Baby, I am so sorry. We are okay, but I rolled your truck and it is not. We are okay, but please do not be mad at me.
That was the message I got one night. I called her up and ensured that she and my son were, indeed, safe and we tried to figure out what could be done about all of this. I had her send me some photos of the truck, and it was not pretty.
So, what did we end up doing with it? Yeah, that is kind of a sore subject.
The wrecking yard wanted $500, plus $40 a day since the accident, if I wanted it back. I was not going to pay over $1000 to tow a truck to someone else’s house, when I spent but $3000 to drive it to mine. They can keep it. What I did not know about, was the fact that I had to turn over my title. I soon got a letter from the state telling me that I was going to have to pay $500 for an abandoned vehicle fee. Well, I sure as hell was not about to pay money to have my truck totaled, so I spoke with the Motor Vehicle Department and they informed me that if the wrecking yard would oblige, I could simply turn over my title to them and not pay the $500 fee.
So, I called up the wrecking yard, and they said they would be happy to receive the title and that they would cease advances on the abandoned vehicle. Great! But there is one more thing; I had to pay for the initial tow – $150. So they got me anyway! I paid the $150 and left my truck there. I was allowed to get only my personal property that was detached, meaning that if I had to unplug, unscrew, unbolt or unwire anything, it was off limits. Well, there goes my Grant Classic GT steering wheel. I loved that steering wheel.
I had not realized how much I needed a truck, until I had one and lost it. Every single one of my plans hinged on having that truck. I was going to camp with the boy and the dog. I was going to move some motors around. I had an axle to get and another one to deliver to a welder. I had so many plans, yet none of them got done.
Insurance was not going to help out because I only had liability on the truck and this was a one vehicle accident with no outside influence to blame. My wife was driving down the road, following the flow of traffic, and the truck got a little squirrely. She corrected, over corrected, over corrected again, and ended up on the incoming shoulder… upside down.
It was up to me to get another truck, and I vowed that I would. I immediately started looking again for another J-truck. I found one in Flagstaff and called the guy on it (Hey Matt!). It was basically my truck, one year older, but otherwise the same. His was a brown J10, but it still looked the same, and he had done everything I wanted to do to mine, down to the Rhino Grille conversion. I spoke with him and told him my story; I told him what I had planned for my next truck. I got him so amped up again about the whole Jeep truck thing, that he decided if I was not going to buy it, he would not sell it. I thought it over throughout the night, and I decided that I would not be buying his truck. I figured that, because I have to emission it, I would have to undo everything he did to the engine, and that just made no sense.
I found another truck in Redding, CA and spoke with Brett, the owner. I went through the same thing with him, telling him my story, and all of my aspirations for my new truck. Again, I ended up practically talking a guy out of selling his truck. But you know what, I do not really mind. I know that these are not simply guys with Jeeps, but these are Jeep guys. These guys were not in a bind and forced to sell, they had only lost the spark to build these pickups into what they deserve to be. Now, both of them are building on their respective trucks. I hope to one day give you an update on both of these guys so you can see what other things are possible with a Full Size Jeep.
FrankenJeep 