Popped my Elk cherry

[Chocolate Thunder]

If I clicked this thread title expecting a very different type of video, does that make me weird?

Glad you and the Jeep survived. The elk, not so much.

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[Heimkehr]

The shop I was sent to after someone rear ended me in the car wash...

We need the rest of that story, please.

 

[calemasters]

Glad you are OK. I hope the elk had good insurance.

 

[Zero_Accel]

We need the rest of that story, please.

Sure, why not.

So about a month after getting my new to me Gladiator, I decided to try those fancy full service car washes for the price of $35 buckaroos. You get a valet to drive you vehicle through the wash, they clean the whole interior, a quick wax with a polishing wheel, and you get to watch through a nice bay window while sipping coffee. Is it the best way to spend $35 bucks, well it saves my knuckles from aching after applying wax myself so it's not a bad deal in the end, at least if only once every few months.

It was during this wash when I saw something strange. Remember the valets? Well it's because this wash with the rolling style scrubbers didn't have a guidance rail for some reason, probably to save cost. The owners would have some teens ride the brakes through the wash and had done it that way for years.

Well I saw a woman in a Ford Fiesta who was CLEARLY not an employee driving through the wash, maybe they forgot to tell her that the valets needed to be the ones driving. Well this woman is trying her best to keep up with the wash just behind my Jeep, and she made one critical mistake. She was about 2 feet behind my truck, while the valets usually kept a nice healthy 5 feet in between vehicles.

So what happened next was when the roof scrubbing roller came off the top of my Jeep, which was already on a 2.5 inch lift with 35 inch tires, caused the sensor to MISS her little Fiesta entirely. Big hydraulic roller came down and CRUSHED her windshield and A pillars! I saw this through the bay window and couldn't believe what I was seeing. The aftermath.

Since this lady was living out what could have been a scene in a B grade final destination movie, I couldn't exactly blame her when she panicked and slammed her foot on the gas. She went right into the back of my Jeep, the truck barely moved, and the workers hit the emergency stop.

Thankfully she was fine, just some superficial cuts on her hands from the broken glass, a little drenched, and shaken from the whole experience. I'm pretty sure she got a fat paycheck after talking to her lawyers, but that isn't really any of my business.

My truck didn't really get that much damage, the hitch took the brunt of the hit, only cracked the shell on the whole bumper, but given that this was in the middle of the supply shortages in 2021, the shop had a hard time finding a plastic sport bumper, and I was able to convince them to let me pick one out of a local 4x4 shop they work with (I tried asking for cash as this wasn't my first choice of bumper, but they were already doing me a favor so I didn't fight them when they said they couldn't do that). Still, not a bad upgrade, and I can sell it if I want to upgrade to a stronger bumper down the road.

The new bumper can take a bit of abuse at least, from a nudge from a tiny Fiesta:

To dragging halfway across the desert, solid improvement:

 

[Heimkehr]

@Zero_Accel
Thanks. You really did have a story to tell.

 

[OhioJeeper]

Glad it didn't go through the windshield. It would be nice if someone harvested that, as I'm pretty sure it's hind quarter is broken up. Here it is whitetails, my property and the roads are full of them.

it's the rutting season in Ohio, so they are on the move.

 

[Spartan99]

Poor elk. Glad you’re okay!

 

[NMPirate]

I hate when that happens!! The elk are pretty big here in Northern New Mexico. They can do a lot of damage in a very short time. Glad everyone is ok and the Jeep still lives on.

 

[Opus]

Time to nickname that Jeep... The Rock.

Glad you weren't hurt and impressed the Jeep fared as well as it did.

 

[2nd 392]

Roadkill on the way home once turned an unsuccessful hunt into a successful one with no damage to the PU towing the Jeep. ?

 

[Murphydog]

Pretty amazing that both headlights still worked!

 

[GearWhore]

Happy you're okay! Hitting big animals can go wrong in a lot of ways!

 

[CharlieVictor]

.... hmmm... maybe I should be in therapy?

Nah, you don't need it - you've got a Jeep now!

 

[Roctoy]

I’ve seen more damage to the front and driver’s side of a full sized pickup truck and the elk walked away.

 

[dragoneggs]

Hit my first elk last night. Considering how massive that fella was, I'm surprised at the damage. Jeep did a good and I was able to keep on trucking to home without losing any time.

Just looks like a raised eyebrow to me… better than an angry grill. Maybe polish it up, fix the light and leave it as is?


Seriously, glad you’re okay.

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