4106 CRASH

[Madmike]

I hate to even tell my story. But I have to get it off my chest. I was taking some of my wifes friends out for a girls day and we had come accross several places. The 3rd place the parking lot was very steep and when i parked her the e-brake would not hold it. I put her in first gear and with the brake on she was solid. About an hour later they came back and was ready to go. Prior to my brain even thinking I pushed on the clutch to start her up, and in a split second I felt her move backwards. I quickly let my foot off of the clutch but it was too late! The bus ran down the hill and we crashed in to a Minvan that was parked. Thank god no one was hurt! Had the van not been where it was we could have been killed. I did a number on that van and pushed in my Radiator door. Not sure what to look for as far as damage on my unit but she seems to smoke when approaching the shift point. I drove it about 100 miles after this happend but I fear my bus days have come to an end.

[kyle4501]

Errors in judgement happen. You aren't stupid unless you don't learn from them.
Confession is good for the soul. Good for others too as it saves us from having to make the same mistake. 

What I gather from this is
#1- block the wheels when parking on hills (front & rear to keep you from driving off & leaving them behind if you forget.)
#2- Fix the e-brake!
#3- engage brain before anything else!   

Glad it wasn't worse!

[Len Silva]

Mike,

It sounds like you may have a multitude of problems that need attention now.

The hand brake never was much good at it's best, now it's probably out of adjustment and loaded with oil.  It's time for real parking brakes.  I know that spring brakes can be a problem but DD3's or Mini-Max are out there somewhere.

If, after only an hour, you did not have enough air to stop the bus, you have some serious leaks.

It could have been much worse, buck up, Buckaroo. It's no reason to end your bus days (unless your wife says it is 

[Jeremy]

Unless I'm missing something, the fact that the bus rolled down the hill means that the air system had retained air, not lost it. If the system had lost pressure the service brakes would have applied, meaning that the bus would not have rolled when the clutch was pressed. Or have I misunderstood?

Either way, it sounds like an unfortunate accident caused by a very simple mistake that any of us could have made. Obviously the easy answer is 'fix the parking brake', but I wonder whether it should be standard practice for us to carry chocks as an extra safely measure for those odd occasions when we have to park on steep hills. It's certainly a habit I would make myself get into if necessary.

Jeremy

[Len Silva]

Jeremy,

The old 4106 did not have spring brakes, only a mechanical drive shaft brake.  No air, no brakes.

[brando4905]

Mike,

You're not the first person to smash something with their bus Accidents happen!

I have a little experience with this--
Last year about this time, we were driving back across country with my parents, long story short, we had to get them a hotel room in Williams,AZ. Checked with hotel and they said they had truck parking, well their truck parking was a side road that I thought was a dead end. So I backed the bus and 20' trailer down the side street, as I was parallel parking the front corner of my bus creamed down the side of a car. Didn't hurt the bus! $1,600 damage to the p.o.s. Saturn!!

The next morning I realized the side street was not a dead end, I could have pulled around the block onto the street! I beat myself up over that one for awhile. Don't worry about it man, keep on bussin'.

Brandon

[robertglines1]

if you learned something and helped someone here from making same mistake.mark it off as the price of experience..thanks for sharing..Bob

[desi arnaz]

dont feel bad, read my story...... http://www.busnut.com/bbs/messages/11/39643.html?1286579683

[Jeremy]

Jeremy,

The old 4106 did not have spring brakes, only a mechanical drive shaft brake.  No air, no brakes.

Ah, I see....I've read about people upgrading to spring brakes, but I hadn't realised that the previous type lacked the 'no air' safety feature. That's pretty scary actually.


Jeremy