I was headed down 78 East in Clinton, NJ, the night before last, when all of the sudden, BAM! It sounded like a had a blowout. So, I drive really slow and turn off the next exit and into the local Shammy Shine. I look around at all my tires and they were fine. I was like what the hell? So I then make my way toward the front of the car and my jaw dropped. My bumper was cracked and scuffed up. My lower grille was completely missing. My splash guards were all mangled and one of them was just dangling. My license plate was bent and my radiator was pushed into the AC condenser or the other way around and eventually developed a small leak . Turns out a I hit a tractor trailer tire re-tread or it hit me. This ever happen to anyone? Here are some pics of the damage. Be careful of those re-treads everyone, they can do some real damage. I guess I can consider myself lucky it didnt come through the windshield and kill me.

 

Wow--what a mess!! What a bummer...........

 

Dude, I'm sorry to hear about that. I hate road debris! About a year ago I was driving down the highway in my grand am and all the sudden this hubcap from a big rig rolls into the middle of the road and hits my front bumper and then gets lodged beneath my undercarriage. Luckily the damage was only cosmetic, but it still cost me about $800. Looks like you're worse off. Tough luck, man.

 

omg! i feel ur pain. i love living in jerz but all those truck treads all over the place are annoying

 

i wouldve cried. and walked it home.

 

My bro hit one in his BSP, had to have the bumper/lip-kit replaced. The car infront of him hit it first and it was thrown in the air and landed right in front of my bros car.

 

Ouch! That does suck, hope you get it fixed soon.

When I was 16 I hit one of those big construction barrels (not the pylons.. the big @$$ barrels with the light on top) in a 1974 Ford LTD. The plastic barrel had somehow been moved out into the lane, it was 2 am and I noticed it too late in the forrest of other blinking barrels. Luckilly, it was a big, ugly tank of a car, hardly made a mark :D But I have to say it startled the s#it out of me and made for some good entertainment

 

I totally read the title wrong.

 

I did the same exact thing. I feel like such a re-tread..

 

^^ I got that too when I first read it.. I was gonna ask if he saw the "Slow" children at play signs...

 

Those road 'gators can do a lot of damage if they get ya.

I've been incredibly lucky in my years of driving and SO FAR have avoided 'em, but have seen a LOT of other cars damaged by 'em.

Good luck on getting your ride all fixed up again - hopefully it won't cost you TOO much.

...And watch out for those road 'gators - it's summer, and that seems to be their mating season or something - they're all over the roads.

Tom

 

I hit one in my old mustang... luckily i swerved enogh that it only jammed itself in the wheel well.... as a matter of fact it was around the same area...i had to pull over to get it out...surprised none of the clinton police drove by and tried to make an issue...

 

so do you have to replace both the condensor and the radiator?

 

After I hit it/it hit me, I noticed a couple a hundred feet down the road another car was in the dirt median(where the police sometimes like to take radar) with it flashers on and figured the same thing happened to them. I took the next exit and went into the Shammy Shine and there just so happened to be a Clinton cop sitting at the exit of the Shammy Shine taking radar. While I was checking over my car, I noticed alot of people driving up to him to say there was something laying in the road on 78. So this thing probably caused alot of damage to many other people's cars. I went up to the police officer and he said that 78 was state patrolled and was nice enough to call for a state trooper to come help me.

 

Most likely. One is pushed into the other,since that they are so close together,if not attached.

 

I have been pretty lucky also for the most part, till now. I only had one other incident with a re-tread a week after I bought a brand new 02 Civic. It went under the car and made alot noise while it was under there but didnt do any damage.

Insurance is picking up most of the bill, I only have to pay my deductible and a small percentage of the cost of the rental car I have right now. I will however also lose my accident-free discount. About the only thing I am worried about is, I hope that it gets fixed with genuine Scion parts. I hear that the insurance companies encourage the use of the cheaper compatible parts. I just want it back exactly the way it was.

 

For that new a car you may be able to insist on OEM parts.

Too bad about loosing your 'accident free' perk. Seems odd that a road 'gator attack would zap that.

 

78 is state patrolled but clinton townshipis on it all the time, not town of Clinton tho, he could have gone if he wanted to but probably either didnt know or didnt want to... some of the town of clinton cops are cool but most just like to mess with kids

 

My parents live in Mt Laurel and i always wake up big time when i hit the pike on my way down to visit them, there are ALWAYS retreads sitting in the road. So annoying and SSOOOOOOO Unsafe. I actually hit a retread up here in Boston in my civic and did about $1000 in damage to the front end.

 

MAKE them use OEM parts. I had an insurance company try to replace my sunroof assembly (weird encounter with a bird at 60 mph with the sunroof popped up) in my saturn with used parts cause they said it was not a new car. Needless to say, they bought a brand new oem unit and then lost my business directly afterward.