Two Model A's drive off the road today in French Lick to avoid hittings cars in front

[Mitch//pa]

miraculously and thank goodness no one was hurt. now is where an agreed value on the car comes into play. without an agreed value an insurance company can give you what they want and say this is it.

[s1b]

Once a car is on its roof, its considered totaled? Right

[Keith True]

I never heard of that one.I have worked on dozens of rollovers over the years for insurance companies.My garage tenant has a car that rolled 7(seven)times down an embankment,it was in heavy brush and sustained surprisingly little damage.The structure was fine but it is getting a new roof skin.The impact switch killed the engine,so it did not run upside down.The repair cost is half the replacement cost so it is getting repaired.

[Mitch//pa]

Originally Posted by s1b

Once a car is on its roof, its considered totaled? Right

no thats not true. it goes by the estimated damages and they will put up to 80% of the agreed value.

[Dennis L Oberer]

Just a question...would injuries have been LESS if they had all been belted up in seat belts?

Dennis L Oberer
Green Bay WI

[Benson]

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Originally Posted by John Stone

I was stuck for a couple hours up the hill from the accident. A couple of observations. The slant had what appears to be a borg-warner overdrive, did free wheeling enter into the problem? Also, when I went down the hill, I had my car in low gear and still had to hit the brakes to keep the engine together.

Anyway, the meet was great. We had a good time but are glad to be back to the flatlands.

John,

I agree that freewheeling most likely made the problem worse.

Even if the car had cast iron drums, the lack of compression braking certainly overheated the drums. Having 5 people on board also compounded the problem.

Stock steel drums if oversize would not last long before they got too hot to have any effect.

I learned back in 60's on mountain roads to gear down and save the brakes. I only drove 40,000 miles on back roads and mountain jeep trails so other's experences might be different.

[1928Pickuppain]

I did the same thing in my 2001 Jeep wrangler with good tires and good brakes the grownd was wet and trafic was moving along at a good flow and the idiot in front on me slamed on his brakes for a squral. I tryed to brake and just locked them up. I let go as soon as they locked and was able to stear around him but ended up off the side of the road no ditch no role over, but almost the same thing . I was awake paying attenchion and a 1-1/2 cars leanth behind him going at 35-40 MPH.

There are 3 parts to brakeing, people just dont seem to think about. pressure to grownd (Weight) shear pressure of conecting materals (tires to asphalt) and area of conection Trier width. The tires you have need to beable to take the weight of you vehicle without rubber shearing of once the tires lock Brakeing is more about the tires than the mechanism if you have a tire that is two soft such as a cheep India made tire the tire will share rubber at a much greater rate and at a much lower speed than a tire with more density and a stronger chemical bond. If your tires are two hard such as when the rubber gets old and luses its resistanal Properties It will also then shear at a grate rate. the mechanism behind the tiers is the smaller of the wwo facter. Physics my friends.

[Bruce in southern OH]

Car is back in southern Ohio and being repaired, very little damage, I think the day we loaded it that if oil was checked, water and gas, we could have driven it, battery held right in there, Bruce

[s1b]

Originally Posted by Mitch//pa

no thats not true. it goes by the estimated damages and they will put up to 80% of the agreed value.

The only reason I thought this is, My Brother Inlaw rolled his Montero SUV. Very very lite rollover onto his roof.
Appeared to be only dirty. That lite of a roll it was.
The insurance company totaled it on the spot!
They said once the car is on its roof, its considered totaled. I don't know if it was just the company or state laws maybe.

[Mitch//pa]

Originally Posted by s1b

The only reason I thought this is, My Brother Inlaw rolled his Montero SUV. Very very lite rollover onto his roof.
Appeared to be only dirty. That lite of a roll it was.
The insurance company totaled it on the spot!
They said once the car is on its roof, its considered totaled. I don't know if it was just the company or state laws maybe.

lot of variables age , mileage etc on a modern car. book value is usually completely different from an agreed value policy on a classic car.