Every time I think I'm gonna have fun in the snow...

[Shdwdrgn]

We've got a foot of snow on the ground already this morning, and after dropping my wife off at work this morning, I found a little present the city left behind... a pile of snow left in the street at one of the intersections. I hit it doing about 30 (couldn't dodge), and it grabbed the right side of the truck, threw me around and bounced me up over the curb onto the shoulder. Took out a small tree on my way through. The biggest shock was that there was no body damage, except to the front end. My push-bar took nearly all of the brunt of the tree. It's now pushed off about 6" to the right. Also split the cross-piece that the chevy emblem sits in, and mangled the bumper cover. So far the only actual damage I have found is that the bottom of the fan shroud has been pushed lightly into the fan. I was able to drive home without overheating, but I have a new job starting on Monday and need to get this figured out fast.

My worst concern is the wheels themselves. Fortunately there was so much snow packed up beside the street that I think I mostly slid up over the curb. There's no apparent scuffing of the paint on the wheels, and I didn't even pop off a center cap. I also didn't feel any wobbling on the rest of the drive home, so I'm crossing my fingers there.

So if its just the front-end issue, then I got really lucky. All of the doors still appear to be in proper alignment, the hood still hits the latch in the right spot, and measurements across the engine compartment appear to still be square. I'm waiting for the snow to melt back enough that I can get a good look underneath and see if the twisting of the push-bar did any damage to the frame where it's attached.

The last time we had a really heavy snow, it was in October while the leaves were still on the trees. I was enjoying the snow until large branches started breaking off of our tree.

 

[MrDJ]

Dang man, glad you're okay!

 

[jbones]

The City left you a nice dangerous road hazard. I suppose you know what to do next!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

The City left you a nice dangerous road hazard. I suppose you know what to do next!

Honestly, I doubt you could sue the city for something like that. Not to mention, how would you even begin to prove they were at fault?

On the other hand, what I need to do next is reconsider the idea of a full steel front bumper. The original bumper cover is torn up pretty good. I got the push-bar taken off, and all the bumper cover mounting points appear to be broken (I have no idea what's holding it on at this point). Looking underneath, I can see some twisted metal. There are two 'wings' that the radiator appears to sit on. One is twisted around at a 45-degree angle. Still too much snow underneath to really get to everything, but I think the next step is removing the bumper cover entirely... Any tips on that?

Oh, and my wife just called and said they are closing the office for the day, so now I have to go back and pick her up. Figures...

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

You should have called the police and got an accident report. Then you could get the city to pay for it.

Not to mention, now you have left the scene of an accident with property damage and could get yourself in trouble if the owner of the tree got your plate.

 

[fletch09]

Honestly, I doubt you could sue the city for something like that. Not to mention, how would you even begin to prove they were at fault?

On the other hand, what I need to do next is reconsider the idea of a full steel front bumper. The original bumper cover is torn up pretty good. I got the push-bar taken off, and all the bumper cover mounting points appear to be broken (I have no idea what's holding it on at this point). Looking underneath, I can see some twisted metal. There are two 'wings' that the radiator appears to sit on. One is twisted around at a 45-degree angle. Still too much snow underneath to really get to everything, but I think the next step is removing the bumper cover entirely... Any tips on that?

Oh, and my wife just called and said they are closing the office for the day, so now I have to go back and pick her up. Figures...

IIRC there are 2 support brackets (plastic) on the lower corners, 3 bolts (maybe some plastic push pins) under where the grill sits.
and 4-5 plastic serated pins on the underside in the lower middle opening.
hope the link works, here is a blow up of front bumper.
http://parts.nalleygmc.com/showAsse...y_TrimLevel=0&ukey_modelRange=0&searchString=
good luck

 

[Bartonmd]

Honestly, I doubt you could sue the city for something like that. Not to mention, how would you even begin to prove they were at fault?

On the other hand, what I need to do next is reconsider the idea of a full steel front bumper. The original bumper cover is torn up pretty good. I got the push-bar taken off, and all the bumper cover mounting points appear to be broken (I have no idea what's holding it on at this point). Looking underneath, I can see some twisted metal. There are two 'wings' that the radiator appears to sit on. One is twisted around at a 45-degree angle. Still too much snow underneath to really get to everything, but I think the next step is removing the bumper cover entirely... Any tips on that?

Oh, and my wife just called and said they are closing the office for the day, so now I have to go back and pick her up. Figures...

This is the reason I advocate not using those push bars/brush guards, because they multiply damage by the way they're mounted. I think every one of them mounts to the radiator mounts that hang down (part of the frame), so if you hit anything, they automatically get bent and push the radiator or at least guard into the fan, and it goes back and hits the bumper and possibly grill, anyway... So instead of a bumper over and support being messed up, you've got messed up radiator mounts on the frame, a bent brush guard, and a broken grill, to add to it...

Mike

 

[Shdwdrgn]

@fletch09 - thanks, that should help a lot! I assume the mounting points on the TB are pretty much the same as on the Envoy?

@Bartonmd - Every situation I've been in previously was a pretty much straight-on impact, so I figured the push-bar would be great for that. And it probably is. But in this case, I believe what happened was I slid sideways and caught the tree between the uprights of the push-bar. Of course there's always the chance that if the push-bar had not been there, I would have slid by without touching the tree... or the tree might have ripped apart my bumper, headlight, and side panel. There's no way to know what the difference would have been.

All I can do now is get it torn down, try to fix the damage, and comment on how stubby my front clip looks without the push-bar there. Since the bumper cover mounts are torn up, I'll need to get a replacement at some point. I've really been eyeballing those steel bumpers you guys have made, and would love to have more durability on the front of my truck. I'll have to put some serious thought into this now...

 

[fletch09]

i would assume so. didn't even notice that it was for gmc.
i put in 2004 TB (yours) and that is what came up.
actually went to the thread (on here) for "compnine replacement" and used the first link in the thread.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Have it coming away a bit from the top side, but the bottom is still clipped. There's too much snow and water on the floor to mess with it today - will wait until tomorrow for it to dry out. In the meantime, I was able to get a clear view of what's going on. It appears that the push-bar is actually bolted to some thinner steel, not directly to the frame. I'm a bit dismayed about this, as I thought it was bolted up to something stronger. Those pieces appear to be thin enough that I can bend them back into shape by hand once the last of the push-bar is unbolted and the bumper cover is out of the way. I don't see anything actually *broken*, just some twisted metal. There is no damage to the radiator itself, no fluid loss anywhere, and the rear tire seems to be holding air, so I probably just popped the bead briefly when I hopped the curb.

So I guess tomorrow I'll finish tearing it apart and see how much trouble it will be to straighten those pieces.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

All righty then, we're back on the road. I used a come-along to pull the push-bar mounting points back around near where they were supposed to be, and that brought the radiator and fan shroud back to their respective locations. A few self-tapping screws through various points in the plastic bumper cover to hold it solid, and it doesn't look half bad. I will need to crawl underneath and finish straightening some pieces by hand when the weather is better, but everything feels solid and appears to have the proper clearances again.

I also got the rear end jacked off the ground and let the wheels spin in drive... no apparent problems there either. The tire that hit the curb is holding air, and there's no unusual noises when driving it around.

The only thing left is unbolting the mounting brackets from the push-bar. They look weird just hanging out in front of the truck like that. Once they are out of the way, the front end will look pretty much stock again. At least there doesn't seem to be any major damage done and I'm back on the road.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Figured I would get some pictures posted up. I spent some quality time with a big hammer this morning, working on the push bar. It's back in place again, and bolting things back together seems to have helps bring the underframe back into alignment again.

Before:

After judicious use of a come-along and some tapping from the side and underneath:

Still off by a couple inches, so I'm on the lookout for another sacrificial tree (kidding!)... Lots of waves in the pushbar frame, but it'll hold until I'm able to get something new. All in all, really not too bad considering everything.

 

[harmless]

I agree with Hardtrailz.

Something like this happened to me last winter.

Because I was (now) late for work and I didn't wait for the police or the town supervisor, I got a big load of butt t(r)ape from the town.

I left. My cost. It never happened, even though the loader operator saw everything.

B.S. all the way I say.

 

[Sparky]

@fletch09 - thanks, that should help a lot! I assume the mounting points on the TB are pretty much the same as on the Envoy?

@Bartonmd - Every situation I've been in previously was a pretty much straight-on impact, so I figured the push-bar would be great for that. And it probably is. But in this case, I believe what happened was I slid sideways and caught the tree between the uprights of the push-bar. Of course there's always the chance that if the push-bar had not been there, I would have slid by without touching the tree... or the tree might have ripped apart my bumper, headlight, and side panel. There's no way to know what the difference would have been.

All I can do now is get it torn down, try to fix the damage, and comment on how stubby my front clip looks without the push-bar there. Since the bumper cover mounts are torn up, I'll need to get a replacement at some point. I've really been eyeballing those steel bumpers you guys have made, and would love to have more durability on the front of my truck. I'll have to put some serious thought into this now...

If you have him make a steel bumper, you could have him weld the center guard to the bumper itself. Saw one like that once and it looked pretty good

 

[Shdwdrgn]

The shoulder of the street is still city property (and the houses are all behind fences several feet off the street), so there was no damage to any private properly. Typically whenever we have such a heavy snow around here, cities go into 'accident alert' meaning that if you're involved with another driver, you exchange info, and if you're the only one involved, then no big deal. Either way, if the damages are estimated at less than $1000 you can go on your way without notifying the police.

As for getting the city to pay for anything... that's a laugh. There was a case several years ago where a crew had dug a trench across one lane of the street, and when they left for the day, they forgot to put up the warning signs to keep people from driving in that lane. Someone came driving down the road, dropped into the hole, sheered their rear axle right off the car. They tried to sue the city, and lost because the city said they should have watched where they were driving. It always comes down to who has the better lawyers these days.

Quite frankly, I'm not too keen on police anyway. The last time I was involved in an accident by myself, I was on a dirt road late at night, there was nobody else around and damage other than to my car. The cops followed the tow truck out to my car, then proceeded to give me a ticket. So not only was I out a car, but I had to pay a fine to cover the cost of the cops coming out to look at something that was already taken care of. I'm simply not willing to contact them for any reason if they are not specifically needed.

@Sparky - I did see that bumper with the pushbar welded on... it is definitely a consideration...

 

[racsan]

You should have called the police and got an accident report. Then you could get the city to pay for it.

Not to mention, now you have left the scene of an accident with property damage and could get yourself in trouble if the owner of the tree got your plate.

around these parts, you's earn yourself a "failure to control" ticket if the police got involved. revenue generation!, thats what the cops really seem to be around for...