The rig was an 89 22' and it was lost in 1995. I had drifted into the
birm (never start a trip after being up 32 hours!) with several
inches of drop and when I carefully steered back onto the road the
front wheels of my towed vehicle (90 Ford Ranger) snapped completely
into a turn. This brought the rear end of the motor home around
snapping the tow bar head. I tried to steer into the skid but the
truck swinging on the safety cables made any recovery unlikely. I saw
we were going to go off the road and down the embankment so I turned
off the engine and held on. Both my wife and I are seat belt users
and were unhurt in the turn over. I lowered myself out of my seat
belt and helped my wife out of hers. Just that quickly several big-
rig truckers were outside the window, some from as far away as the
Westbound lanes, and helped us out. We had just started a trip from
our old home in CA and had a full propane tank and I had just gassed
up in Needles when we had the accident about 30 miles West of
Kingman. My truck was hanging upside down from the safety cables that
I had attacked to eyebolts attached only to the bumper. The bumper
showed no sign of bending or pulling loose. The wrecker crew had to
use bolt-cutters to free the truck. The recovery required pulling the
rig on over in the direction of the roll and onto the undamaged side.
The crew said they never recovered a wrecked motor home that was
still a square box.

The cab-over took the brunt of the weight of the initial rollover. It
did spring part way back but the cab doors scrapped the pushed down
cab-over. After I had gotten out of the rig, I quickly turned the
propane off and after I saw the rig was stable, I entered it and
found that debris had flipped the kitchen faucet on. I killed all
electrical and started removing items that wouldn't survive righting
the rig. That's when I took the video. When righted and at the
wrecking yard, I had to pry the side door open as the lock had
broken. The cab-over windows were broken out, some but not all side
windows were cracked or broken and the truck had broken out the rear
window. The roof air had been pushed part way inside but we could
still walk around inside without danger.

I made my case with the insurance company and with Paul's help, I
received what I believed to be a fair settlement. The motor home was
$34,000 new in 89 (yeah, I know!) and I received $27,000 for it plus
my $500 deductible. I received $7000 for the 90 Ranger for a total
pay out of $34,000. The policy on my LD was the original policy
number since I had started with that company in 1968 and with my
driving record, this was a "forgiven" accident with no increase in
premiums but I could not have another at fault accident for 3 years
and I haven't had any since.

Neither of us were injured and I attribute that to the quality of the
LD and our religious use of seat belts. There was food from the
refrig all over the inside of the rig and on our sleeping bags. All
the drawers opened up and a steak knife was stuck in the ceiling
above my wife's head. Even with losing our motor home, truck and
ruining a trip, we were very fortunate. I've seen the "pile of foam
board" along the highway before, that used to be a motor home.
Needless to say our motor home we own today is a Lazy Daze.
My "Firesider" caravan mates were all very supportive and helped us
through this unfortunate BUT preventable time. We never were in a
hurry to leave on a trip again without being rested.

Tom


--- In lifewithalazydazerv@yahoogroups.com, Evelyn Sedillos-Hansen
<evelynsedillos@c...> wrote:
> OMG!!!!
> That video is standard viewing at the factory! When I tell people
about
> our LD, I always tell them about the video & they are always
impressed
> by the strength of the coach!
> How old was it when it rolled? Did they deprciaiate it & how
much? How
> much damage was there inside? Was the cabover portion movable after
the
> accident, or did it move to that position & stay, solid?
>
> tlgatchell wrote:
>
> >My son directed me to this site. We've owned a Lazy Daze since
1989 and if anyone who has bought a rig since early 1995 was shown
that video of the rolled Lazy Daze, that was ours. That rig is also
why I told my insurance company that I would NOT settle for a lesser
motorhome.
> >Tom
> >