Class A Safety

I Havent posted for a while but though I would share my views.
Every year for the last 25 years I have spent around a month travelling the states in a rental Class A RV.
I have covered over 100,000 miles and always been incident free, this year our luck ran out..

We hear a lot about safety in RVs particularly Class A etc, well I found out myself how safe they are.

Travelling up US 97 8 miles south of Klamath Falls at around 50mph, and elderly lady turned left right in front of us, I braked hard but there was no way to avoid the collision.
The SUV she was driving was spun round and shunted back up the road almost 50 yards, both airbags deployed and the front of her car totally destroyed, she could exit the drivers door as would not open and was helped out the passenger side.

Now, fortunately and god knows how, she was totally unhurt despite the massive damage to her vehicle, and thank the lord for that.

For us, I have to say, it was a bit of a non event, the RV braked well and stayed true and in fact pulled up quicker that I though it ever would, my passenger looked up from the map, saw a blue SUV flying down the road in bits and wondered what had happened.

Damage for us was destroyed front turn signal and headlight plus fibreglass damaged on front corner.
We barely felt it, and I am certain if we were in a C, we would probably not simply driven away once reports were given and it was ascertained that there were no injured parties.

We drove on to Klamath KOA and I must say Elmonte RV were amazing in arranging us a replacement RV as I was not happy doing another 3000 miles minus lights etc, 2 days later one was brought 400 miles from San Fransisco and and old one driven back.

Also, my god your insurance works quick, within 3 days the ladys insurance recovered my costs!

So, I am so glad we were in the RV, it held up well, still drove and protected us from a heavy impact...

I did spill my coke however!

 

Glad to hear you and the other driver were both Ok. Sounds like an awful experience, nonetheless. I presume that your rental RV was a front-engine, gas-powered unit so you had lots of mass up front, and it sounds as if the front cap remained intact. FWIW what brand of RV was it?

 

We drive a Class A also and I have often wondered what might happen in such a front end collision so thanks for your story as it gives me a tad more comfort knowing this information. Also glad nobody was seriously injured and that your travels were not halted either. We all know there is a lot of weight behind a Class A and the longer they are the more weight is added. And in accident the weight usualy comes out the winner. You mentioned the control factor also and we have gone thru a catastrophic inner rear tire failure traveling down the interstate at 60 mph and I was able to maintain control until I got off onto the shoulder and brought it to a stop. I was impressed by how I was able to maintain control as we were swerving back and forth across both lanes for at least a quarter mile or more. Thanks to your story I know have a better idea of what to expect in the event of a front end "bump" such as what you went thru. Safe and happy travels from here forward and watch out for "ELDSUV" (elderly ladies driving SUV's)..............

Regards, BankShot.............(aka Terry)

 

Being a rental it was I guess a fairly "budget unit" a 35ft Coachmen Pursuit

The front cap was surprisingly undamaged apart from front corner where headlight fitted, although I am guessing it will require total replacement to effect a proper repair as the unit was practically brand new, had less than 4000 miles on it and only a few months old..

I initially though the radiator was damaged as there was water on the road, but turned out to be the washer bottle that smoked it!
There was no damage to any of the mechanicals the very end part of the radiator mounts were slightly bent where they protrude from the main chassis rails, intercooler pipework all ok, steering fine.

Drove fine after the crash and all the way back to Dublin in SF. Bless it!!!

I am pretty experienced with large vehicles and the most important thing with them is to not try and make sudden swerving motions, or its entirely possible to overturn, then you are in a whole new world of hurt... just stop as straight and true as you can....

I attach a picture.