Met a tree on wheels

Today after I had made a run into town I turned on my road and rode about a half mile. I saw what I thought was a moving tree. I was riding my ST1300 when I saw the top of a pile of limbs coming my way over a hill. There was a truck piled high with limbs and he was moving quick. The limbs where not just on the top but also hung all off the sides. Taking over most of my lane it appeared to be about a three inch limb with a bunch of small ones. I am so glad I was paying attention and could make a rather speedy exit into a neighbors drive way. Those limbs would have removed my windscreen and me from the bike at 40 mph or worse. Or worse was more likely the end result of a tree limb of that size. The car behind me was a BMW and found the ditch.
After I regrouped and gathering my thoughts I chased the truck down. I found him waiting at the stop sign to get on the main road. I flashed my lights, blew my horn and had my flashers on to get his attention. This idiot could not understand why I stop him. Then I found out there where two more just liked him in a pickup acting as a chase truck. Why not at least be in the front warning oncoming traffic, but no. It took them about five minutes to adjust the load. They where really ticked at me but I really did not care.
Then they hit the busy road with all the people in cars and on bikes coming home from work. Both of these roads are pretty narrow and if you leave the road the first thing people find are usually a tree. You just never know what you might meet on a country road in West Tennessee.

Re: Meet a tree on wheels

Lucky for you there was a driveway where you needed it. You could have showed the BMW the way into the ditch.

Re: Meet a tree on wheels

OMG, that would have scared the living c**p out of me! Glad you dodged that one!!

Patty

Re: Meet a tree on wheels

OMG, that would have scared the living c**p out of me! Glad you dodged that one!!

Patty

Re: Meet a tree on wheels

I don't know if I still have the photo somewhere but when I was doing commercial vehicle enforcement, I was patrolling somewhere in the Coachella Valley near the Salton Sea. I remember my attention being drawn to a moving green mass traveling down a backroad. From the sides and rear, you literally could not see any part of a vehicle. From the front, you could see the front bumper, hood, parts of the front fenders and part of the windshield. The width was something like 14' wide - legal is 9 1/2'. The lanes are only 12' wide. Wrote him a ticket for overwidth and untarped load of trash. Made him park and get another truck there to take half the load. Amazingly, he took me to court. My testimony began "On the date and time in question I was on patrol in an unincorporated area of Riverside County on (I forget the exact road) when I saw a green mass moving down the road and I assumed there was a vehicle underneath."

Re: Meet a tree on wheels

jonz said:

I don't know if I still have the photo somewhere but when I was doing commercial vehicle enforcement, I was patrolling somewhere in the Coachella Valley near the Salton Sea. I remember my attention being drawn to a moving green mass traveling down a backroad. From the sides and rear, you literally could not see any part of a vehicle. From the front, you could see the front bumper, hood, parts of the front fenders and part of the windshield. The width was something like 14' wide - legal is 9 1/2'. The lanes are only 12' wide. Wrote him a ticket for overwidth and untarped load of trash. Made him park and get another truck there to take half the load. Amazingly, he took me to court. My testimony began "On the date and time in question I was on patrol in an unincorporated area of Riverside County on (I forget the exact road) when I saw a green mass moving down the road and I assumed there was a vehicle underneath."

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Good job looking ahead. There's no fixing stupid.

Re: Meet a tree on wheels

Some folks can't see past the little bubble they live in! It amazes me how little consideration anyone outside their bubble gets. "It's all about me... to h*ll with the rest of the world" mentality, and it's just exploding exponentially with all the new generations sense of entitlement.

Happy to hear you avoided a bad encounter and made an attempt to school the dummies!

Re: Meet a tree on wheels

Where was the TDOT guys when you need them. No tarp and way over sized. If he had made it on to the main road who knows what could have happened.