Aargghhhh

[stomachmonkey]

Took the day off. Wifes b-day today. Heading up to Foxwwods Casino for the weekend.

Was looking forward to a nice 3 hour romp in nice weather.

Have had a weird vibration lately, feels like an unbalanced tire, decide to stop at my tire place this morning and have the balance checked on the rears.

Figured it was a rear that threw a weight because I am not getting any feedback from the steering wheel.

Guy calls me over, I know this won't be good.

BOTH rear rims are bent. Rims are only 8 months old. Passenger side is worse than driver side.

Flashback to last month, driving my normal route home from work on night and BANG, hit a huge pothole.

Driving in the next morning during daylight and I see it's not a pothole but a huge square chunk, 4ftx5ft of missing road.

They did construction during the day and did not fill it in, thing must've been 4-5 inches deep.

Going to call the highway dept. on Monday when I get back and see if they have insurance for this kind of stuff.

Not happy.

Scott

[vash]

dude, without photos, you are screwed.

[CHILI]

Bummer! Are they 7's, or 8's?

[vash]

unless the man made square pot hole is still there! take a look, with a camera ready. some gov jobs go really slow

[Eric Mckenna]

yep.. Pic's hahahah!

[jbripps]

Same thing happened to me early last spring. I actually had a blowout too. Went back the next day and snapped pictures, but I never needed them. I wrote a letter to my town requesting them to reimburse and supplied them with all of my receipts, and sure enough, they did, 6 months later.

If you can establish the the town or village had knowledge that the problem existed, then they should pay. The day after my incident, when going by the problem area, there was a cop directing traffic around 3 cars that were stuck doing a tire change due to the same hole.

Moral of the story is to establish that the town had knowledge. If they still haven't fixed it, your chances should be pretty good at doing that. You can simply call up the town and ask the highway dept. if they are aware of the situation, and they just might answer yes.

Oh yeah, and be polite about it....you can get much further by being sweet rather than sour.

Best of luck,

[stomachmonkey]

Update.

Called the County and they said it's a State road.

The State could not immediately find a record of any recent work. Woman suggested it may have been an outside contractor which adds another layer of complexity.

She said she'd send a form which actually showed up in the mail the next day.

The trashed wheels are brand new Mille Miglia C2's with the early offset.

I can probably get them fixed for $100-125 a piece. But that will probably require heating and repaint. Not so sure I want that.

Called my wrench and he said no problem on supplying an estimate for 4 new wheels. The State's form requires 2 estimates but that should be no problem.

The State will reimburse up to $5k before the process gets more complicated, lawyers and court dates etc...

My wrench figures they'll reimburse at least 40% of my claim.

Do I take the chance and put in the "real" number or do I pad the crap out of it to get back everything. I kinda know the answer to that, but what happens if they return more than I really need. I am a taxpayer and I personally hate frivolous suits that only result in higher rates for everyone.

I want to be made whole but I also don't want to get burned for someone else's mistake by being honest.

Could I consider any "profit" as "pain and suffering"?

What do you guys think?

btw, I took pictures this morning and our office is located on the North shore of Long Island. The road in question is 1 of only 2 major arteries out of the area and half of my company drives it daily so I have lots of potential "witnesses".

Scott

[goliver]

Sorry to hear about the wheels, what a bummer. Do what your conscience dictates. If it were me, I'd submit the actual amount and hope they follow my lead by paying same. I know, it seems kinda naive but a few bucks here or there is not worth the lost sleep IMHO.

Geoff

[Embs]

Originally posted by stomachmonkey
The trashed wheels are brand new Mille Miglia C2's with the early offset.

I can probably get them fixed for $100-125 a piece. But that will probably require heating and repaint.
Scott

BUMMER, good luck getting any cash from the county or state.

Two years ago I was behind an Ohio state dumptruck on I70 that was way overloaded with gravel. The gravel was of course going everywhere, myself and four other vehicles sustained large cracks
one of the four lost his windshield completely. The truck would not pull over until he got to the ODOT garage. We called the Ohio State Patrol, who called the Locals, who did nothing. They wouldn't even file a report. My atty said to forget it becasue I would spend more trying to collect than the window expenses X 10.

Get new wheels, I wouldn't even think about getting a Mille Migila
wheel repaired, if it is even possible. I have the Mille Migila twists and they are for looks only. I would never track them.

Todd

[mjshira]

Scott were these the 928 wheels?

James

[thabaer]

Scott,

I second Embs' MM view, have heard from more than one source that they are easy to bend.

Not that a 4-5" hole impact is easy...

[stomachmonkey]

Thanks guys.

James,

Fortunately not. At least I have those if I need to pull the Cups off for a bit.

Still owe you one on that.

Scott

[mjshira]

ok, good to have a spare set. let us know if you are working on any cool driving games at the moment :-)

[stomachmonkey]

Juiced,

54 fully licensed customizable cars.

100+ licensed aftermarket suppliers.

On-line for PS2 and xbox.

Crew based racing, you can build teams and race other teams.

You can even race for pink slips.

It's gonna be good.

Scott

[mjshira]

cool! when does it ship!

James