Western road trip with drama

Our family finished up an amazing road trip in august. The goal was to see the sights in western Colorado, I would ride the Leadville 100, and then we would roll home just before the start of school.
We took my tundra so we could fit all of our bikes and gear inside, plus I always wanted to take it on some of the great high mountain passes out there.
Once we hit Indianapolis on the first day we got in a wrestling match with a semi truck and trailer. He was confused and when he switched lanes he had to stop but his trailer was blocking the exit ramp. With wet roads I didn’t have a chance and hit him about 20mph. The crazy thing was that my arb bumper took the hit and no airbags and no glass shattered.
The first few minutes I spent figuring out how to get home but the longer I stared the more I thought we could patch this together and roll westward…as long as no fluids were leaking and it drove straight down the road.
The duct tape and zip ties came out and I limped the truck down to another exit where I bought an angle grinder. With the rain coming down I cut off 6 inches of bumper so I’d have steering and we set back off for Colorado.
The trip was amazing; we did everything I wanted to drive and I had a top 30 finish at Leadville and got a belt buckle . The truck put on 4800 miles and didn’t skip a beat.
Once home I got an estimate and it is $12.8k…on a 2011 tundra with 175k on it. Luckily they are fixing it because I really don’t want to go truck shopping and our family adores this thing even more.
So thankful for big bumpers and

 

Dang, that sucks! But way to soldier on and save the trip/training. Hopefully you got one of those snazzy Leadville belt buckles out of the ordeal.

 

I think ARBs have to meet Australian crash compliance.

 

Yep, got a belt buckle so that was sweet.

I actually bought the arb used and repainted it but the way it took the hit they have to have some research into it. I’ll be getting another one but I may step up to the one with more headlight protection.
What do you guys think about the damage amount versus value? It’s about $6800 in parts and $6k in labor (15 days of work).

 

Yup they do, so does ironman. I went with the ironman due to light weight and the crumple zones which are airbag certified.

 

So the trucker's insurance isn't totaling it?

 

Sadly the rear bumper doesn't have the same rating. The Ironman is still on my radar.

 

On Valentine's Day this year, a simple scrap run turned the trip from hell when an excavator triggered a scrap avalanche that sent a metal pipe flying into the side of my truck; I have a 2010 Tacoma that a little under 146K miles on it at the time, and it is probably worth less than what they're estimating it will cost to fix your Tundra. It ended up costing almost three grand to fix my truck, which included a door from a totaled Tacoma and a repaint, among other things. Obviously, the scrapyard's insurance company picked up the tab and even paid for a rental car during the week my truck was in the body shop.



My truck has almost 146K miles, but it is mechanically sound; It also just got a brand new frame from Toyota under recall just before Thanksgiving last year!

 

Fantastic job of salvaging the trip!

And nice work that ride is no fucking joke.

SPP

 

It's just such a great price, looks great and it's safe, can't beat it. I need to get my rear maybe black Friday.