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Can a Sterling fit under a semi trailer?

ydeardorff

New member
Well,

Can it?-confused* Not moving of course*yipes*, dont want to hear of any accidents involving rare exotic cars.
 

letterman7

Honorary Admin
Depends on the trailer :D On the highway I was almost always paced by a tractor trailer...more often than not the trailers had the marker/cornering lights hanging down (and hoses, etc) but if it weren't for those....

On the other hand, here's a photo from one of the old Rap Sheets from someone who asked that very question...

sterling under tt.jpg
 

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
You mean like this? :) (Fast forward to 2:25)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSjdBBhm3Vg"]YouTube - Condorman Proknovijac schwarze Porsche[/ame]


It's funny that you'd bring that up, though...

On the way to Carlisle this year, I got stuck next to a truck for about a mile. I was trying to pass him, but he was going along at a pretty good clip AND there was somebody in my way in the passing lane, so I got stuck there for a while, right by his trailer, hoping that he remembered that I was over there.

But as I sat there, I began to notice that this particular trailer didn't have many hoses, chains, marker lights, or storage bins under it.

I would NEVER try doing so in a million years, but I am 99.9% certain I could have just gently faded under his trailer and out the other side very un-dramatically.

I am disturbed at how close I got to thinking about just how easy that would be. *laugh*

Let's put this one in the "Don't try this at home" categogy, though.



There is a clip of a Sterling driving under a barricade at 1:45 into this video:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOsTzaxP9Uc"]YouTube - Vintage Sterling kit car footage -- The Chase[/ame]


And of course, there's the one of me driving under the wing of the Beechcraft Bonanza that's at our field.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNhjk_QLC3k"]YouTube - Sterling kit car parked under the wing of low-wing airplane![/ame]
 

ydeardorff

New member
HE HE,

I was thinking a box car type of semi trailer but that will do. LOL

Does anyone have a picture of a sterling next to a vette? I wonder how much lower it is?
 

Brastic

New member
I have driven under a semi trailer once. I was at work at the trailer was blocking one of the parking lot exits. Fellow coworkers were complaining about it, so I just drove under. Mind you , that I did measure before I attempted it, the trailer was not hooked up to the tractor and I had the attention of the owner first.

At San Jose State University, I use to drive under the barricade all the time. At each of the garages, they installed barricades to time the exit of the cars. It was fun to watch people all angry at me for going slow over the speed bumps. They would tail gate and honk. I would then gun it towards the barricade and either watch them hit the brakes or smash into it.
 

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
*laugh* Nice. Love it! *laugh*




(And I will second-the-motion that speed bumps are quite effective against our cars. It's also a hell of a lot of fun to load a Sterling onto a car trailer with short ramps...At one point, we had the front of the trailer jacked up about 36" just to make the angle between the ramp and trailer shallow enough to drag the car past it's lowest point. Oy Vey.)
 

ydeardorff

New member
Ill make a note of that when I buy a car trailer. LOL

Warren,

your cars nose looks about 3 inches off the ground, how and heck do you make over speed bumps at all?
Im definately going to be looking into a remotely inflated airbag system for mine. Dont want the (insert gollum) MY precious nose the drag on the ground.
 

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
Oh...silly...you worry too much. :) It's not three inches off the ground. Heck. It's darn near close to 4 1/2! I could go off-roading in this baby. *laugh*

Here is an archive photo of my car's nose, close-up. It's a little blurry because it was from my camera phone from a while ago. I'll try to get one with an actual tape measure in the shot sometime. I think my ground clearance at the front of the nose is honestly about 5 to 6 inches.

nose-height.jpg

What I have found is that you DEFINITELY drag the nose a little when going across a shallow gully. It isn't so much a speed bump that'll get you. It's the uneven transition into a gas station or parking lot that will. I definitely have dragged the nose a little on these occasions. When I was living in Pittsburgh, there was one local gas station that I simply couldn't use because it had a harsh angular transition between the street (which was angled down a little) and the entrance to the gas station (which angled up a little). Fortunately, in life, there is always another gas station around the corner. I consider it to be the natural opposite to driving a tall vehicle. If you're in an RV, you can't go through a drive-through. And if you're in a Sterling, you have to have respect for gullies.

I have some thoughts on having an adjustable-on-the-fly front end, but I see there's a thread going for that, so I'll jump over there when I get a chance.

Ground clearance on a Sterling -- especially the nose -- definitely IS a worthy topic.
 

Brastic

New member
I did not know how bad my nose scrapping was until I put my car on the lift. I am planning on building some nylon scrap pad for the nose.
 

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
Shane,
I think that's an excellent idea. I think it is almost unavoidable that the nose will drag a little, sometimes, and it might be cool to have a little skid pad there to limit damage. I was thinking about a strategically placed sheet of stainless steel with countersunk fasteners just to keep the profile low. But I'm thinking you're right; some thin nylon skids might be better. I don;t want it to sound like someone is trying to skip trash can lids across the pavement. *laugh*

On my blue car, I have so much strength in my total-overkill truss out to the front bumper that I was considering putting two or three quality casters up front that only stuck out the belly a little so that the nose would roll instead of scrape. I don't know if I'll actually implement them or not. I bought the casters from Harbor Freight but then I ended up liking them so much I used them on an engine stand instead.

Yaughn,
You wanted to know whether a Sterling could drive under a Tractor-trailer? Well it might interest you to know they can even be driven under another CAR, apparently. While going though some photos, I found this classic photo. It is of an actual accident involving a Eureka.

Anyone still worried about the structural integrity of the canopy? :)

Eureka-accident-1.jpg
 

ydeardorff

New member
*eek!*hell yeah look how far that wheel is into the cockpit? holy cow, I wonder if the wheel covers worked as a comb?*eek!*
 

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
I think this car had a sun-roof (you can see it in one of the other angles.) I'm pretty sure that the wheel wouldn't have gone through a solid roof.

But that's one thing that makes me worry about the full Targa roof. I think this would have turned out very differently with the Targa. There's risk to anything and everything you do, though.

Yaughn, I know you were talking about wanting to reinforce the targa top if you use one. No arguments, my friend.
 

letterman7

Honorary Admin
Shane,
I think that's an excellent idea. I think it is almost unavoidable that the nose will drag a little, sometimes, and it might be cool to have a little skid pad there to limit damage. I was thinking about a strategically placed sheet of stainless steel with countersunk fasteners just to keep the profile low.

I don't know if you remember the skid plate on my old car, Warren. A very simple rectangular piece of aluminum, .080, I think, simply screwed to the fiberglass. Very effective, and really wasn't noticable if you weren't looking for it. Saved that front end from that d*mn rock quarry they called a parking lot in Carlisle!
 

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
No, I didn't remember that you had that on your other Sterling. But I really like the idea.

As for the rock quarry, I can still picture a guy (a few years ago) trying to unload a GORGEOUS Diablo replica while negotiating old, uneven macadam interposed with alternating lanes of sod and gullies...and the poor guy was swearing up a storm like Yosemite Sam. Something about "Never bringing this car to this godforsaken state again...blah, blah, blah." *laugh*

The wus. *laugh*

But yeah, I think a modest skid pad is a prudent mod.
 

letterman7

Honorary Admin
Of course, he could have simply unloaded on the driveway....
I've yelled at the "parking attendants" on more than one occasion for forcing me to park on the grassy, muddy portion of the lot or worse, the gravel portion when there were plenty of level, smooth sections to park on. I'll never understand Carlisle...they constantly think they will get a full trailer lot during that show...
 

Nic

Active member
I did not know how bad my nose scrapping was until I put my car on the lift. I am planning on building some nylon scrap pad for the nose.

Shane, don't you have some sort of a roller system under the nose of your Ferrari kit?
 

Brastic

New member
The F355 does have a wheels in the front under the bumper. They are strong enough to jack up the car.

Here is a picture of what the bar with wheels looks like with out the front bumper:

build77.jpg


Here you can see how the wheels stick through the front bumper.
build78.jpg


The crazy thing is how well the red of the wheels matches the OEM Ferrari paint.
 

Johan

New member
Parking under a Jumbo wing

Warren here is the long promised photos of six Eagles below a Boeing 747 wing. It was taken during our 2004 year end function at Rand Airport just East of Johannesburg.


Greetings

Johan

aae31.jpg

ae31 (577).jpg

ae31 (579).jpg
 

farfegnubbin

Site Owner
Staff member
Wow! That is a spectacular photo, Johan. Thank you so much for sharing it!

That might be a photo for the calender. For the past two years, Rick (letterman7) from NationalSterling.org has put together a really nice calender of Sterlings and related cars. It might be a cool idea to send him a high resolution copy of your favorite shot. We love to see unique photos like that in the calender.

Very cool shot! *thumbs up*
 
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