Stuck on a slide !?!?

[merlin617]

Now I have over the years whilst land rovering been hooked up on various obstacles such as tree stumps, roots, even lumps of concrete, but today on my way home from work I encountered an entirely new form of obstruction.


I shall now attempt to recite the sad chain of events which led to me being late home for my tea.

I work on a farm in the Fens, and anyone who knows the area will also know that the roads are shall we say, a little bumpy in places. Anyway I am happily chugging along in my old 90 and spot a Ford Mondeo coming towards me pulling one of those little trailers like they sell at halfords ( the ones with the capacity of a wheelbarrow) Now Mr Mondeo wasn’t hanging about and his little trailer was merrily bobbing up and down behind him saving wear to its tyres by being airborne most of the time, when he meets a larger than average bump and a large blue and green item bounces up into the air from his trailer. Sadly when it comes back down again the trailer has moved on somewhat and I am now faced with this article heading towards me at a considerable rate of knots. After careful consideration of my predicament I decide that the appropriate course of action is to stamp on the brakes, but alas too late. There follows an almighty bang  and some unpleasant screeching noises before I come to a stop. After assisting my Labrador to untangle himself from the dog guard and realising that Mr Mondeo isn’t stopping!! I take a peek underneath my truck and to my not small surprise I find a child’s plastic garden slide. Fortunately there appears to be no damage but as I lean on the front wheel to take a better look, the wheel freely rotates causing me to fall forward and head butt the front wing. After a few well chosen expletives I investigate further and discover the slide has gone under the bumper and been compressed by the steering guard. After its popped out from under the guard it got jammed under the diff and actually raised the axle enough to lift the front offside wheel clear of the ground. After a bit of head scratching I deployed the Hi Lift and raised the landy up high enough to pull the rather mangled slide out from underneath. During the jacking operation I got a complete fit of the giggles much to the bemusement of the odd passing motorist. But it just struck me at the time as being hilarious that I had managed to get my Land Rover stuck on top of a child’s garden slide.  :lol:

If the chap in the Mondeo does by any slim chance happen  to read this, then feel free to pop round and you can have what’s left of your child’s slide back and I will be happy to show you how to rope a load down on a trailer. I just hope that you are more careful when it comes to securing your children inside your vehicle. [-X

[carbore]

That story is why camera phones should be carried at all times. I can just see the dat going home and saying "look Timmy, look what I bought you....its in the trailer"

Thanks for posting that.

[carracarra13]

Thanks how would you of written that up on an insurence form lol

[muddyjames]

lucky you were in a landy that could a; handle the fact you hit a slide and b; you went over the top of it and not in another mondeo that would have probably bounced it up the bonnet and through the screen!

[Gordo]

Fen roads can certainly be interesting - especially with the 90 degree bends with drains full of water on the outside  :-o

My best accident was when I was hit by a stationary vehicle. I had a lot of difficulty filling in the accident form after that one  :-k

The rough roads were one of the reasons I bought the LR in the first place :)

[muddyjames]

My best accident .........

a contradiction in terms there!!!  :lol:

[Range Rover Blues]

A good few years ago my dad was nealry killed by a similar accident involving a box taking out the roof on his Sierra.  Had it been a couple of inched lower if would have gone thorugh the screen.

Some pople are just too thick to be let loose in society and it's often others who pay the consequence.

Glad you wern't hurt.  Are you turning the slide into a twist off ramp ;)

[merlin617]

A good few years ago my dad was nealry killed by a similar accident involving a box taking out the roof on his Sierra.  Had it been a couple of inched lower if would have gone thorugh the screen.

Some pople are just too thick to be let loose in society and it's often others who pay the consequence.

Glad you wern't hurt.  Are you turning the slide into a twist off ramp ;)

Thanks for the kind thought.
This is the second close call we've had over the past couple of months. The first was the catastrophic failure of the drag link, ball joint on our Disco leaving us with no steering. That happened at speed, on another of our famous Fen roads and we were lucky that we stopped in a straight line.

This "do" with the slide didn't strike me as dangerous at the time. In fact I was in fits of laughter trying to get the dammed thing out from under my truck. But as I often find with close calls, its when you sit down afterwards and reflect on it, that the thoughts about what might have happened come to you.

As for turning the slide into a twist off ramp. I think it may be slightly beyond repair.

[V8MoneyPit]

Great story  :thumbup:

Had a similar incident last year. We were waiting at a tee junction when a Transit pickup drove past and an arm chair bounced off the back. It landed on its feet right in the middle of the junction. You can just imagine the sight of it... looked like it had been placed very carefully! We quickly moved it off the road and set chase after the truck that hadn't noticed. Managed to flash the lights enough to attract his attention. I suggested in the most polite way that he should learn how to use ropes. He sheepishly turned round to retrieve the missing chair.

[EbonynIvory]

Thank you for that - made me giggle! 

[Tommo]

Surely it would have reversed off with the difflock in? or did the hi-lift need a bit of usage anyway  :lol:

[merlin617]

Surely it would have reversed off with the difflock in? or did the hi-lift need a bit of usage anyway  :lol:

Hi,

I did try to reverse off it with the diff lock in, but it didn't seem to want to leave me and all I achieved was to drag it backwards and forwards leaving a trail of plastic on the road. But you are right about the Hi Lift. it is a while since its been used in anger and I think it took me and the dog longer to dig it out from all the other kit than it did to free ourselves. I must have a sort out as it appears from reading some of the replies to my original post, that I may need it again as these low flying objects are more common than you might think.

[diggerdog36]

Great story, and I'd love to have seen you on the road, then tried to work out what the hell you were doing!!!

I was driving down the A1 a few months ago following a scrappies/pikies flat bed, when the house door, that was perched ontop of the conifer trimmings decided it wanted to escape, lifted off the said conifers and 'flew' straight over the top of us in a Peugeot 307 and smashed onto the road behind us.  Door, fittings, frame et al.  Scary!!
I flashed my lights, tooted my horn, I think they knew what happened, they just decided to ignore the fact!!

[Gordo]

I was driving down the A1 a few months ago following a scrappies/pikies flat bed, when the house door, that was perched ontop of the conifer trimmings decided it wanted to escape, lifted off the said conifers and 'flew' straight over the top of us in a Peugeot 307 and smashed onto the road behind us.  Door, fittings, frame et al.  Scary!!
I flashed my lights, tooted my horn, I think they knew what happened, they just decided to ignore the fact!!

A mate of mine was riding someone else's motorbike along the A12 when a ladder made a bid for freedom from the roof of the van in front. It went end-over-end and stopped against the front wheel of the bike. A very lucky escape.  :shock:

[J.D.]

I was on my way to college and was following a Hilux pickup with a rigid bottom dinghy in th eback lent against the bulkhead behind the cab. Matey pulled on the motorway, put his foot down and the bit of garden twine holding it on snapped and the dinghy went over my Astra into the artic behind on the M4.

Wasn't a lot left of it after the artic had finished with it, and the driver was no too impressed, nor were HATO when they arrived.

[crazymac]

LOL, Well, I can come at this as someone that has lost items off their car!!

About 17 years ago I was moving from Wales back to a job in Scotland, so had all my worldly possessions in the Mazda 323 that I had at the time and my Kayak strapped on "J" bars on the roof.

I was pootling up the M6 on the inside lane when I had a bowel moving noise from the roof and looked in my mirrors to see my kayak complete with roofrack bouncing across 3 lanes of Mway and hitting the central reservation :shock:

Thankfully, although there was lots of cars on the road the kayak managed to miss everything!! I went to the hard shoulder and another car stopped behind me to give me a hand (nice chap) We managed to get across and rescue the kayak but the roofrack was FUBAR so I turned it upside down directly onto the roof of my car and started to tie it down. Turned out that the roofrack had ripped the guttering off the car!!

As I was finishing tying down the Police turned up, and watched me finish the tying then had a look at the car, he said that he could give me three points on my license for loosing my load, I replied "loosing my load, I nearly cr@pped my load!!" He went on to say that he could see that it wasn't my fault and that the load was secure so he would let me on my way :dance:

needless to say I always check the guttering on cars before attaching a roofrack these days!

[Skibum346]

LOL, Well, I can come at this as someone that has lost items off their car!!

See My latest post!

As I was finishing tying down the Police turned up, and watched me finish the tying then had a look at the car, he said that he could give me three points on my license for loosing my load, I replied "loosing my load, I nearly cr@pped my load!!"

Quality!!!!