tournique-cheese
New member
Ok, so I've had my 1996 4runner for almost a decade now, long story short* on a drive about 5 minutes from home I suggested to my girlfriend who had just recently received her license that should try again at learning manual. I had just installed a new clutch / had the truck off the road for almost a full calendar year while I fixed some maintenance issues and I figured the new clutch feel might make it easier than when she had first tried.
About 500m previously up the road she had over-revved on an upshift and taken her eyes off the road to look at me for advice, at about 30-40km/h....so I made her stop the car, and basically flipped out telling her that there was nothing in the passenger seat that needed to be looked at, and all of the controls were in her hands, etc. My spidey sense of danger was tingling as it had a few times while teaching her to drive...but I opted to let her keep trying because its a bit of a blow to your confidence to have your instructor pull chute and take over when you're only 2 minutes from home...along a dirt road...with nobody around.
Anyway.....She missed a downshift before a right turn and instead of turning, she opted to brake. Unfortunately the brakes did not engage high enough in the pedal travel compared to the volvo automatic stn wagon I bought for her to learn to drive on, and she panicked, thinking that she had the foot on the wrong pedal. I was watching her feet swap/switch pedals madly during the downshift and when she locked eyes with me I was thinking "there is no way the parking brake is going to stop us on gravel in time" as we piled into the gate....I had my right hand on it due to muscle memory but didn't even bother to pull it because I'd already transitioned my mind into wondering if the metal gate was going to sweep through the windshield and decapitate the cab...
Luckily, 30 km/h isn't enough to do that! Double lucky the dog wasn't with us and all the outdoor gear in the back was nice soft stuff and not the usual pile of axes, chainsaws and tools etc. in the rear....Triply lucky that there wasn't anyone in the direct path, or another driver coming up making the left onto the dyke.
So. The shitty news is that I had just put the truck on the road for a couple months, not anticipating my girl would drive it, and the insurance doesn't cover a driver with less than ten years experience. So there is really no recourse for me with respect to insurance, especially as another driver witnessed her pile it in. I haven't checked with the insurance company because there is also the associated property damage that I'm hoping to avoid having her pay....because she's a student with very limited means to repay any of this.
To continue my sob story, I was even fired last week due to 'complaining' about working 16 hour shifts with no overtime (but thats another story) and this is less than an hour after driving her to her place of work to pickup her overdue paycheque to see that the landlord for her employer has put a lien on the business and basically stripped the restaurant down to the paint. LOL!
Did I say I'd keep this short? sorry boys.... Here's the meat of my post, what the **** do I do with my truck?? I'll post some images of what it looks like in the next post here....
About 500m previously up the road she had over-revved on an upshift and taken her eyes off the road to look at me for advice, at about 30-40km/h....so I made her stop the car, and basically flipped out telling her that there was nothing in the passenger seat that needed to be looked at, and all of the controls were in her hands, etc. My spidey sense of danger was tingling as it had a few times while teaching her to drive...but I opted to let her keep trying because its a bit of a blow to your confidence to have your instructor pull chute and take over when you're only 2 minutes from home...along a dirt road...with nobody around.
Anyway.....She missed a downshift before a right turn and instead of turning, she opted to brake. Unfortunately the brakes did not engage high enough in the pedal travel compared to the volvo automatic stn wagon I bought for her to learn to drive on, and she panicked, thinking that she had the foot on the wrong pedal. I was watching her feet swap/switch pedals madly during the downshift and when she locked eyes with me I was thinking "there is no way the parking brake is going to stop us on gravel in time" as we piled into the gate....I had my right hand on it due to muscle memory but didn't even bother to pull it because I'd already transitioned my mind into wondering if the metal gate was going to sweep through the windshield and decapitate the cab...
Luckily, 30 km/h isn't enough to do that! Double lucky the dog wasn't with us and all the outdoor gear in the back was nice soft stuff and not the usual pile of axes, chainsaws and tools etc. in the rear....Triply lucky that there wasn't anyone in the direct path, or another driver coming up making the left onto the dyke.
So. The shitty news is that I had just put the truck on the road for a couple months, not anticipating my girl would drive it, and the insurance doesn't cover a driver with less than ten years experience. So there is really no recourse for me with respect to insurance, especially as another driver witnessed her pile it in. I haven't checked with the insurance company because there is also the associated property damage that I'm hoping to avoid having her pay....because she's a student with very limited means to repay any of this.
To continue my sob story, I was even fired last week due to 'complaining' about working 16 hour shifts with no overtime (but thats another story) and this is less than an hour after driving her to her place of work to pickup her overdue paycheque to see that the landlord for her employer has put a lien on the business and basically stripped the restaurant down to the paint. LOL!
Did I say I'd keep this short? sorry boys.... Here's the meat of my post, what the **** do I do with my truck?? I'll post some images of what it looks like in the next post here....
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