I have a Hole in the Seat of my Work Van

[Sparky-Watts]

Yesterday morning, I went waaaay out east to fix an irrigation system in a new housing development. Lemme tell ya, I'm not at all familiar with parts out east of Wichita, I've mostly stayed on the west side. So, I'm tooling along down this two lane blacktop, running about 60, looking for an address when all of a sudden, I crest a hill and there's the intersection I need to turn at. I'm driving a '94 GMC 3/4 ton cargo van, by the way. So, I jam the brakes to get'er whoa'ed up, and the front anti-locks do their thing.....the backs don't!! They lock up and the left front grabs more than the right. I skid about 100 feet, and in the process turn a 180 in the middle of the intersection! Talk about pucker factor 10!!! I coulda swore I was gonna roll it! Fortunately (or not) there was only one vehicle coming the other way, and they had time to stop.....once the smoke cleared, I could see that it was one of the other supervisors from work! I was really sweatin' it when I saw him, thinking he was gonna rip me a new one. But, he got out and asked if I was ok, I said I wasn't sure yet. He said he used to drive that van, and had the same thing happen to him a couple of times!! Once I calmed down, we had a good laugh over it, and I went on my way. Thank God nobody was any closer, and that the supervisor was so cool about it!

I don't know what engine I have in that beast, but it'll smoke the tires pretty good if I'm not careful (remember, I'm used to driving a 4-banger Jeep and a 4-banger Camry). I forget I'm in the van and try to shoot the gap into traffic and light'em up sometimes. Sure get some funny looks from folks when I do! I just look at them with an "Ooops!" expression on my face, shrug my shoulders and go on....slower this time.

[Saurian]

I had that happen in one of the City work trucks, bombing along, and the rear brakes totally lock up, as do the trailer brakes on the lawnmower trailer... Nearly tore the bumper off, cause I cut it hard and went for the turn, the trailer whipped out and almost came up to meet the truck... I thought I was gonna tie up the intersection with all kinds of accident for sure... 2 ExMark lawnmowers, their associated trailer, and a full size pickup DO NOT corner well... Glad to hear you're OK, and your boss was so cool about it... I got an earful cause some residents called, till we got the truck into motorpool, and they found that they did the brakes totally wrong... Full apology after that one, and I got to use one of the nice new trucks from then on... :)

[dropseys]

Thats ok, i drive an unmarked Crown Vic with the interceptor package. I was going code (police slang for lights and sirens) to an accident scene with an ejection and rollover. As i rounded the corner, right next to our barracks, at about 40 mph, the rear tires slid and i smoked them real bad. It looked like something out of a Hollywood movie. One of my friends was on his way into work and saw it. He said the wheel wells were filled with smoke from my tires. And nice thing is i missed my supervisor by about 2 minutes so he didn't see or hear anything.

Another time i was just plain old hauling a$$ at 3 am going to a burglar alarm, when my high beams came on, the dash lights went off, then headlights went out all together on one of our back roads that had no street lights. Real Real fun trying to slow down when you can see anything.

[Tug-n-pull]

Dang I hate them all of a sudden almost deals. Glad your ok. tug

[NiteDog]

I had the pleasure of making a Honda Civic into a pickup truck last year. I was following this older couple through our fair city. Trying not to get too close because this fella like too hit the brakes for no apparent reason.(I think it must have been nervous habit). Anyway like a nit wit I took my focus off him at the wrong moment and he hit the brakes and I pushed his trunk lid into his back seat. Small cars do not have a chance when clobbered by an F250 4wd, even at 20 mph.


mike

[Sparky-Watts]

Don't ya hate when you gun it to make the yellow light, and the guy in front of you chickens out?