Background: I bought a new 08 Ram 3 1/2 weeks ago. I love the thing a lot - it's got the hemi, 4 wheel drive, quad cab, 20's, 3.92 ratio, tow package, Big Horn, chrome running boards, etc. In one week I managed to have two accidents, a phone call to an attorney, got someone arrested, and took my girlfriend to urgent care - all having to do with two accidents to a BRAND NEW 2008 Dodge Ram. Read on. Pictures of damage (and explanation) at the bottom as well. (If you know anything about the law read the very end of this thing, it gets really hairy).

The day before Thanksgiving, I went and picked up a U-haul auto transport to bring my trans am back from Ohio to Michigan for winter storage. (Oh by the way - Dodge sold me a receiver hitch with NO PIN HOLES. You gotta be kidding me...so much for quality control...Uhaul man had to drill them just to get me going). The guy at Uhaul hooked the trailer to the truck, checked everything out, and sent me on my way. Everything was fine and dandy.

Supposedly.

The Uhaul guy failed to do one vitally important thing - he forgot to lock the coupling link to the ball of my hitch. Thus, when I drove my Trans Am onto the trailer, an interesting thing happened. The tongue of the trailer NOT hooked to the ball of the hitch shot into the back of the truck and left an 8 inch gash in the tailgate. Remember. At the time of the accident the truck was not even 3 weeks old. It scratched it down the paint and left a $673.00 repair bill (collision shop evaluted it - I have to sue Uhaul for damages actually and already have an attorney. The lawsuit is ONLY if Uhaul refuses to pay for both the damage to the truck and...well keep reading).

BUT WAIT! It gets better guys!

Sarah, (girlfriend), was by the trailer helping me load the car. She went over to the truck and was inspecting the damage. What I didn't realize was that her hand was on the bumper and the trailer tongue was in the air above her hand. I backed the car off of the trailer to get the tongue out of the air (the car was acting like a fat kid on a see saw with a little kid on the other end) and the trailer tongue came smashing down...on to Sarah's hand...pinning it between the 500 pound tongue wait and the bumper. She screamed (which I will never forget) and I floored the trans am back onto the trailer to "get the little kid on the see-saw back up in the air" so to speak. I got the trailer tongue back in the air and Sarah hit the ground crying. I got her to urgent care where she has no broken bones but possible tendon damage.

BUT WAIT! It gets even BETTER!!!

That was on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. As of today we're waiting on information about Sarah's hand to see how to pursue this whole U-haul thing. Thus, the gash in the tailgate is still there. I went to work today and parked the truck in front of someone's house. I'm at some customer's house talking to them when I hear this loud crash behind me.

Some guy plowed his Chevy Blazer into the back of my truck. The road was slick due to the snow and he hit the corner going too fast, couldn't get his blazer to go around the bend, and it just continued straight into the back of my truck. The damage wasn't really that bad but I suspect it'll cost more then it looks. Again, the truck is 3 weeks old.

BUUUUUT WAIT!!! No joke folks, it gets even BETTER!!!!

The driver of the Blazer was not only uninsured, he had NO DRIVER'S LICENSE. Cop shows up and promptly arrests Mr. No-License/No-Insurance. Now, I have to make two claims with the insurance company. I won't go into the details with that because it gets a bit harry with the whole Uhaul thing but just suffice to say this is no party. Uhaul will hopefully cover both the damage to the truck and Sarah's hand since health insurance wants to call it an auto-accident and the auto-insurance wants to call it my fault since I was the only driver (trailer incident, not dude hitting my car incident).

You thought the fun stopped there? Oh NO!

I then locked my keys in the truck and had to wait for a wrecker to show up to jimmy the locks for me.

Okay, the fun is now over.

That's about it. I like the truck. I don't beat up on it. It just seems that the rest of the world doesn't feel the same way. The seem to feel the same way about Sarah's hand


>>>>

I posted the above note on a website and just copied it to this one. I'll delve into the legal details a bit. The problem at hand is that Uhaul is very much responsible for the 673 damage to the tailgate caused by the incorrect hookup of the trailer. Collision shop said they'll fix the tailgate, not replace it. This was before Mr. I-drive-illegally plowed into the back of the truck and wrecked up the tailgate. Now we're talking more then a scratch - he penetrated the metal pretty deap. Here is where it gets really nasty. I don't want to file a claim for the 673 on my insurance because in Ohio they're going to treat it as a single-person at fault accident. I'm the single person at fault. My rates will sky-rocket. However, I do want to file a claim for the damage that the idiot did when he hit me. Allstate will call the uhaul scratch unrelated (which they're right - it's totally isolated from the rest of the of the damage that the guy did, he just hit the corner of the tail gate and did damage to the quarter pannel - doesn't look too bad, he got it worse). If they end up NOT replacing the tail gate they'll still have to repaint the whole thing - what, repaint the scratch/gouge? If they do replace the tailgate then Uhaul gets off "lucky."

By lucky I mean they have to just pay for any medical costs to Sarah's hand. Her health insurance will call it "auto-related" and I don't want my "auto" to get involved lol (insurance).

I'm calling a lawyer in a couple days. If the collision shop wants to try to fix the tailgate then I'll have to sue Uhaul for the 673 it costs to repair the gouge and just initially pay out of pocket for that.

What a mess. Don't get me wrong, the damage isn't that bad, but for all of this to happen so fast...it's weird. I do believe in God; I just think He has a funny sense of humor at times. Oh well

Picture Damage:

There is more damage to the truck than can be seen in these shots. I didn't get a picture of the fact that the rear quarter pannel is actually creased right above the rear wheel because of it buckling slightly under the impact. Nor can you see the metal girding underneath the quarter pannel bent in the middle. The bumper to the ram is hanging down a bit.

Thing is the guy actually slid underneath the Ram (yeah high ride height!!!). Thus, most of the damage is confined to what his hood did to the quarter pannel/bumper and the stuff underneath. Unfortunately the camera died while copying the pictures of the trailer damage - that is not pictured here.

 

Dang man... that SUCKS.

Good luck with the lawyer and keep us posted on what happens with everything.

Hope your girl is okay.

 

BLACK TAIL GATE on CRAIGSLIST.com...

White TAIL GATE on CRAIGSLIST.com...


You may be able to talk them into shipping...

You may want to do a search in some major cities or states... The bigger the city the more chances you have of finding the part you want. You may be able to take a day trip to pick it up... for less then it would cost to have it fixed.

Heck for now just REMOVE IT... They come up on Craigs list all the time, if you wait you may even find one that is the right color.

SPEED SAFE, AIR RAM

 

I'm making an insurance claim on the blazer incident...that won't raise my rates...they'll fix or replace the tailgate for me.

 

Good to hear that the truck damage will be covered. Hope your girlfriend recovers quickly. She is still your girlfriend, right? If so, she's a keeper! :-)

 

woow......man thats one hell of a story. hope you all are doing ok. as for the truck dont worry **** happens and everything will be fixed. be optimistic.

 

I actually had the same thing happen to me with Uhaul. They hooked up the car trailer for me and I drove it about 100 miles to pick up a car. When I drove the car onto the trailer it popped off the ball and gouged up my tailgate. When I backed the car off the trailer it came back down resting on my bumper. Uhaul paid for the damages though.

 

wow. not worried about the truck, but really hope your girlfriend is alright. that'd be the worst part of it.

 

Now you know to never trust someone else to hook something to your truck.

 

Yeah she still stuck around :-)