Antique & Classic Cars Blog

We’ve all seen various home-furnishing castoffs, jettisoned by air resistance when drivers or store clerks fail to secure them adequately to a vehicle. These items–chair, love seat, table, book case, refrigerator, etc. may be along the roadside or right in someone’s lane.

Generally, we don’t want to hit something. But what harm could there be running over a soft mattress, particularly in a big truck capable of taming surfaces far more aggressive? Jerome found these photos answering the question.

Turns out, if you hit it wrong, a mattress can be quite a hassle. Perhaps the mattress covering was damaged such that a bit of the inner wire was exposed. Maybe it was folded over. However it lay in the road, this truck’s drive-shaft got hold of its innards and turned a flat rectangle of springs and cushion into a big spun blob of wire and batting.

I picked up the photos from this post, which asserts that the whipping wire tore a hole in the fuel tank, eventually ending the ride. You can imagine the wobble from a drive-shaft churning away at highway speeds with that much extra weight–hardly balanced–rotating with it!

Lesson is, even if the object seems soft–and inviting–it’s better to avoid an obstacle than run it over.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 9:31 am and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.