Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... .htm#55231

Not sure who this is but get well guys!

Yikes! Great no one was hurt worse... Too bad that little 300 got wrecked though - looks sad all bashed and crumpled at the end of those scary skid marks :(

For a rollover, the cabin is still in pretty good shape. Roof not crumpled over the head of the people is the important part, The delica seems to have done its job of protecting its people.

I can see the rim, and it looks like the tire is there, but mangled. The rim dragging on the ground could explain the "skid" marks.

Not sure what photo you guys are looking at but the cabin of that van has caved in.

The tread marks are from a wheel pointed well to the right of the inertia of the van, at speed. That's the outer edge of the front left tire tread dragging sideways on the pavement, as the vehicle went into an endover roll on the passenger side.

This thread has been nagging at me.

Saw a ton of Delicas this weekend up and down the Sea to Sky hwy. Noticed one last night with a dramatically low front suspension compared to rear. I need to get my torsion rods adjusted...

Conjecture about the crash aside, I keep hoping someone related to this accident will post news about the driver and passenger. My sincere wish is that they got away without any permanent injury.

Here's the picture:



The front wheel doesn't seem to have much of a tyre on it and my gut says to me that this had something to do with the roll ~ albeit I was not at the scene ~ but I see your point Erebus about the skid marks and you can see what looks like where the wheels made contact to cause the Delica to roll.

RichD wrote:...Conjecture about the crash aside, I keep hoping someone related to this accident will post news about the driver and passenger. My sincere wish is that they got away without any permanent injury.

The article mentions "...the two occupants of the vehicle were in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries. "Any time you have a dramatic roll over like this, there is going to be some bumps and scrapes and bruising," Penner says."~ So I'm hoping that this means that they are generally okay. The fact that the Delica has retained much of it's shape suggests that the occupants are going to be okay. These machines are better than sliced bread.

Falco.

It's possible that the tire wasn't inflated properly or was in poor shape causing it to blow during the hard cornering.

Sliced bread they are

Except they don't corner like sliced bread or an average car/van.

My condolences go out to the people in the Delica.

This is one of many roll-over accidents with the L300.

They should be treated and driven for what they are. Very short wheelbase, cab over vehicles. Meaning, take care when cornering, especially a sharp/fast turn at high speed.

Paying attention to the delica's habits while cornering and braking helps a great deal. Knowing how your Delica reacts to sudden turns/braking combined with good tires/properly inflated will make the driver more aware during situations like these and prepared

FalcoColumbarius wrote:Many? I know there have been the odd "I drove sideways off the side of an edge and landed on my side" instances but I believe this is the first actual roll over, in fact, looking at that picture I get the impression that the van has been righted. Which poses the question did it actually roll or just trip onto it's side and skid into something like the berm?

Falco.

A bit of a moot point. jfarsang's point speaks more to the issue of this type of vehicle (cab-over van) not having been available in our market since the 80's (for all intents and purposes), so most of us never drove something like this. It's akin to the complaint that the diesel engine is underpowered.

A similar phenomenon was seen in the '50s when VW introduced the Beetle into the NAM: a rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive vehicle was not produced in the Americas at the time. Unless you were an immigrant from Europe you were probably unfamiliar with how the vehicle performed: most found the vehicle over-powered and unwieldy on their first drive.

Falco your suspension setup is probably one of the safest configurations for an L300; I think that adjustable damping is a great way to mitigate roll risk on this truck. But this doesn't apply to the stock machine.

jfarsang has been posting valuable advice on the subject of safe lifts and I think we should recognize his experience.

Lets just be honest about the vehicle's traits and adjust our driving habits instead of promoting a false sense of security. This philosophy has paid off for me in motorcycling and I think it applies well to any vehicle.

I've heard/read of 7 L300 roll overs in the past 3 years. Of course each circumstance is different and there are many contributing factors.

My point was simple. There is a higher inherent trait for an L300 to roll/flip when forced in a hard sudden turn compared to a car or an average NA minivan.

Ways to counter the side to side roll tendency is to install better dampening shocks, reindex front torsion bars and recondition old rear leaf packs or install new ones. As well as use a good tire that has stiffer sidewalls than a typical allseason passenger vehicle tire.

That principle applies to all vehicles that have wheels. Not just delica's.

With that said, once you (the driver) recognizes those traits (handling/cornering), then emergency maneuvers or sudden changes can be anticipated/corrected as opposed to surprise and unsure quick reactions.

you think a L300 is tippy...you should try my motorcycle....it will roll over if you just stop....crazy that it has plates and insurance?

use a good tire that has stiffer sidewalls than a typical allseason passenger vehicle tire.

From my Volkwagen Vanagon days this is a must no debate about it. Passenger car tires and their soft comfortable sidewalls are unsafe for this type of vehicle. The cab forward design, high mass, and high center of gravity puts lots of stress on the front tires when cornering and catastophic blow outs can result. I can't imagine there would be many 4WD Delica's not running truck tires but some 2WD Delica vans might be since proper all season van tires in sizes 15" or less are getting quite rare. Not sure what tire size the 2WD Delica uses...VW and most Toyota 2WD work trucks and vans of the time were 14". I just put on some 14" Yokohama Y370's on my Liteace truck and cornering and heavy winds are sooooooo improved over the passenger car tires I had on it originally its ridiculous. If you are running passenger car tires please google something like 'Vanagon Tires' for more info and details on why reinforced sidewalls (or a suitable load rating truck tire) are required and then proceed in an orderly fashion to Kal Tire or other such suitable tire store of your choice...