Alligator attacks Liberty

[ken&ellen]

Ellen & I were on our way up to Virginia on I-95 when we were attacked by a tractor trailer's steel belted " alligator ". We were in the passing lane and observed the vehicle ahead of us swerve to miss an object in the road...which turned out to be a very large piece of a tire. The vehicle hit the debris and it was thrown into the drive slow lane...clear of our path; however a tractor trailer in the right hand lane ran over it and propelled it into the front of our coach. We stopped at the next rest area to assess the damage and were shocked to fine this piece of tire attached to the front of our coach by a strand of the steel cord rapped around our bumper bolt. It smashed the high beam lamp and put some deep scratches in the stainless. Time to call Eastwood for compound and other supplies. This was a very heavy piece of tire and thankfully it did not go through the windscreen or go under the bus and damage the engine or drive train. Ken & Ellen

[Jon Wehrenberg]

We just went up to Jamestown, NY for our daughter's birthday and on the way up we had a similar encounter. A car hit one in the lane next to us and it opened up (fortunately) and spun the gator directly into our lane and there was no way to avoid it.

I heard it banging under the coach all the way back and pulled over to see how bad it was ASAP. As luck had it, I could not see any damage but it made a lot of noise as it passed under us. I haven't been in the pit yet to see if it did anything not visible to me, but my concern was broken coolant lines or baffles. I'm glad we were not towing.