Small overlap crash test: Trucks

"EL_ULY" (uly) 04/12/2016 at 13:14 • Filed to: crash test

0

43

Adding to Miles Smith’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! below. It’s time to compare these very common vehicles that are on our roads.

Chevrolet Silverado: Acceptable

Ram 1500: Marginal

Toyota Tundra: Acceptable

Ford F-150: Good

videos courtesy of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Ike > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:19

0

The video explaining the results is a big eye opener too. It's crazy to me how poorly these things do in crashes. I'm going to be spending my day showing this to all the bro truck guys I know. (Which is too many)

Kent > Ike 04/12/2016 at 13:23

2

The good thing is that most car companies actually take what the IIHS says quite seriously. This means that car companies are starting to design their new cars to do better in this test.

HammerheadFistpunch > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:25

1

EL_ULY > Ike 04/12/2016 at 13:26

0

excluding people that need them for work, the main reason that people buy soooooooooo many trucks here in Houston....

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

EL_ULY > HammerheadFistpunch 04/12/2016 at 13:28

2

literally guts... everywhere if you get in an accident lol :]

HammerheadFistpunch > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:31

3

it could be gory too.

HammerheadFistpunch > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:33

0

interesting that only the Tundra has steel wheels, which I would suspect makes a small difference in the sense that the steel will bend and absorb more energy vs the alloy wheels that will simply fail. Though in this case it doesn’t seem to make much difference.

EL_ULY > HammerheadFistpunch 04/12/2016 at 13:35

0

yeah in all those other tests the Al-you- mini-um wheels just shatter

Probenja > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:35

0

HammerheadFistpunch > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:37

0

Looking at the footage more closely you can see that one of the major reasons the Ford does so well and the ram so poor is how the wheel interacts with the a pillar, in the Ford the wheel gets out of the way and doesn’t crush the pillar, in the Ram the wheel get lodged in there and really wrecks up the place. Kinda makes you wonder if thats by design of the luck of the draw in terms of crash angles/steering wheel angles.

jariten1781 > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:40

1

Yeah, but it’s pretty true. As I understand it the crash tests emulate collisions of vehicles with similar mass to test article. That, de facto, makes the trucks (and other heavy vehicles) tests harsher. They’re the equivalent of an F150 on F150 collision and the cars are the equivalent of a Civic on Civic collision.

Anyway, we'll all die when we get hit by a cement truck. YOLO?

Stapleface > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:40

0

Didn't Ford have to redesign the F150 due to this test? I swear I heard/read somewhere that the F250+ did fine, but the F150 had different bracing that pretty much crushed the passengers. Good on Ford for fixing the problem. What I don't understand is manufacturers KNOW these tests will happen, do they just give up and say "good enough" and put the cars in production? I can get failing a test you weren't prepared for, but the small overlap has been tested for a while now.

facw > HammerheadFistpunch 04/12/2016 at 13:43

0

I would really like to see them do a bunch of runs on the same type of vehicle for this test. While I’m sure it is possible to design one better than another, on this test it does seem like the tiniest steering angle difference could have a big impact on whether the wheel gets pushed harmlessly out of the way, or gets rammed into the footwell. I assume they’ve done something to verify the repeatability of their tests, but it’s definitely a case where proper statistical rigor is expensive.

EL_ULY > Stapleface 04/12/2016 at 13:45

1

I feel like this test represent real life way more than like a flat wall. Ford listened and adapted

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 13:45

0

In reality, it just kills other people more while not even protecting you as well as a Smart car.

EL_ULY > jariten1781 04/12/2016 at 13:46

0

lol well braking distance and agility goes out the window when it comes to truck trying avoid the accident to begin with. Yet, since everyone is in a truck, a truck makes more sense

HammerheadFistpunch > facw 04/12/2016 at 13:47

1

yeah, I assume its a cost issue. That being said, there could be every indication that the folding of the wheel is a design intent that the RAM lacks as well. i.e. its engineered to fold and move. On the other hand it could be the RAM doesn’t have sufficient strength in the a pillar to deflect the wheel so it could be that too.

EL_ULY > HammerheadFistpunch 04/12/2016 at 13:58

1

That A-pillar failing causes so many other important things to fail

Pickup_man > Stapleface 04/12/2016 at 13:59

3

There was the issue where the Crew Cab F-150 had some extra bracing that the Extended Cab didn’t, and that caused a huge fuss, even though the extended cab still did fine without it. Is that what you’re thinking of?

EL_ULY > Probenja 04/12/2016 at 13:59

0

Al- you- mini- um!

for Michigan > Pickup_man 04/12/2016 at 14:02

2

Pretty sure it’s what he was thinking of.

shop-teacher > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 14:13

0

I’m quite certain I don’t want to know how my truck would do at the small overlap test. I did watch the video of an ‘01 Silverado ext cab, it did OK at the moderate overlap test. I sure wouldn’t want to be in it, but you’ll probably live. That small overlap test is a real MFer though.

Takuro Spirit > HammerheadFistpunch 04/12/2016 at 14:16

2

Pro tip: Crank the wheel to the right if you plan on shearing off the left front of your Ram.

EL_ULY > shop-teacher 04/12/2016 at 14:16

0

when it first came out, a lot of cars didn’t get close to passing it. old F-150's did very bad even in the moderate overlap

shop-teacher > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 14:22

0

I remember that. Honestly, it’s the only thing that makes me consider replacing my truck. I love my truck though, it’s the only vehicle I’ve ever developed a sentimental attachment to. Being an adult is hard!

I watched the F-150 video too, since it started automatically after the Silverado one. That was BRUTAL.

EL_ULY > shop-teacher 04/12/2016 at 14:44

0

The only time i’ve ever felt that feeling for a vehicle it has always been for a truck. Basically, they are loyal mechanical dogs :]

shop-teacher > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 14:47

0

Yeah, they really are. I’ve been through so much with that truck. It was my first new vehicle, I started my teaching career driving it, I drove away from my wedding in it, brought my girls home from the hospital in it ... It’s never done me wrong either. Yeah, I’ve had to fix some things, but I’ve never ever worried about it getting me where I need to go.

EL_ULY > shop-teacher 04/12/2016 at 15:12

1

100% opposite of all the stupid cheapo German pieces of shit i’ve had lol. Except of course.... my Silverado

shop-teacher > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 15:19

0

That was a sweet truck!

As cool as those cheapo German cars are, I could never own one. Even if I could afford to pay somebody to fix them, I simply do not have the patience to deal with something that unreliable.

BigBlock440 > Ike 04/12/2016 at 15:51

1

1) Trucks are safer in a collision with smaller cars or other things that move, less mass is transferred to the occupants. That part’s true.

2) A big part of the reason vehicles score a “good” is because the wheel shatters or is deflected from the A-pillar, and scores poorly when it hits it. Brodozers would also have an advantage here because that cheap china wheel and poorly done lift is going to fold like an accordion and not deform the A-pillar.

BigBlock440 > Stapleface 04/12/2016 at 15:53

0

Small overlap is relatively new, the F150 is the only one designed since it’s been tested. I guess the Nissan too, but I don’t know if that’s been tested.

BigBlock440 > Pickup_man 04/12/2016 at 15:54

0

Doing fine doesn’t get you a “good” though, it only gets you a “marginal”.

Ike > BigBlock440 04/12/2016 at 15:58

0

Well “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” so more mass in the collision = more energy in the impact. So when a truck hits a car, as long as they don’t fuse. The truck is getting a lot of its own energy back into it.

Second I would love to see how lifting a truck would effect it, moving a lot of the safety stuff out of the way of the collision could make it much worst I would think

Gone > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 16:00

1

Related... Overlap wrecks are important in racing as well. This is an oldie, but 80-100mph into the tire wall and then the K-wall. Blainefab builds smart, well done, and stout cars. CC thread:

http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthr…

NSFW langauge

Footwell protection before:

After:

Cage did it’s job, but wanted to point out that I’ve seen a lot of cars without floor reinforcement at the pedals. Make sure your toys are up to stuff safety-wise.

Pickup_man > BigBlock440 04/12/2016 at 16:03

0

Fine was just a relative term. I thought I remembered the extended cab performing well without the additional braces, I remembered wrong. Good thing they’re adding them to the new ones though and that rating is back up to good.

EL_ULY > shop-teacher 04/12/2016 at 16:22

1

#nightmare

BigBlock440 > Ike 04/12/2016 at 16:23

0

I was partially joking about the bro truck bits, but it also moves most of the vehicle itself out of the way of the collision. The longer it takes you to slow down, the less energy the occupants absorb and the less damage they’ll take. If it breaks a wheel off and the truck slides another 50 feet, that’ll turn out better than if the structure of the truck took the full force and came to an abrupt stop.

Also, the trucks not getting it’s own energy back into it unless it hits something stationary, it’s getting the other vehicles energy. Here’s a physics experiment to try if you want to verify. Take a bowling ball and a golf ball and roll them at each other. They will both feel the same force, however the golfball will completely change direction while the bowling ball will barely slow down. That complete change of direction will impact the golfball occupants much more than the slight slowdown the bowling ball occupants will feel.

EL_ULY > Gone 04/12/2016 at 17:02

0

oh wow, I did not know thins. Thanks for sharing this

Gone > EL_ULY 04/12/2016 at 17:35

0

NP. There are a LOT of good cage design and building tips in that thread. Especially in regards to load paths, gussets, bends, bar locations, and chassis integration with pics.

jimz > shop-teacher 04/13/2016 at 12:04

1

it’s not always predictable, so you might be surprised. IIHS just started doing the small overlap in 2012, and the 2013 Fusion did fairly well even though it hadn’t been designed with the test in mind. If you watch closely, the design of the front end deflects the car away from the barrier and keeps the A-pillar from getting the full impact force:

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > EL_ULY 04/13/2016 at 12:09

0

I’m impressed by the Ford, and terrified by the Dodge.

EL_ULY > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/13/2016 at 12:25

0

lol me too!

shop-teacher > jimz 04/13/2016 at 12:50

0

True. I’m just judging by it’s only OK performance in moderate overlap, it’s not particularly likely that it’s better at small overlap. I don’t feel like I’m driving a death trap or anything, but it does give me pause for thought when I’m driving my kids around in it.