane about to involve me in his accident!!!! I didn't even have time to say "holey -----" and he was past me in his lane!  I was so shocked that i didn't look in the mirror to see if he made it or not but i know that i drove to the next rest stop asking myself if i really wanted to put us in the position of trusting our lives to other people on the road.  

Just this trip i have dashcam video of a tanker truck (different one i hope) passing me over double solid lines and forcing an oncomeing pickup off the road.  Lucky for him after reviewing the footage i could not find a name or plate number.

The point i am trying to make is the more you put yourself out there the more you risk but the reward for me outweighs the risk. 

As a friend once told me " nothing breaks or goes wrong if you stay home on the couch"

2004 Freightliner m2 106  2015 DRV lx450 Fullhouse  2019 Indian Springfield 2014 Yamaha 950 V-Star

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2 hours ago, orca said:

 

As a friend once told me " nothing breaks or goes wrong if you stay home on the couch"

Your friend forgot to add the caveat about "Murphy"......😟

The four people in Yorba Linda, CA - were doing exactly that, waiting for the start of the Super Bowl (on TV), Feb 3rd, when a plane crashed into their home killing them along with the pilot.

.

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3 hours ago, packnrat said:

these days any crash will look very bad. thinking it is amazing anyone lived. but remember the cars, trucks, are made to give. so to take some-most of the impact, said to help keep the people inside alive.

but the bad part to this is a simple fender bender can total a car, or truck.

Perhaps... but, the SAD TRUTH is not all vehicles provide the same level of safety.... have you ever looked at these  websites?  

https://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings

https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/car-buying-season-approaches-new-nhtsa-report-shows-newer-vehicles-are-safer

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5 hours ago, Kirk W said:

You would be taking much less risk if you just stay off of the highways completely!

Kirk... I drove across the USA and back in 2017... approximately 11,000 miles...I wouldn't call local driving.  

I don't know what others do... I pay very close attention to weather conditions. I don't take unnecessary risks.... except for purchasing the RV😁😁.

Actually.... I love my rig....we took it out on a "day trip" today....lots of fun.

We sometimes do that on a whim... other trips are planned. 

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Shucks.........highway safety is a piece of cake.........rig gets a bit tippy.......don't worry .......ALL modern rigs have plenty of safety features.....

Example..........in this 1953/54 Kenworth in the photo...... imagine no one was injured........shuck I was in the copilots seat and as we rolled 98 degrees RIGHT and the FRONT 1/3 of the rig DIVED into the ground .........the 500 pounds of tools under the copilots seat FLIPPED the bottom seat cushion UP and EJECTED me THROUGH the passengers WINDSHIELD and I SCOOTED down the HOOD until my CHIN hooked the RADIATOR cap and STOPPED me.............JUST AFTER THE LOGS CAME THROUGH THE BACK OF THE CAB WHERE I HAD BEEN SITTING.........just PRIOR to me being EJECTED out of the WINDSHIELD.......

fV4201Cl.jpg

 

Drive on..............(For best highway safety.........make sure your .........Ejection seat is properly armed)

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all i know is this past sat in fresno south bound on hwy 41. close to shaw.

traffic in the number two lane stopped. open in mine but i was slowing.(still doing about 45-50 mph) a pu truck flew past me in #2 with all tires screaming to stop. then hard turned right, crossing my lane by now i was hard on the brakes (try stopping 70,000 pounds of truck and trailer. i swerved and in my rt side mirror i saw that i missed hooking his front bumper with the rear of my trailer by less than a foot.

i was still doing a good 30 mph.

broad daylight, pavement dry, unlimited visibility. straight multi lane, but a shallow rise ahead. (blocking the view of the rollover).

there was a roll over a 1/2 mile ahead of this.

 

so anything can and WILL happen at any time.

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1 hour ago, Dollytrolley said:

Shucks.........highway safety is a piece of cake.........rig gets a bit tippy.......don't worry .......ALL modern rigs have plenty of safety features.....

Example..........in this 1953/54 Kenworth in the photo...... imagine no one was injured........shuck I was in the copilots seat and as we rolled 98 degrees RIGHT and the FRONT 1/3 of the rig DIVED into the ground .........the 500 pounds of tools under the copilots seat FLIPPED the bottom seat cushion UP and EJECTED me THROUGH the passengers WINDSHIELD and I SCOOTED down the HOOD until my CHIN hooked the RADIATOR cap and STOPPED me.............JUST AFTER THE LOGS CAME THROUGH THE BACK OF THE CAB WHERE I HAD BEEN SITTING.........just PRIOR to me being EJECTED out of the WINDSHIELD.......

fV4201Cl.jpg

 

Drive on..............(For best highway safety.........make sure your .........Ejection seat is properly armed)

Dolly, the best defense is using "good judgement"... there's an inner voice saying...slow down, get off the road in any perceived dangerous situation... nothing is more important than your personal safety..

There's been times in my RV when I decided pull off and stay in a hotel....for a variety of reasons....it's a personal decision..... you know when it's right. 

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6 hours ago, Dollytrolley said:

Shucks.........highway safety is a piece of cake.........rig gets a bit tippy.......don't worry .......ALL modern rigs have plenty of safety features.....

Example..........in this 1953/54 Kenworth in the photo...... imagine no one was injured........shuck I was in the copilots seat and as we rolled 98 degrees RIGHT and the FRONT 1/3 of the rig DIVED into the ground .........the 500 pounds of tools under the copilots seat FLIPPED the bottom seat cushion UP and EJECTED me THROUGH the passengers WINDSHIELD and I SCOOTED down the HOOD until my CHIN hooked the RADIATOR cap and STOPPED me.............JUST AFTER THE LOGS CAME THROUGH THE BACK OF THE CAB WHERE I HAD BEEN SITTING.........just PRIOR to me being EJECTED out of the WINDSHIELD.......

 

 

Drive on..............(For best highway safety.........make sure your .........Ejection seat is properly armed)

This is proof than we should not be wearing seat belts!  It is safer being ejected rather than being trapped inside the vehicle. 😀 

I am not being serious. 

We are much safer with seat belts buckled even though in extreme circumstances someone could be trapped in the vehicle. 

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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2 minutes ago, Al F said:

Except, when we are traveling in our RV we can't move 10 miles away from home.  Our RV is our home when we travel. 😃

I knew the RV life was dangerous! They follow you everywhere....   🙃

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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  • 2 weeks later...

Riding a motorcycle for over20 years I am more concerned about the other driver than my RV. Regarding seat belts, why do moving companies strap down all your furniture? To keep it from moving. So why not protect yourself as your moving company protects your furniture?

2015 Itasca Ellipse 42QD

2017 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon Hard Rock Edition

2021 Harley Street Glide Special 

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