gsadmin
02-26-2007, 08:12 PM
I first must say that I am so happy that everyone is safe. Both those in my family as well as those who may have been injured if things had not turned out as well as they did.
So here's the story.
The week before president's day I took my family to CA in our GS for a week visiting family. Our itinerary was SLC->Oceanside->Northridge-SLC. The RV is such a great thing when you go out to visit family since you can sleep in "your own" bed.
Anyways back to the story...so the trip was uneventful all the way up until the drive home last Sunday before presidents day. I was just on my way out of the LA area and up I-15 in the Cajon Pass outside San Bernardino when I was driving in the truck lane, uphill at about 45MPH and I hear this BAM! I look in my right mirror and see the awning sticking out from the MH at what is certainly not a normal angle (about 30 degrees). So, I start to slow down and slowly move over into the emergency lane when BAM BAM a much larger noise occurs and I notice in my mirror various parts of white metal separating from my coach like booster parts of the Saturn V rocket. I get to the side and finally stop. My wife secures the little one and the dog and I go to open the door. It opens about 4" until it hits what strangely seems like one of the awning supports...hmm, thats strange i think. So, I go and climb out the passenger window. Once I extricated myself from the coach what I saw was pretty humorous...the only thing left on my coach from my awning was the two horizontal crossbars that normally slide up. One half of the vertical support is across in front of the door and every other piece of the awning is strewn about behind the coach and down the road.
Evidently, all the shaking of the roads in CA that occured over the last week had loosened up the top bracket i guess and the front "beam" fell out from the coach. When I pulled over, I did not take that into consideration as the call box approached and that was the action that took it clean off my coach. Boy they make those call boxes tough!
So, I picked up all the strut pieces and tossed them in the motothome. Then I pulled the smooshed awning roll out of the truck lane ( a semi had already had its way with it). I left that behind for CalDot.
The amazing thing is the the minimum amount of damage that occured to the coach (except for the awning of course). Up by the rear bracket there is a 1-2" scrape in the fiberglass that will be covered by the new awning and a small dent where the roof rolls over to meet with the sides of the coach. The only other damage was to the bedroom slide as it bent the "bars" that hold it to the slide. It also may have a small tear in it.
I have insurance, so the whole thing will cost me $200. No biggie. I might even replace it with one of those full auto jobbies (any feedback on that is appreciated)
Anyway, the lesson is this...check loose bolts if you travel on CA roads and watch out for call boxes!
So here's the story.
The week before president's day I took my family to CA in our GS for a week visiting family. Our itinerary was SLC->Oceanside->Northridge-SLC. The RV is such a great thing when you go out to visit family since you can sleep in "your own" bed.
Anyways back to the story...so the trip was uneventful all the way up until the drive home last Sunday before presidents day. I was just on my way out of the LA area and up I-15 in the Cajon Pass outside San Bernardino when I was driving in the truck lane, uphill at about 45MPH and I hear this BAM! I look in my right mirror and see the awning sticking out from the MH at what is certainly not a normal angle (about 30 degrees). So, I start to slow down and slowly move over into the emergency lane when BAM BAM a much larger noise occurs and I notice in my mirror various parts of white metal separating from my coach like booster parts of the Saturn V rocket. I get to the side and finally stop. My wife secures the little one and the dog and I go to open the door. It opens about 4" until it hits what strangely seems like one of the awning supports...hmm, thats strange i think. So, I go and climb out the passenger window. Once I extricated myself from the coach what I saw was pretty humorous...the only thing left on my coach from my awning was the two horizontal crossbars that normally slide up. One half of the vertical support is across in front of the door and every other piece of the awning is strewn about behind the coach and down the road.
Evidently, all the shaking of the roads in CA that occured over the last week had loosened up the top bracket i guess and the front "beam" fell out from the coach. When I pulled over, I did not take that into consideration as the call box approached and that was the action that took it clean off my coach. Boy they make those call boxes tough!
So, I picked up all the strut pieces and tossed them in the motothome. Then I pulled the smooshed awning roll out of the truck lane ( a semi had already had its way with it). I left that behind for CalDot.
The amazing thing is the the minimum amount of damage that occured to the coach (except for the awning of course). Up by the rear bracket there is a 1-2" scrape in the fiberglass that will be covered by the new awning and a small dent where the roof rolls over to meet with the sides of the coach. The only other damage was to the bedroom slide as it bent the "bars" that hold it to the slide. It also may have a small tear in it.
I have insurance, so the whole thing will cost me $200. No biggie. I might even replace it with one of those full auto jobbies (any feedback on that is appreciated)
Anyway, the lesson is this...check loose bolts if you travel on CA roads and watch out for call boxes!