So this happened on my way home from the ECR.

[Larry Burkett]

Chad, 

Are you having Slade put the solar panels on for you while it's there?

[Ray,IN]

After watching your video, I hope I have the wherewithall to do as you did in handling and controlling your rig. That rolling wheel was curving right into your path instead of crossing the highway. IMO you made sound decisions.

Had you been towing with a lesser truck I'm sure both would have been totaled and you might not have survived.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Ray,IN

[Chad Heiser]

8 hours ago, Larry Burkett said:

Chad, 

Are you having Slade put the solar panels on for you while it's there?

No, I do all my own solar stuff.  I actually traded my panels to another HDTer who was at Rolling Rereats for stuff for the new rig.  I will put new panels on when I get it home.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Chad Heiser

[Rotorhead]

On 5/13/2022 at 1:46 AM, Chad Heiser said:

As some of you may know, I had a bit of an issue on my trip home from the ECR.  I left the ECR on Monday May 2.  I was trying to work my way to Colorado on my way home to California so I could stop in and see my mom before Mother’s Day.  I was heading west on I25 about sixty miles into Kentucky from Tennessee when a random tire came rolling across the interstate from the center median.  It literally came out of nowhere after I passed under an overpass.  Of course the tire was rolling right for the front of my rig and there wasn’t much I could do to avoid colliding with it.  

I was traveling in the slow lane with my cruise set to 65 mph.  I was towing my 21000 pound DRV with my Kenworth T2000.  Luckily I was alone in the truck as my DW didn’t attend the rally with me because of her work schedule.  I’m glad she didn’t have to experience the situation first hand.

My only thought once I saw the rolling tire was to try to avoid taking it head on and putting it through the radiator and into the engine, or worse, bouncing it up and into the cab.  I had two choices, swerve left or swerve right.  Well I guess I had three choices, as taking it head on was also a choice.  I immediately negated that choice though because I knew that was going to cause severe damage and I hoped my other options might give me a chance of avoiding damage (to bad hopes aren’t reality).  

My decision making process next negated swerving left into the fast lane because I didn’t know if there was another vehicle along side me or coming upon me in that lane.  My rig is nearly sixty five feet long so there was a lot of potential space for another vehicle to be occupying alongside me.  The situation happened so fast that there wasn’t time to check my mirror for another vehicle or vehicles in the fast lane and also asses and then react before the collision with the tire.  This all lead me to the decision to swerve right to try to take the collision with the tire to the side of the truck rather than the front.  This whole process was within a second or two.

Once I swerved, unfortunately I ran out of pavement quickly and got the right steer tire in the dirt.  I knew trying to correct back to the left in that situation would be bad and I also knew the trailer momentum was trying to catch up to the truck’s change in direction and another quick change in direction would have been bad.  Once the truck touched dirt at an angle, I really didn’t have a choice other than to ride it into the ditch and do what I could to keep things in line.  There was a bit of a downslope going into the ditch and then another pretty good up slope on the other side of the ditch.  I did my best to get the truck into the bottom of the ditch and keep the trailer in line behind me.  Once I knew the truck was doing what I wanted it to, I checked my driver mirror for the trailer.  All I saw was the trailer leaning at an extreme angle to the driver side.  It was at such an extreme angle that I thought for sure it was going over.  Rather than slamming on the brakes, I kept the truck moving forward in the hopes it would pull the trailer back into line.  Thankfully it did.

Once I came to a stop, I took a second to asses myself and then the truck interior and then I got out to checkout the trailer and truck exterior.  The truck didn’t look bad at all to my surprise.  Unfortunately the trailer didn’t fair so well.  I walked around the whole rig and the trailer had significant damage on all four sides.  I could see from damage to the front cap and damage to the truck bed rails that the trailer had articulated enough in both directions to slam the front cap into the rails.  I was pretty dismayed at the damage, but was happy I was ok and no one else was hurt.  Unbelievably, no one else stopped to check on me though.

i did have a dash cam running at the time of the incident and it caught everything.  Unfortunately it doesn’t show what the trailer was doing behind the truck.  I called the state troopers and eventually got a tow there to get me out of the ditch.  Then I got roadside assistance to bring me two new tires as both passenger side tires and one rim were destroyed when the trailer ran over another bare wheel that happened to be laying in the ditch.

Once the trailer had the ability to roll again, I drug it to the next exit to see how it would do.  I assessed it at the scene first and it looked towable.  Most of the damage appeared to be to the structure above the frame but I was trying to be as cautious as possible.  After another inspection, everything appeared to be roadworthy so I decided to turn around and head to a truck stop I had passed a ways back.  I got there and had a mechanic assess things as well.  The mechanic also agreed things were roadworthy so I made the decision to head to my DRV dealer (Rolling Retreats) in Elk City, Oklahoma.  I got through Nashville late and found another truck stop where I could get some sleep.  The next morning I got on the road again after another assessment and started making miles.  The trailer was crabbing slightly to the passenger side, but otherwise was serviceable.  I made it to Rolling Retreats Tuesday evening and had some friends there who helped me out.  

I’ve been sitting here ever since.  I finally got the word from my insurance company this afternoon (Wednesday a week and a day after I arrived) that the trailer was a total loss.  Now I am moving forward dealing with that.  Jim and Kellie Stockman (fellow HDTers, full timers and friends of mine) have been here since before I arrived and have shown me great hospitality (along with others).  They have a YouTube channel (as some of you may know) called Suite Travels.  Jim asked me about participating in a video about HDTs and safety and I agreed.  The video posted today and it includes my dash cam footage, footage from the tow company who got me out of the ditch (who also have a YouTube channel) and an interview with me about the incident.  I thought it might interest some of you.  Here is the video.  

 

Man that looks scary. Glad you are alright. Handled it like a professional. I wonder if someone was in the woods and rolled that tire out on purpose?

[Danfreda1]

29 minutes ago, Rotorhead said:

Man that looks scary. Glad you are alright. Handled it like a professional. I wonder if someone was in the woods and rolled that tire out on purpose?

That’s what we thought also. A lot of trees in that area to get through. Plus it was right after an over pass. Probably never know. 

[Rotorhead]

8 minutes ago, Danfreda1 said:

That’s what we thought also. A lot of trees in that area to get through. Plus it was right after an over pass. Probably never know. 

Only if someone has some time to kill and do a stake out. Or trail cams.

[Larry Burkett]

Chad, that make  a lot more sense to do it yourself, and trading yours for stuff for the new trailer is even better.

Have you decided on the size of the new panels you'll be putting on, I imagine you already measured and mapped out the roof of the new trailer.

[Chad Heiser]

6 hours ago, Larry Burkett said:

Chad, that make  a lot more sense to do it yourself, and trading yours for stuff for the new trailer is even better.

Have you decided on the size of the new panels you'll be putting on, I imagine you already measured and mapped out the roof of the new trailer.

I do have everything mapped out.  I will be putting a couple different sized panels on the roof.  I have a bunch of 365 watt REC panels and a bunch of Newpowa compact 100 watt panels, so I will be using both of them.  It will be very similar to my last set up, just with more total wattage (since I will have more roof space).

[SuiteSuccess]

4 hours ago, Chad Heiser said:

I do have everything mapped out.  I will be putting a couple different sized panels on the roof.  I have a bunch of 365 watt REC panels and a bunch of Newpowa compact 100 watt panels, so I will be using both of them.  It will be very similar to my last set up, just with more total wattage (since I will have more roof space).

Chad,

Just be sure it’s slightly more power than GeorgiaHybrid.  Bragging rights you know.  😊😊

[Chad Heiser]

16 hours ago, SuiteSuccess said:

Chad,

Just be sure it’s slightly more power than GeorgiaHybrid.  Bragging rights you know.  😊😊

I’m looking at putting 3390 watts on the roof.  I don’t remember how much GeorgiaHybrid has, but hopefully I’ve got him now.  😎

[GeorgiaHybrid]

LOL, just a little more, I'm sitting at 2940 right now. Time to start thinking about ground deploying about 500 watts of panels or order a longer trailer. 😀

[SuiteSuccess]

45 minutes ago, GeorgiaHybrid said:

LOL, just a little more, I'm sitting at 2940 right now. Time to start thinking about ground deploying about 500 watts of panels or order a longer trailer. 😀

Uh oh.  I see a throw down coming, lol.

[Star Dreamer]

Glad to hear you are Ok. Definitely not something we would want to go through. We will see you at the WCR. We should be heading that way right after Memorial Day from Indiana. 

[Chad Heiser]

19 hours ago, SuiteSuccess said:

Uh oh.  I see a throw down coming, lol.

The question is, how much time am I going to actually have to get everything ready before the WCR?  A lot of things have to fall into place, but I am hoping for the best.

[tyates007]

On 5/19/2022 at 2:39 AM, Chad Heiser said:

The question is, how much time am I going to actually have to get everything ready before the WCR?  A lot of things have to fall into place, but I am hoping for the best.

I hope things fall into place for sure. With that said there will be lots of willing, maybe not so capable, hands at the WCR to help if needed 🙂. Rally projects are the best. Much funner than being home. 

[Sculptor]

Chad, I can’t add much to the sympathetic posts here, but I’m also very sorry it happened to you and very happy it was not worse.  What’s the latest?  You’re quite busy fetching, loading, and updating right now, especially with regard to the WCR dates looming.

[Chad Heiser]

12 minutes ago, Sculptor said:

What’s the latest? 

I’m on my way home from Rolling Retreats with the new rig.  I am currently in Bakersfield, CA standing in line at the DMV to get it registered (it was a convenient location on the way home).  I will be home this evening and work will start in earnest first thing tomorrow on the new system to (hopefully) get everything done before the WCR.

I will make another trip back to Rolling Retreats later this year to get some more stuff done that they didn’t have the time or parts to complete while I was there.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Chad Heiser

[Zulu]

50 minutes ago, Chad Heiser said:

I’m on my way home from Rolling Retreats with the new rig.  I am currently in Bakersfield, CA standing in line at the DMV to get it registered (it was a convenient location on the way home).

Ah, a CA DMV, my 2nd favorite place.

[Chad Heiser]

On 6/6/2022 at 11:11 AM, Zulu said:

Ah, a CA DMV, my 2nd favorite place.

It was a couple hour ordeal.  It took an hour just to get through the line wrapping around the building to get in the front doors.  The trailer is registered and I have a plate for it now though.

[rpsinc]

14 hours ago, Chad Heiser said:

It was a couple hour ordeal.  It took an hour just to get through the line wrapping around the building to get in the front doors.  The trailer is registered and I have a plate for it now though.

Glad you got that done.  Looking forward to seeing you here(yes, we have arrived in Caldwell from So Cal).  Boy oh boy, sure am glad I have been saving for the last 50 years because I will need to keep diesel in those tanks.  LOL.

I see you are burning WAY more of the stuff than I am, Chad.  Drive safely.

[Chad Heiser]

I’ve put two 12+ hour days into the new rig so far.  I’ve got the batteries and inverters in and running.  The solar controllers are mounted, but not connected yet.  Tomorrow I need to run all the control cables up to the Cerbo and then start on solar.  I have a few non system related things I still need to do as well.  It is going to be a couple more long days before we hit the road on Saturday.