Your scariest moments driving your Liberty.

[VeitzJeep]

Share your horror stories of accidents or white knuckle adventures-- on road and off.

 

[VeitzJeep]

One of my worst experiences was being in the Appalacians in Western Virginia at my in-law's house a couple years ago for Christmas. A huge snow storm moved into the area within an hour or two. What normally takes an hour to drive back our apartment took over three hours. Scariest part was seeing semi trucks sliding down the mountain and into ditches, passing dozens of overturned cars and cars stuck in ditches... there were some vehicles were in the lane next to me, spinning their tires as hard as they can to try to avoid slipping downhill into the guard rail. But my KJ kept going without major slippage once. Just had to stop at a gas station once to knock off all of the ice from the windsheild, hood, and rest of the Jeep. And I only had on some cheap all season tires!

Several days later, we were finally able to leave our apartment and go to Virginia Beach to see my parents, and had to suddenly swerve over to the other lane on the interstate because a car was still buried in snow in the left lane!

 

[Jake.Ski]

driving up I-5 to Coos bay, OR when my wipers stopped working while passing a truck on my way down the Siskyous, in December. horrible.

 

[tjkj2002]

No real scary moments but I'm sure I caused alot when I get real close to your rear bumper when you decide to pull out in front of me.Only seems like audi A4 drivers have a death wish because there really the only ones that pull out in front of me.I don't stop nor slow down,I floor it:smokin:,going to get into a ccident I'm going to do it big time.

 

[bugnout]

Driving around the southern tip of Lake Michigan two winters ago, right at dusk, pulling a trailer. Lake effect snow kicked in around Michigan City Indiana and its a total white out. can't see the road, can't see the ditch, can't see the other cars, don't want to stop as I'm likely to get rear ended by a semi, Knowing I couldn't stop if there is someone stopped in the lane ahead of me.

maybe 15 feet of visibility ahead, I kept going, stayed in the left lane and just following the very faint tire tracks in the foot deep snow, keeping a steady 30 mph or so, hoping I don't hit anyone. Every once in a while I pass a group of vehicles, semi's and cars tangled up on the right side. About 30 minutes of the toughest driving I've ever done.

Next morning I found out there were a dozen fatalities that night, both traffic related and hypothermia on that stretch of road. Emergency crews couldn't get in to help anyone until the snow stopped, and it didn't stop until the next morning.

 

[VeitzJeep]

In March my wife and I took a road trip up to Portland, ME to visit her brother. Drove straight through from Virginia Beach with a stop in NYC for a couple of hours to see a friend. We were also REALLY sick with the Flu. By the time we got to Maine, I was so tired, there wasn't enough coffee nor 5 Hour Enegies in the world to keep me awake enough. I managed to drive to keep it together enough for the last 45 minutes. My wife and I were bed ridden for the next two days at my brother-in-law's place. Worst drive ever (that didn't involve bad weather).

 

[retmil46]

Heading up I-35 North last year from San Antonio to my friend's just south of Austin. I'm doing 70 mph in the middle lane, very little other traffic around thankfully. Here comes a guy in a pickup in the fast lane, blowing by me like I'm standing still. When not even 3 car lengths ahead of me, he whips it over into my lane.

When he did that, the wind caught one of those square reinforced hard plastic storage bins in his bed, and flipped it out in the road directly in my path. All I had time to do was take a death grip on the steering wheel to hold it straight.

A huge "WHUMP", as I let off the accelerator and listened/watched for any signs of damage - big worry in my mind was that thing was going to take out one of my tires at 70 mph. But everything kept running and sounding as normal. Thankfully, I was just coming up on a rest area, and pulled in to assess any damage.

That bin had caught the plastic bumper cover JUST INSIDE the drivers front wheel. It had popped out nearly all the fasteners on that side, and had torn it from the corner of the opening on it's underside all the way up to the upper flat surface of the cover. Looking inside the fender well, it had ****** the cover back far enough that it had made contact with the front wheel (not the way I'd wanted to grind down the pinch welds) before springing back. The drivers side turn signal had been completely popped out of it's slot and was hanging by the wires.

Breathed a sigh of relief I'd bought this thing with a full set of factory skid plates - they'd made short work of that bin and kept anything else important from getting damaged. Took a screwdriver and popped the turn signal back into it's slot, and duct-taped the torn cover enough to be comfortable doing the last 30 miles to my friends house. Once there, a trip to the auto parts store for replacement fasteners to bolt it back down, and some JB Weld epoxy putty - which just happened to be the same color as the cover once dried - to mend the tear, and it was solid enough for service again.

Matter of fact, I still haven't gotten around to replacing that bumper cover - had more important issues come up with the beast since.

 

[VeitzJeep]

Similar thing happend to me, but it was a semi that pulled in front of me and shredded his tire. It hit my driver side. Only damage was just had to pop the front turn signal bulb back into place. Never been happier to have plastic bumpers.

 

[retmil46]

Similar thing happend to me, but it was a semi that pulled in front of me and shredded his tire. It hit my driver side. Only damage was just had to pop the front turn signal bulb back into place. Never been happier to have plastic bumpers.

WHOA!!! You're bloody lucky that thing didn't fly up and catch you right in the windshield! Ever see the "Mythbusters" episode where they tested to see what kind of damage one of those shredded belts can do at speed? Not only went thru the windshield like it was butter, but easily decapitated the test dummy as well.

3 years ago, when driving from TX to NC along I-40 in Arkansas, I was coming up on a tanker semi still about a 1/4 mile ahead. There was a guy in a Toyota Prius slowly passing him. That Prius had JUST made it past his rear drive wheels when one of them shredded, and debris went flying everywhere.

Gent in the Prius panicked and was all over the road - frankly I was amazed he didn't end losing it altogether - then when he pulled it together he hit the accelerator and took off like a scared rabbit - sorta impressed me because I didn't think a Prius could go THAT fast!

There was so much debris on the road I had to slow down to 40 mph, move over to the shoulder and pick my way thru it to keep from running over anything.

That, and rocks in the windshield are why I don't like driving in close proximity to one of those trucks for any length of time.

 

[tommudd]

Back in 1986 was going across Wolf Creek pass heading to Durango with a long nose Pete and 48 foot bed bugger trailer on behind. (I used to move peoples furniture and autos etc, was leased onto North American Van Lines ) was snowing like everything as I was reaching the summit, truck would spin every now and again and was getting to be almost 9 PM, hard to see with the heavy snow.
I stopped in the middle of the road right past the summit and jumped out to " look around " and was in ten/twelve inches of snow at aleast. Then I heard a strange noise and finally fiqured out it was the truck seemed like it was slowly sliding. Jumped in and headed down the hill, not knowing what else to do. What a ride, don't think it every did really catch hold as it was like more of a slow long slide with a pucker factor of 50!
I got to the bottom and the gates were closed. Here they had shut down the road and locked the gates on both sides right after I started up from Del Norte.
Then there was the time..................................

 

[VeitzJeep]

WHOA!!! You're bloody lucky that thing didn't fly up and catch you right in the windshield! Ever see the "Mythbusters" episode where they tested to see what kind of damage one of those shredded belts can do at speed? Not only went thru the windshield like it was butter, but easily decapitated the test dummy as well.

3 years ago, when driving from TX to NC along I-40 in Arkansas, I was coming up on a tanker semi still about a 1/4 mile ahead. There was a guy in a Toyota Prius slowly passing him. That Prius had JUST made it past his rear drive wheels when one of them shredded, and debris went flying everywhere.

Gent in the Prius panicked and was all over the road - frankly I was amazed he didn't end losing it altogether - then when he pulled it together he hit the accelerator and took off like a scared rabbit - sorta impressed me because I didn't think a Prius could go THAT fast!

There was so much debris on the road I had to slow down to 40 mph, move over to the shoulder and pick my way thru it to keep from running over anything.

That, and rocks in the windshield are why I don't like driving in close proximity to one of those trucks for any length of time.

It was from one of the tires that were further up front on the semi and I had backed off enough when he cut out in front of me that it wouln't have bounced high enough to hit the windshield. I was afraid that it had destroyed my grille and front end. I definitely was lucky though that it only popped a light bulb out of place.

Another trucker story: Saw a tanker one time with flamables inside speeding 20mph faster than anyone else around and weaving in and out like he had a sports car. I called the state police on that guy immediately.

 

[Ry' N Jen]

The day after having our brand new M/T R's put on the Heep
one of them there F.O.B. ****** new Canadians decides to pull
right out in front of us without looking!
I'm flying down the road at 55+ miles per hour and literally buried
the brake peddle into the floor panel with both feet!
The sound those tires made was just insane.
How I missed hitting her I don't know!

The only thing I said was to Jen "Yup, new tires!" and slowed down...

 

[TomO]

Well we just recently bought Nancy - just about 1 month ago. We've only added about 3500 miles so far, so I haven't got much in the way of scary yet.

Probably the most interesting was the ride home immediately after buying her. Worrying about every little noise and the possibility that she might crap out before I even got home. Nothing bad happened but I was still dealing with buyers remorse.

The first couple of off-road trips were interesting just because we were driving an 'unknown' car through familiar territory. My thoughts keep going to 'the last time we drove <car X> up here, we ran into <problem Y>'.

 

[yellocoyote]

Not my KJ, but the surrogate CRD that JL Rockies let me borrow for the Moab trip in May...

The group had gotten through the Maze portion of the trip (which by all rights was the most difficult portion of the trail). We were spending the last evening on the shores of Lake Powell. We got into the area and scavenged around, checking a couple of areas for space to accommodate 9 vehicles + all the occupants/gear/etc. We finally found a place, up high above the water level. As people were setting up camp, some guy on a 4-wheeler came from out of nowhere, telling us about this ‘really great spot’ to camp that was apparently on the water and out of the wind. So 3 of us went with the guy on the 4-wheeler to investigate his location.

Along the way, we got into an area with really narrow soft rocky/sandy mountain-side trails… and it was on this trail that I nearly dumped JL’s KJ into a ravine. I got the front part of the KJ through a narrow area, but as I moved, the back end was sliding down the mountain. After much coaching/encouragement, I did make it through without incident… but not without a huge amount of puckering… eek2.gif

Because I went so slow to get through that part of the trail, we lost the dude on the 4-wheeler and JL (who was following him). We were in contact via CB and eventually reconnected. JL had lost his guide, and we decided to just go back to the rest of the group. That meant… we had to go back the way we came. (banghead) My nerves were already fried from the first pass, so once we got back to that iffy point in the trail, I kept insisting to JL that he drive his own KJ over that section so that way I wasn’t to blame if I dumped it in the ravine. He (and the others) insisted that I’d make it just fine, and JL insisted (ie: threatened) that he'd tease me for the rest of my days if I wussed out and made him drive that section of trail. So, with much reluctance, much ********, and much more puckering, I made it. I was so rattled for the next couple of hours… and I constantly walked around camp uttering the words ‘I hate that guy’ – the guy on the quad that started this whole mess to begin with.

We found out later that on the way back, there was a sign stating that the trail we were on was for 4-wheelers only. :disgust:

 

[BjBnet]

The very first time I tried my 4x4
I was on the highway getting off a ramp just when it had started to rain. I had just bought my KJ a couple weeks prior so it still had the crappy GoodYear SRAs.
Going into the curve she started fishtailing started to go into a 180 and off the ramp I go and down into a deep ditch...backwards.
I got out, checked everything....all clear except for the grass and weeds all over the place.
Got back in, put it in 4x4 and drove up the ditch and back onto the ramp.
It was fun while it lasted but the thing that made it scary for me is that my then 8 year old daughter was with me and she yelled out "DADDY!" when we first started to spin around. I felt so bad for her and told her to hold on, I knew we'd be ok.
It all ended well and I was proud as hell to have a 4 wheel drive KJ!

 

[Jo6pak]

Similar thing happend to me, but it was a semi that pulled in front of me and shredded his tire. It hit my driver side. Only damage was just had to pop the front turn signal bulb back into place. Never been happier to have plastic bumpers.

That happened to me while I was on the cycle a few years back. A semi rig about 50 yards ahead of me blew a tire and showered my with chunks of rubber. Luckily I avoided the big piece, but a few small pieces hit the bike and me. Those gators can get ya.

No scary moment in the KJ in the almost three years and 40k that I've had it. Just a few nervous trails while wheeling alone, but it always got me thru....so far.

 

[Ry' N Jen]

Jen had a few choice pucker moments when I slammed into the tree and got stuffed in bad while off roading!

 

[OneOneNiner]

Hey Jayme, remember when I had to winch you down that hill.
I was seriously worried for you when you started sliding.

 

[yellocoyote]

Hey Jayme, remember when I had to winch you down that hill.
I was seriously worried for you when you started sliding.

Oh yeah... eek2.gif That was another pretty bad pucker moment. Not too many can say that they had to be winched backwards down a hill. :happy175: That mud was slicker than snot though... and I'm really glad you were there. Aaron would of had me continue backing down the hill, and I would have gone off the edge.

 

[retmil46]

The very first time I tried my 4x4
I was on the highway getting off a ramp just when it had started to rain. I had just bought my KJ a couple weeks prior so it still had the crappy GoodYear SRAs.

The Goodyear Wrangler S/T's that came on my 05 weren't any better - matter of fact they're actually rated worse than the SRA's on tirerack's customer reviews.

May of 07 I was visiting my friends south of Austin for their daughter's HS graduation. Only had 22K on the stock S/T's. We were going thru the main four lane drag in San Marcos, when an elderly lady in a Lincoln Navigator pulled out of a blind side street trying to make a left hand turn, not four car lengths in front of me, saw me coming, panicked, hit the brakes and stopped dead in front of me, astride both lanes.

A thundrstorm had passed thru a half-hour before and the road was still wet. I was only doing 35 mph, but when I hit the brakes the ABS chattered like a machine gun, and those crappy Wrangler S/T's slid on that wet pavement as if it was greased glass. Slowed it down just enough so that the airbags didn't go off when I plowed into that Navigator's front quarter panel.

KJ was still driveable with the damage, and as soon as I was back in NC and had the damage fixed, I immediately ditched those Goodyears for some Cooper Discoverer ATR's. My father was pissed that I didn't keep the Goodyears and give them to him as spares for his F-150. I flat out told him "you DID NOT want to put those tires on your truck - they're junk and the reason my Jeep just had to spend 3 days in a frakkin body shop!":favorites68: