CONCLUSION!!! - UPDATED: Rear Ended - Help!

I wouldn't have expected that in Maryland but I know very little about Maryland. I'm about 45 minutes from the US/Mexican border and I personally have been in 3 accidents with people in the US illegally and none of those 3 accidents were my fault.

It just plain sucks and isn't fair at all. If the drivers that weren't supposed to be driving actually had some negative thing happen to them it would be easier to accept but nothing ever happens with those drivers it seems.

 

My wife's cousin got into an accident in his Colorado and although I didn't inspect the frame myself I was told the frame was bent by the cousin. It didn't appear to be a very hard hit at all.

 

Too heavy and too impractical for a mass producing manufacturer.

 

That bumper is far more likely to get the truck's frame bent in an accident than a stock bumper is, not even close.

 

Great post. My wife's car was rear ended and the insurance company wanted to use used parts. By the time I was done with them the insurance company paid for new factory Toyota parts, paid our $250 deductible, sent us a "thank you for your business" card, and sent me a belated birthday card.

 

People don't seem to understand that the management of forces in a crash is critical to occupant safety. What the engineers are trying to do - through extensive computer modeling - is to dissipate / redirect the forces in a crash and prevent them from reaching the occupants. After all, trucks are cheaper to repair than people. (And trucks don't sue.) Truth be told, the frames (and other parts of our trucks) have "crumple zones" built into them to dissipate crash energy. That actually took a lot of brain (and computer) power.

It is (theoretically) possible to build a frame that would never bend in a crash. That would mean that almost 100% of the crash energy would be passed on to the occupants. Then you'd hear something like "Damn, the truck looks perfect! Too bad everybody in it died." Would that be better?

 

Absolutely true, but you'll never win that argument around here.

 

Get a superbumper!! Highly recommended

 

Massachusetts, but regardless you're damn right it's unfair and wrong. Not to mention that the person who was following the law gets bent over!

 

I've been an engineer for a long time (class of '71) and I can guarantee that this design is not deliberately weak - it is deliberately too light. And the cost of the steel and design work to make it a more rugged structure wouldn't be noticed in the purchase price or gas mileage either one. If the functional testing shows that the test dummy doesn't have a broken neck - and the manufactured cost hits the economic criteria for the chassis - the engineering manager grins and walks away. Could care less if the 10 mph collision damage destroys the vehicle. He just wants his next review to net him a decent raise.

 

To quote Jay Leno about a 56' Buick Roadmaster: "You get in an accident in that, they'll just hose down the dash and sell it to the next guy."

 

Also an Engineer (class of '76), and having spent 36 years in manufacturing, I can't totally disagree with that. But theoretically ...

 

I won't touch the fact that you're an engineer but...

In 2019 there were 250,000 Toyota Tacomas built and if you don't think more steel per each Tacoma would increase the cost to the consumer.... you even mentioned it yourself in "the economic criteria for the chassis...".

Secondly the more the weight of the vehicle the lower the gas mileage with all things being equal, that's in physics 101.

 

It is an impossibility that everyone would die inside the brutally tough perfect looking vehicle that got into an accident. All seat belts and all airbags would have to fail for that to happen and that ain't going to happen.

 

in a hit like the one in this post you'd still have a bent frame. , but it'll look badass.

 

Honestly the damage to the truck here might be fixable. But ultimately the right way to fix it would be a new frame. Good thing in those can be had for less than 3 grand, bad news is the labor to swap it quickly gets close or over 10 grand.

 

Can't the OP just have a local Automotive Trade school just have put it on frame machine and pull it back within specs ????? . I've got a friend who's parents have a 89 Jeep Cherokee that has been Salvaged titled 4x's

Each accident that it was totalled they bought it back from the insurance company with a salvage title .

 

The Colorado is fully boxed so it's neither impractical nor too heavy.

 

It is unlikely, but not impossible. Air bags and seatbelts are cool, but crumple zones are a lot cooler. With zero crumple zone, you could still die wearing a seat belt. The basics of all safety mechanisms in a vehicle boil down to increasing deceleration time in an accident. Force = mass * acceleration. The longer it takes to go from 70mph to 0 mph, the less deceleration your body has, which in turn decreases the force exerted on your body. Air bags and seatbelts can help with the deceleration, but they only have so much distance to work with. Crumple zones do the brunt of the work. If your adamantine frame doesn't crumple hitting a brick wall, the deceleration time of the car is instant, which does bad bad things.(provided you wouldn't be split in twain by the seatbelt, you still risk your brain bouncing off the front of your skull).

 

No kidding. That's hilarious because my wife's cousin's Colorado's frame bent in a pretty mild accident.