Centurion missed near disaster

[centurion 455 ragtop]

Well this wasn't exactly the way I wanted to take my Centurion out of winter storage after 5 months of storage. Tonight we had heavy rains and extreme high winds up to 60 mph coming in from the south east which faces the front of my driveway and car tent. My house sits below a large wooded hill to the west where 90% of all storms come in at. So the hill buffers the winds. This came in from the east. I'm here 6 years and never seen anything this strong.

Anyway it sounded like a damn freight train! Ran out side in time to see my 20" by 12" round car tent being ripped off it's hold downs and being lifted up and tossed into the woods. Now mind you a I had two fenders, and a deck lid with bumpers tied down to it on the inside also. The 8 anchors apparently got pulled up from the satuated ground. Well as I was running out side the wind died down long enough for the car port tent to come crashing back down along with the spare fenders and deck lid onto the Centurion which was cocooned inside a car bag!

The wind came back up and up went the tent again this time getting twisted out of shape and partly stuck into the trees. With my son I grabbed the battery and keys from the garage unzipped the car from the bag, ripped off the cover and blankets, dropped the battery in, and well not that I had any choice fired her up in an instant after she was sitting for 5 months, and drove it out of harms way.

Parked it tightly between our everyday cars in front of the house garage and carefully checked it over. Thank God I had a car cover along with three layers of old blankets on top before I sealed it inside the car bag. Damage is a light 3" scratch on the hood with a very small wave dent. Could of been a lot worse I guess. The scratch, most of it can be taken out. I may check out the dent wizard for the small wave dent. While we were outside trying to secure things we heard a large tree fall just up the street and power went out from my neighbors house to the end of my road.

So I guess my car is official out of winter storage...the hard way. Will check things in the morning, and double check the car in daylight to make sure there is no other damage, the top is defintely not hurt and could not see any dents. No doubt the car tent is trash. This definitely sucks, even as I'm posting this I can still hear the high winds, weather channel says we will be hit with high winds until 7am.

[Robroy]

Sounds like a real nightmare Rick :shocked:
I am glad though that the damage wasn’t that bad on your ride even if it’s bad enough, guess that tent wasn’t cheap either…

I don’t get what’s happened to the weather these days; we have had no winter at all here and they got snow in Baghdad and Jerusalem in Feb :confused4:
Seems like we get more and more storms instead of winter here, we normally have the storms during the fall.
I was out cruising with the Centurion yesterday with sunny weather and 50*F and the birds were singing real loud :D , I wonder though if we will get any summer this year :rolleyes: ?? Or if it will be a prolonged spring or early fall instead. I just don’t get it….

Anyway, I hope it works out well for you Rick!

[Bob Alberini]

Geez, Rick, what an unbelievable story. One can only imagine the horror you felt watching this whole scenario take place in front of your eyes.

Yesterday must have been the day for wild weather though. From 9:30 AM Friday until 5:00 PM yesterday, we had record setting snow fall here in Columbus. We had roughly 5 inches on Friday followed by 15.4 inches yesterday. The 20.4 inch total beat the old record of 15.3 inches set in 1910. I spent three hours shoveling out the front half of the driveway and have yet to uncover the car! But so far, we've had nothing worse and the sun is out today.

[centurion 455 ragtop]

Weather has been crazy. Have the house generator going, no power, was informed will have no power until 11 pm Monday night:shocked: I have been prepared for that, having outages in the past, do have proper provisions, along with stored 30 gallons of fuel (not in the house of course) and a generator that can run the entire house.

Checked over the car, no other damage. I guess I did get off pretty lucky. IN the shot you can see how it was pulled up partly lifted over the car and pushed into the trees. It actuall pulled up the anchors! Willl be busy today cleaning up. Plus a lot of tree limbs and trees are down in the area. Then back on line to order another car tent. I would love to build a framed garage, but we live in a wooded water shed area across from a lake and next to an active stream (you can see it behind the tent) and any building they frown on oh and your tax increase?! Forget about it. The tents are way cheaper and no permits are needed. I'll just have to figure on anchoring it down a lot better than they instructed.

On a lighter note, weather forecast has no rain or snow for the next 4 days and the car did come out super clean:rolleyes:

[The German]

Rick, guess you had good luck within bad luck !
When reading the first part of your story I expected to get worst news, so I´m glad that your car is somewhat okay ! Guess we have to be prepared better for those storms in every region of the world.
Hope the next wind will use the other direction again not hitting your tent ... .
__________
Rolf

[dewbers]

Man I was reading your post and my stomach got tight!!! I'm with Rolf, that I was expecting the worse till I got through it. Then I re-read it, just to be sure! VERY lucky bro!!! :D Don't sweat shipping that part we discussed, it can wait till your world settles down!!

When you can, post the before shot you have of the tent. It's on another thread somewhere in here, but I think we'd all like to see the before and after shots side by side. I was considering do this next season to have some room in my garage... I guess I'll scratch that idea. Though my kids take their bikes and other JUNK in and out of the garage near my ride. So there is a trade off! :rooleyes2:

Bright side... it's going to be in the high 50's this week. Take her out for a ride. Toss on the sweatshirt like Randy did and drop the top!! If I get my carb back on in time... I plan to!

[centurion 455 ragtop]

Well Sunday I took it all apart. The damage was a few of the frame bars are bent along with most of the bolts bents some broken. The anchors all 6 of them were pulled up. Have to say in the past 6 years it has held up to heavy wet snow up and over a foot. And heavy storms before. This just happened to be a freak high wind gust after 9 hours of satuating rain. I will replace it but this time I will be going to have 8 instead of 6 anchors and have them anchored in cement. What shocked me was it lifted the two spare fenders and deck lid completely over the car without hitting it or getting damaged. I had the parts stored inside the tent roped to the frame of the tent. I did find a nice tear in the car bag, so that's trash. Have to say though I am glad I covered the car inside the car bag and layered it with old heavy blankets.
Steve below is the comparion shots. Onewinter , one summer(we had a foot of snow in that shot) and the damaged shot.

[Phil Genario]

Weather has been crazy. Have the house generator going, no power, was informed will have no power until 11 pm Monday night:shocked: I have been prepared for that, having outages in the past, do have proper provisions, along with stored 30 gallons of fuel (not in the house of course) and a generator that can run the entire house.

Checked over the car, no other damage. I guess I did get off pretty lucky. IN the shot you can see how it was pulled up partly lifted over the car and pushed into the trees. It actuall pulled up the anchors! Willl be busy today cleaning up. Plus a lot of tree limbs and trees are down in the area. Then back on line to order another car tent. I would love to build a framed garage, but we live in a wooded water shed area across from a lake and next to an active stream (you can see it behind the tent) and any building they frown on oh and your tax increase?! Forget about it. The tents are way cheaper and no permits are needed. I'll just have to figure on anchoring it down a lot better than they instructed.

On a lighter note, weather forecast has no rain or snow for the next 4 days and the car did come out super clean:rolleyes:what a horror story, a car coolectors worst nightmare,first thank god no one was injured, second get on your knees and thank god nothing serious happened to the centurion!