Fell Off Truck

General Discussion
1

I’ve heard the phrase “fell off the truck” before but never seen it happen until last night when I watched Dallas Car Sharks.

A tow truck driver was delivering a used SUV bought at auction. He unchained the SUV from the truck bed and was about to unload it when the owner asked him to unload it in a different spot. The truck driver got back in the cab and pulled the truck forward. The SUV obeyed Newton’s First Law and stayed where it was while the truck bed rolled out from underneath it. The SUV crashed to the pavement with a bent frame: totalled. Fortunately it wasn’t worth much, but the owner was, um, upset.

What other “fell off truck” (or “fell off lift”) stories do you have?

2

I watched a plow truck slide off the lift and open the back wall of a garage once when I was a kid delivering auto parts. I couldn’t believe it, I just stood there staring.

Now when I see pictures of vehicles that fell off the lift I just get physically ill.

3

This may not qualify as a “fell of a truck story”. Back in the 80’s I was a passenger in my cousin’s truck in the left lane of a 4 lane county road. A large utility trailer filled with lawn maintenance equipment separated from another truck coming at us. The trailer crossed 2 lanes of heavy traffic about a hundred feet from us, jumped the curb and came to a stop about 20 feet from a baseball diamond with a game in progress. Just one of those things you never forget.

Ed B.

4

I always thought “fell off a truck” was a euphemism for stolen. As in, I got you such a good deal here 'cause it fell off a truck, If you know what I mean (in a Brooklyn accent).

5

@mustangman, as a native New Yorker, I believe you are correct. :wink:

6

Looks familiar :frowning:
Back when we had in-ground hoists there were some with issues ( eventually resulting in the replacement of all in-grounds with 15 above grounds ).
One of those , a single cylinder H rack would hesitate about six inches from full-up and when the pressure would finish building it would POP up that last six inches.
Normaly the tech would just stop there and deal with it and not push for the top six inches.
One time he left the lever on too long … a few seconds passed … and POP goes the hoist.
As the E150 van hopped up a tad, one of the flip up seats on the right front arm fell over causing the van to wobble to the right front. This wobble pushed over the right rear flip up seat and the van now listed heavily to the right where time stood still as we all gazed upon the teetering spectacle.
teeter…
wobble…
wiggle…
FLIP ! !
Over goes the van to the right…and SLAMMO ! . down to the ground sqarely on its right side cleanly in the luckily empty next stall without hitting the car two stalls over.

7

Click (or was is Clack?) has talked about the car he dropped off a lift, and the strut spring that flew across the shop, and…

8

Mustangman-
"I always thought “fell off a truck” was a euphemism for stolen. As in, I got you such a good deal here 'cause it fell off a truck, If you know what I mean (in a Brooklyn accent).

Then there are those of us who fell off a turnip truck… : )

9

Maybe this doesn’t fit but had a load of hay bales fall off an on-coming flat bed semi. What a mess. In case anyone is wondering, it is a total black out so you can’t see where you are going and it is very slippery so you can’t stop very well. We were behind another semi who took the brunt of it and we stopped in time.

10

Here’s a good one of a load falling off a lumber truck:

11

A newbie at work dumped a brand new Oldsmobile Toronado off a twin post hoist. That’s the type with a front and rear lift that you operate simultaneously with your feet. He got them out of sync with the rear lifting faster and dumped the car forward off the hoist. The guy 'bout **** himself. As a result, he, fittingly, caught crap for that for the rest of his career.

12

A little hammer and dolly work and some paint and it’ll be just fine. Might need an alignment too.

13

I had to inspect two different vehicles that ran into items that fell off a truck.

  1. An Olds Ciera had run over a 2x4 which went through the engine area and punctured the firewall. The board was about six inches from the passenger seat. It could have killed someone.

  2. a Mitsubishi Eclipse was on I-74 near Galesburg IL on a foggy night and ran into a diesel engine laying in the road.

14

Playing the schoolmarm here, but @mustangman, the language!

15

yeah, you maybe right about your filter, @cdaquila lol

16

I had an alcoholic uncle that quit drinking for a bit, until he fell off the truck right into a bottle of Jim beam…Or was it the wagon… hard telling…

17

@cdaquila, Oops, sorry, my bad!

18

Ah, I-74 and Galesburg. I’m getting to know that route pretty well. My wife thinks I’m paranoid when I’m driving but now I can tell her to watch out for diesel engines laying in the road too. Who would have thunk.

19

Filter really? have not hit it yet, ps cars do not do well on stairs ,

20

There is a large Chevy dealer next door to a now-defunct dealer where I used to work. One day some of were walking across the street to a steakhouse for lunch and there was a commotion on the roadway in front of the Chevy dealer.

A transport driver had parked on the wide shoulder to unload some new cars and apparently his mind wandered while backing a new Monte Carlo from the top row of the trailer of course. He backed the MC clean off the side of the ramps and landed on the side. The transport driver wasn’t hurt too bad and they were waiting for the EMS team to arrive. The new Chevy was a wiped out mess though.