another reason I drive a 1 ton as a daily driver

[lostcause]

i agree that passanger saferty is the ultimate concern... however I feel a shock loaded good bumper with a slip type plastic shroud, so that some small collisions could be absorbed by shocks and springs, with no plastic damage.. that would be idea.. then if it was a bad collision.. go ahead and start utilizing the crumple zones for energy disipation.. etc..

79-86 saab 900 bumpers. basically a 4" x 4" cross section made of a light metal backbone with a plastic honeycomb construction covered with a semi-soft molded black plastic cover. many times they have been used like a push bar on a truck. as long as you were pushing against a smooth surface you'd have no damage to the bumper and you could push cars, trucks, or other non-moving rollable objects around.

 

[aczlan]

i agree that passanger saferty is the ultimate concern... however I feel a shock loaded good bumper with a slip type plastic shroud, so that some small collisions could be absorbed by shocks and springs, with no plastic damage.. that would be idea.. then if it was a bad collision.. go ahead and start utilizing the crumple zones for energy disipation.. etc..

Sounds like what Volvo did with their 200, 700 and 900 series cars from the 70s or early 80s to 1995ish. After that they added body colored bumpers.

Aaron Z

 

[joshuabardwell]

Sometimes I wonder if the older full frame cars and trucks that were heavier did a better job of protecting the occupants just BECAUSE they were stronger?

I think there are probably statistics you could find to answer this question, and I would lay good money, they show that modern cars with crumple zones, airbags, and so forth, are better at preventing injury than older full frame ones. Think of an F1 car. It's designed to disintegrate on impact so that as much kinetic energy as possible is dissipated. Meanwhile the driver's cabin is built like a tank, but also as light as possible, again, to minimize kinetic energy that's transferred to the driver. Same philosophy of modern cars. After a bad accident, they will look like a accordion, but the occupants are likely to be just fine. With the older style of car, the car might look fine, but the occupants will have absorbed more of the energy, and are more likely to be injured.

Put it another way. Which would you rather do? Slam into a brick wall with a steel rod in front of you, or with a big spring in front of you?

 

[Soundguy]

spring, mountid inside a vehicle that wasn't going to be heavily damaged if I was going 10mph.. ( cake and eat it too! )

 

[Renze]

Put it another way. Which would you rather do? Slam into a brick wall with a steel rod in front of you, or with a big spring in front of you?

More or less what i was trying to say the other day.

Other things in cheap small cars: 2 weeks ago a 21 year old guy hit a tree right before the town bridge. Had a small 750kg car with a 90hp 1.3 engine in it: the front wasnt shortened all that much, judging from photos taken from the side, but you could see the A and B pillars were closer to each other, and the steering column was a foot back, punching the chest of the driver. He died minutes after the crash.

Just like you say, its all about energy dissipation. The cars crumple zone is disposable, the passengers arent..

 

[Renze]

I agree. I've never seen even a small saloon hit a tree.

Bruce
View attachment 270830

When you only joke about the ENGLISH (as opposed to American English) then my "english" isnt that bad i guess

 

[catdozer]

When I had my old 2002 duramax 3/4 ton, i was coming up to a light, light turned red went for the brakes and all black ice under me! T-boned a sub compact car and was completely totaled, nobody hurt but messed up my bumper and grill. even drove it home. A week later ordered rancho bumpers for it front and rear, probably 7 months later a suv ran a stop sign and clipped the very left front bumper, it was fixed with some black paint. Had the truck for another 5 years without an accident, while a severe thunderstorm a huge ole tree fell directly across the cab. Frame was touching the ground!!! Totaled..
Insurance wouldn't let me keep the rancho bumpers, but I bought a newer duramax and couldn't be happier! And I will never drive anything smaller than a 3/4 ton.

 

[slowzuki]

Trucks are getting better but my F350 superduty wouldn't be my first choice to hit a tree or brick wall with. No frame crumple zone because they are rated to have snowplows mounted.

Having been hit head on with a nearly 100 mph closing speed with me in a Subaru Imprezza and the other driver in an S10 blazer, theres some neat engineering going on. Our subaru had the engine submarine under so the frame would collapse right. The lights were almost to the firewall but both doors open and closed fine. Air bags obviously deployed but I sit far enough back the seat belt held me, only my forhead hit the bag.

The S10 blazer had its front end crushed too, but the roof got tweaked so that every door was partly jammed. Their injuries were similar to ours except someone broke and leg and pelvis.

If wondering, the other driver was at fault, 4x the legal limit. The other passengers were worse than him. BTW don't drive with your passengers reclined, my passenger was asleep and semi-submarined under the lap belt then came forward and broke the chest belt and didn't hit the air bag right. Serious internal injuries, emergency surgery, intensive care for a week.

 

[coloradogradergal]

Fully agree. My truck is 2002 F350 Crew Cab. Love it. A friend of mine had a horrible crash a few years ago, driving same kind of truck, when a little SUV (Honda I believe) crossed the center line. Both boys in the SUV were killed, my friend and her mother survived, with a few broken bones. I'll never have a compact car!

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. fender bender in a compact can total it. fender bender in a larger vehicle is just that.. ding in large vehicle.. crushed up tin can if the toehr vehicle is compact.

soundguy