Originally posted by LILRED66:
It seems many of the Stovebolters replying to this post have the "What if the sky falls tomorrow" approach. With regards to hitting someone or being hit, most of these old trucks we all chose to drive outweigh most of the vehicles and are built better than most anything they may strike, with the exception of some of the larger SUVs.
Sky is falling? Open you eyes and look around a bit. Many of the old trucks out there already have some body damage, and some of those parts are not easy to find. Why would you want a bumper that could increase the damage your truck suffers in any accident?
Most our half-ton trucks weigh under 4,000 lbs and there are a lot of vehicles out there that weigh more. But you are not thinking about the forces at play. In the example I offered my truck mounted pipe bumper lifted the car in front of me and slid it deep into my grill.
Yeah that car was much lighter than my truck. That did not work in my favor. One of the stoutest parts on that little car was its rear bumper. Once it slid over my tube bumper the little car bumper crumpled my grill.
Secondly, the pipe bumper is better suited to deflect the forces that occur during a collision with another object. Ever heard of "crumple zones"?
Which side of this discussion are you on? The specific situation I described earlier was an example of how the pipe bumper 'deflected' a car into the grill of my truck. The result was a 'crumple zone' that I had formerly called a grill.
Your 1/4-inch thick tube isn't going to crumple much unless you hit something like the concrete you described at high speed. Otherwise it’s more like a battering ram. Any car it hits will either deflect or crumple. A crumple zone is supposed to absorb energy as it crumples. The idea is that the crumple zone absorbs the energy in the impact so that energy doesn’t destroy the bodies occupying the vehicle. If your bumper deflects that energy instead of absorbing it, that energy may still cause someone great hurt.
Many old schoolers may not have the forward thinking mentality required to come up with the next trend. Your idea my be the hot new bolt-on for 2005!
This may be why some of the gray-haired among us think some young bucks aren't too bright. It’s definitely why I felt I had to respond to you instead of ignore you.
You’ve connected my thoughts about tube bumpers to a statement suggesting a lack of forward thinking mentality. I take that comment personally. My profession is one that didn’t exist when I graduated from college. I’m one of the people who created it, and the young bucks I work with (people with degrees in math and engineering, and experience in fields like nuclear power) come to me when they can’t figure out what to do.
But your statement referred to ‘old schoolers’ plural. So it’s not just me you’re jibing at, but everyone here who might be a little older than you. You used a computer to post that statement. What OS does it run? Are you using the OS from my contemporary Bill Gates or the one from my contemporary Steve Jobs? If not you may be using one of the *nix variants that were developed by guys older than me or a look-alike created by a younger guy who borrowed his base ideas from the old schoolers at AT&T.
My tube bumper was trendy at the time it was built, so maybe this hot trend for 2005 will be another rerun of an ‘old schooler’ idea from a previous generation. Trends and styles change. The physical laws that govern bodies in motion have not changed, and will continue to define how tube bumpers and little cars will interact when they come in contact.
If we think the sky is falling it’s because some (not all, but far too many) of the kids we see running around demonstrate an inability to think. That scares us.
Go read the post in the General forum called “You gotta love the old folks!” We old schoolers know the kids are coming up behind us and will need to surpass our accomplishments to establish themselves. But you can be sure we won’t be impressed until you accomplish something. Spouting off about the people who preceded you won’t earn you any respect. Show us stuff that is better than what we’ve done. Acknowledge where you’ve stood on our shoulders and take pride in how you’ve taken it further.
Challenge us to do better and we’ll try to do it. Question our mental ability and you’ll need to watch out. Old age and treachery will triumph over youth and skill every time. And many of us are smart enough to know a lifted finger isn't going to hurt anyone. We have more effective ideas.
