Date:         Thu, 19 Nov 1998 16:16:55 -0600
Reply-To:     Blue Eyes <lvlearn@MCI2000.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Blue Eyes <lvlearn@MCI2000.COM>
Organization: Vexation Computer
Subject:      Re: Vanagon vs Volvo Crash Photos
Comments: To: vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Pat wrote:
"You guys are worried about SUV's.  Hah Hah.
My friend drove a semi for a living.  His company, like most of them, worked
him till he nearly collapsed from exhaustion.  He drove 600 miles or more
every day.  These are the vehicles to watch for.  No second chances here.
Our stout vanagons would look far worse than the volvo in a head-on with one
of these sleepy drivers in a fifty ton rig."

I was going to hold my tongue on this topic, but you've drawn me into the
discourse.
I happen to own a Mack Superliner that's out on lease in Florida.  For one
thing, even with Florida's atypically high gross weight limits, it is limited
to 70,000 pounds.  So to maximize payloads per run, it has an aluminum box,
fuel tanks, steps and lots of trick stuff to make it a light 24 K pounds
empty.  So your speculative "fifty ton rig" is way off the mark of anything
that's not running with a special permit.

But as for competitive traffic engagements, a couple years ago some hot headed
driver decided to pull out from a side street and light up his tires with his
454 inch GM street racer and just out-run my Mack which was about to enter the
intersection.  My driver locked up all the tires and just cleaned that car's
top right off the frame.  Amazingly, this idiot racer type wasn't seriously
hurt let alone killed.  He was so low after the Mack's front "float" tires
climbed his car that the front end of the Mack was over his crushed piece of
junk so the Mack's front bumper didn't even hit him passing over.  His
insurance paid for my repairs and down time which exceeded the value of his
car.  And the moral of this story:  Macks don't bluff.  Don't go jousting with
giants in your Vanagon, Volvo or Varoooooom car.
John