Might be a weird question, but anyone have a good ritual for sending off a truck?

My worst nightmare happened last week. We hit ice on a steep hill in the middle of a snow storm, and the taco went off the side of the road and ended up on its passenger side. Airbags deployed, seat belt systems locked, headliner is toast, plus another 4k in body damage. Insurance is totaling it, and I don't have the resources to make a salvage buyout work (it's going to be an expensive buyout, and it would be at least 7k to make it drivable again on top of that).

I know its weird to emotionally get attached to your truck, but they have stories and personalities and its really hard to look at an empty driveway where the truck that gave you so much joy used to be. Anyone have anything they keep from each car they've had? I'm currently planning on putting the old bed rack on the new truck as a kind of passing of the torch (assuming I can get a hold of my insurance agent who has been ENTIRELY unhelpful so far, so I can legally take my own property off my truck. Im switching insurance companies after this experience.)

 

Bear in mind that your insurance agent is probably dealing with hundreds of people who wrecked their car in Denver last night/this morning. You aren’t special and they are busy.

As for keeping stuff - I just hold onto all my old plates when I get rid of vehicles.

 

I definitely don't think im special, but this accident is a week old now. With my old insurance (amfam), my agent would have called me the next business day even just to check in and see how im doing. I've left a message and called their office twice and still haven't talked to my agent in the week since the accident. Idk maybe my old agent was just amazing and has set the bar too high.

 

My bad, read the first sentence as last night, not last week. I take back my statement.

 

Hold a wake?

 

Viking funeral.

 

Sorry for your loss. Hopefully no injuries.

I had an experience where my car was totaled by a big pickup truck. I made the mistake of removing all of the audio stuff, about $5k worth. Then the insurance inspector came & wrote down the dash is broken, it wasn’t broken, there was just a hole where the head unit was.

Vehicles absolutely have personality. I had one, all I had to do was think about getting rid of it. Suddenly the turn signals would work correctly, and it would run better.

As far as what to keep, plates is a good idea. Or the toyota emblem on the grill.

 

When my Tacoma was taken from me too early in a bad wreck, I picked up the scuffed but unbroken grill emblem from the highway and kept it, and still have it to this day.

 

Seconded. Valhalla in style.

 

Siphon all the gas out, fill the bed with garbage and let the tow truck take it

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T8MsMHGVR1U&pp=ygURYWxhc2thIGNhciBsYXVuY2g=

 

I say dump it on public property after sanding off the vin and let the tweakers have at it

 

I would be worried about the bad karma from the accident. Get some sage or "weed" of your choice, light it and walk backwards around your totaled TACO 3 times and chant Beetle Juice - Beetle Juice, Beetle Jxxxx, that should work!

 

I did this once. The flatbed driver who carried it was furious.

 

If that's your worst nightmare, life has been good to you. Congratulations!

I mean seriously. Sorry for your loss, but the memories are in your head, not the sheet metal and plastic.

Bolt ons that you can use, pull them. Anything stored in the truck glove, console, bins, all yours. Maybe peel off a Tacoma emblem to put on your tool box

 

I kept the front Toyota emblem when mine was totalled last year.

 

I left the torn open sandbag in the bed of my old truck so they could deal with it and took the good one!

 

My last three trucks have all carried this fortune cookie.

I guess that qualifies as an ancient tradition.

 

My send of ritual is to take as many good parts of it that I can sell on my own before sending it off to the junk yard!

 

I'd say keep some token part from your truck and then move on. Seems sad now but in the end it's just a machine. When we sold my 2016 Tacoma. I swapped the dash frame from the old truck onto our new 2023.