I havent gotten to drive my coupe much so far this year as Ive been dealing with one repair after another so far. So after finally getting everything dealt with, I decided to drive it to work today. One of my part-time jobs is 31 miles south on the interstates, (26 on one and 5 on another). It's usually a nice drive, usually. I got about ten miles from home and when I was attacked by one mean and ugly road gator. For those lucky ones who have never encountered a road gator in heat, be thankful. They can get viscous. I was in the left lane, following an S-10 at what I thought was a safe distance, who was following the guy in front of him too close when this all happened. The gator got kicked up by the first car and then thrown under the S-10 who was so close he couldnt have had time to react. The S-10 then hit it and launched it so high, so fast that I watched it go up and lost it in the chopped windshield. At this point, Im thinking that is was moving so fast that Ill prolly be able to slide under it before it hits the ground. WRONG!!! That damn gator landed about three feet in front of my left front tire, wrapped itself around for at least one, maybe two revolutions before jumping off and attacking the side of the coupe. This beast slammed and banged its way down the underside and side before finally jumping off and heading down into the ditch where it belongs. Whilst all this was going on, Im fighting the coupe, trying to keep it straight and in my lane. She so badly wanted to run off into the ditch. As soon as I could, I managed to get the coupe pulled over the right shoulder to make sure everything needed to finish my trip to work was still intact. Thankfully, the only damage was superficial and not serious. Although I have to tell you, it sounded like a herd of rabid moose running down the side of right coupe. The noise was amazing. Apparently, road gators dont like chrome. This one didnt touch the headlight bucket. So, anyone else ever get attacked be a road gator?
Seeing how you're in OH, I'm going to go out on a limb & guess that a "road gator" is a tire casing? JH
Wait til you have a racoon come out across the road at night as you go by on your Harley and he ends up thru the front spokes. They dont go around once even. The bike does a forward half gainer when 'coon jams into the fender and fork....... Once is enuf.
Not personally, but in New Orleans about 82, one attacked a Datsun which wound up inverted in the neutral ground. The 10 foot of gator was understandably upset and had traffic on the expressway stopped for miles in both directions. As it was a Federal offense to molest gators at that time, the police could do nothing but look at him and try to stare him off the road. In the newschopper shot, a old pickup came bouncing down the shoulder. Coonass Boudreux jumps out, flashes his heritage gator license, heaves said gator in the back and away he goes. Took hours to straighten out the snarl. Ain't Nalins fun? South Dakota road gator ate the hood off my Kenworth.
Had to google "Road Gator" to figure that one out, didn't think we had road gators up here, but apparently they are also indigenous to Canada too.
Seems like they beat up my Crown Vic everytime I'm on a road trip. They even took a chunk out of my tire. Luckily the CV is a tough car cause I've road them gators more than once.
We have them in North Carolina ! Lucky I was in the old PickUp and got attacked ,mess up the whole side of the bed before it let go! Shook like HELL for a split second and before I could slow down any at all Bad thing was it came off a brand new tire on my own truck, I did get the tire company to give me another tire but they wouldn't fix the body damage...... I stopped that night and picked it up and put it in the bed of the truck,which is good OR the tire company wouldn't have done anything. Live and learn......
I learned road gator during the MSF course - haven't encountered one yet, but as hot as the roads are here in TX, I'm guessing I'll have my turn someday.
Road Gator = tread offa big truck tire. really heavy and merciless. I ride a valkyrie and dodged one as it came off the 18 wheeler. All the little crap that preceeds the gator is like flying through a flak field. I knew I had to get around him and as I dropped it a gear the damn thing attacked. It hit my leg and I thought I'd been shot. I got to do a little dirt biking on the median and then retire a pair of levis. Very exiting. Road Gator makes me taste chicken. Here in the Tucson its not a rarity. Road temps are 160 and above. Most I ever saw though was east of Odessa Texas
I was sixteen, on my first roadtrip, and thought it was a good idea to draft a semi to save gas. That truck showed me, threw one up right into my windshield. Scared the crap out of me. It was a sonoran desert road gator.
I had a road gator trash an orginal 32 grill shell and repo grill on my roadster,scared me to death almost.
I had one launch my '88 Jetta into the air one night just east of Portland Oregon. I can dodge 'em in the daylight, but when they come at you outta the dark, look out!
I had one wrap the right front suspension on my Jeep. Sent me off the I-5 at about 65. Took out the fence and two rows of vines at a vineyard. Not even sure how I kept it right-side-up.
Hit one somewhere in NM at 3am in my Z/28 doing 85 and nodding off, cound'n tell if it did any damage until I found some kind of business that was down the hwy about 3 mile, it was closed but had a coke machine shining some light on the driveway so I could see. oh to be young and dumb "Hey lets drive to AZ from TX" no need for a flashlight in the car. The Gator did wake my dead ass up for the rest of the trip
I almost got attacked by a rouge ladder on the way to yosemite a week ago, narrowly missed that sucker!
You better believe it! Hell, sometimes we get road gator eggs... I was swathing a few years ago, using our old Case tractor with a pull-type swather. I looked back and could see that I'd been dragging something for a dozen or so yards, so I powered down and jumped out. I thought maybe the wheel had come out of locked position, turned sideways and dug in. When I walked around I had to shake my head in amazement, it was a wheel off an 18 wheeler! I could see the trail in the wheat across the field towards the highway. That tire "jumped ship" (came off the truck, scary shit!) shot down the ditch through or over our brand new barbed wire fence and cruised almost 100 yards out int our field before running out of steam. Imagine if it had come off the other side of the truck! I wheeled it over to the fence and propped it up against a post, a week later it was gone. Musta' returned to it's natural habitat.
It's good to know I'm not alone. As a kid, I was always glued to the TV every Sunday night to watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Marlin Perkins never had Jim Fowler chase one of these down. Maybe he knew Jim would kick his ass for even suggesting it...
If you borrowed some technology from the air bag in your stering wheel and transferred it to the air bags on your suspension, you could avoid all these gator attacks by simply leaping over them.
That sucks!! bright side is now the car is broke in..... don't have to be afraid to drive the hell out of it
Years ago had one come born right in front of us while the wife was driving our 66 Mustang 2+2. I thought it missed till we got to a rest stop and had a full tread skidmark racing strip. Just rubber no dents. Very scarry.
whipping down the 35 in downtown San Antonio on my R90S the five cars ahead of me all started zigging and zagging in a dust cloud, jumping out from behind the last car was a six foot gator with jagged metal teeth coming right at me..my short sweet life flashed by as I held on tight and that gator went snarling by my left hip...you know when a double-wide is jammin down the Highway and one whole side is covered in plastic held down with wooden strips? I had one of those blow off in front of me, took out my side mirror and side chrome and sent me screeching off the side of the road covered in plastic you really couldn't see through, whats that a road jellyfish? Damn, how many guardian angels have I been through anyway!?...
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