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Sad day.

2K views 24 replies 16 participants last post by  gmatt 
#1 ·
Well , as I was going to get some food it started to rain and unfortunately for me I lost traction and did a 360 and steered as far away as I could from any other car to avoid hitting them and went straight into the curb and did some nasty damage to the truck (luckily not as bad as I thought it was going to end up) and boy was it the scary as hell doing a 360 with no control of the truck, my rim is a bit bent and I snapped my left rear axle, so now I'm thinking what in the world am I gonna do ... This just happened a couple hours ago and it's almost 3 am here so there's not much I can do atm, I'm thinking about calling up ford and seeing how much the parts will cost me , anyone have any other suggestions ?

Sorry for the large image I'm not sure on how to shrink them down.
 

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Discussion starter · #9 ·
Thanks everyone ! As far as insurance claim i'm going to see what I can do about it. So glad there was no body damage as mentioned that would've sucked real bad ! This was my first time driving the truck in the rain I've only had it for about 2/3 months now and boy was it something unexpected.
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
Yes you are Lucky! An axle and possibly leaf spring/shackle damage is pretty reasonable to fix as stated here. Also the recommendation to upgrade to a Trutrac would be smart if you can swing it but adds about $450.00 to the costs.
When driving these trucks in wet/snow/slick conditions its better to just idle through turns. Im willing to bet that 90% of these truck that are totaled are because of this type of scenario. It would do alot of new buyers good to take their trucks to a big open parking lot in the rain and see just how much throttle and how easy it is to walk the rear end around. Then they can avoid any damage. Me? I have an L-swapped F-150 so not as critical cause there are like a bazillion trucks out there for me to swap to,but....I too have to drive like a grandma in the rain.
Glad your OK and the truck is repairable. :rockon_ford

Where at in Cali are you? I'm in the OC.
Yeah I'm glad it wasn't worse as we all know it could've been. I'm currently looking into the parts and checking out my choices/prices not too sure what to go with so far. Yeah I've had a few encounters with the rear end trying to kick out but never as bad as yesterday. I make sure I always drive like a grandma in the rain and sometimes in general lol ! Thanks again :rockon_ford
I'm in the long beach area about 45 minutes or so from you
 
Discussion starter · #15 ·
This is why I never drive my Lightning in the rain. Hasn't seen rain in years. Get yourself an old vehicle, something cheap, and call it a daily driver. I have a 98 Ranger for that task. Still looks reasonable, V-6 power with some mods, so it runs good. Even it can get nasty in the rain, due to not enough weight out back. In the winter, I load the bed up with lidded buckets of sand.
That's been my plan ever since I got it I would like get a DD to keep the L safe especially in instances like these.


New axle new tru trac 1600 bucks done. Installed and parts
Sounds like a pretty penny but sure as hell cant cheap out on it either.
 
Discussion starter · #21 ·
I disintegrated and obliterated my stock rear end a couple years back. It was an 8.8 and it had about 300,000 mi on it, but what it really didnt like was the extra 200 hp and extra torque I sent to it with the L-motor I stuffed under the hood.
But I put new 3.73 gears and the Tru trac in it and it is awesome now. Its kind of like Posi now when both tires are wet it gets really hairy. :ahhhh:bigtu Next Get together we have I will PM you if your interested. We have a pretty good group of guys that show up. Im the odd man out usually since I dont have a lightning but the motor and trans and alot of the interior is straight from this forum:rockon_ford
I'll be up for that next get together let me know, sounds like a pretty sweet truck i'm forward to checking it out :bigtu

dang that sucks, but don't feel too bad, about the 3rd day i had mine, i hit one of those yellow concrete filled metal barrier poles at gas station on the on the bed where the step sticks out from the rest of the truck, i literally wanted to cry, theres a big difference going from small toyota pickups to a full size, cost right at 900 bucks to fix it, and it wasn't even that bad. fiberglass isn't cheap to repair evidently
Ouch pretty penny right there, I know what you mean though when I saw the damage last night my heart sunk I didn't know how to react it was horrible.

I disagree with your "Sad Day" title. It was your LUCKY day. The number of Lightnings that have been totaled in similar situations is staggering. Count your lucky stars.
You know what you're right I was thinking about that all day, it could've been way worse and luckily it wasn't extremely bad.
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
Yes. Going to need to pull the C clip (I think it's called). Then pull it out. At least that's how I did mine on my HD. I have to roll out of the car wash or I get sideways all over the place from all the tire shine coming out the parking lot and on the road. Good luck!
Yeah got it out already, it was how you described thanks, slowly but surely making progress, have to go get a brake specially made because ford doesn't carry them anymore..damn kink in the line :smt089 oooh tire shine is no fun super super slippery have to be careful with that!
 
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