Originally Posted by Road Bull

Insurance lesson #2

Washington state.

Insurance lessons: Have insurance, have uninsured motorist (too many people driving w/out insurance to not have). Unattended vehicle is most straightforward. Someone hits you, you didn't see it, Insurance still pays out. Attended collision with uninsured motorist hitting you, (have police come and take report) Insurance will need to see that other vehicle was at fault / cited. My normal deductible is $250. Uninsured collision drops that down to $100. And, my normal rental cost split is 80/20% up to $1K with me paying 20%. Uninsured collision rental is covered 100% up to $1K. Rates do not go up whatsoever because I am not at fault. -Class is over-

I was rear ended the other day getting off of I-5 by somebody who’s messing with their phone. I literally passed him about a minute prior and they were looking down to the right side near where there gear shift would be at their dumb phone cruising at 60 mph. I passed him shaking my head and started to pull off I five at my exit. I didn’t notice him change lanes and get behind me to pull off the same exit. I cringed a second time. I came to a stop and have been there for a few seconds when I was rear ended without even hearing any skids from breaks. Of course he didn’t have insurance. It bent my 4 X Innovation rear swing out bumper. It looks like most of the damage is confined to the actual swing out arm as it bent the tire down.

It looks like the only damage to the rear hatch is a small indentation where the fold down table latch contacted the body.

In theory I could probably get away with just replacing the swing out arm. However, I know that generally swing out arms and bumpers are made as a pair to get the tolerance is correct as the heat and cooling Impacts how they line up when they’re being fabricated.

Overall, I got a hand it to 4X Innovations for making a solid bumper. My large 35 inch tire pretty much took the brunt of a full on no stop impact and was sturdy enough to confined that energy to its connection to the swingarm. Mind you, I don’t think it bent the swing out arm itself, just where the spare connects to the swing arm.