Well, the bad news is that my beloved Wrangler got rear-ended today.
The good news is that the offender (F-150) seems to have taken all the damage.

You know the story - slick roads from rainstorms, 5pm rush hour traffic. I'm at a dead-stop, and I hear that sickening sound of tires locked-up. Just enough time to glance up at the rearview, see the HUGE front end of a Ford bearing down on me, and think to myself I wonder if I let my foot off the brake, will the simple physics allow my vehicle to roll forward, dispersing the energy of the collision? CRASH Hit me hard enough to elicit a Scooby-Doo-like yelp from my Big Red Dog in the cargo area, and hard enough to send me into the rear of the car in front of me (who fled the scene, go figure). Not hard enough to deploy any airbags or to cause any injuries. I get out, ask the other driver and his passenger (two local highschoolers) if they're okay, and then survey the damage.

His F-150 is whacked - an obvious, single point-of-impact, but with the whole front-end buckled in on itself and both driver and passenger turn signal lights popped out like eyes from their sockets. Looks like it had a run-in with Thor's hammer or something.

My Jeep is....essentially unscathed, at least to my untrained eye. Two small tears in my spare-tire cover (I'll have to check the tire itself, too) and my kickass UK Wildcat blue hitch-cover is superficially warped. Not enough to render it inoperable - the retaining pin wasn't bent - but a few chips of paint missing and the external "flares" bent. Tailpipe unscathed. No obvious damage to the bumper. Muffler (right behind the bumper) okay. Tailgate opens and closes fine. Rear window opens fine. Basically I can't see anything wrong when I eyeball the thing - not even on the FRONT bumper, where I was propelled into the car in front of me.

Got the police report, other kid's info, etc, just in case I discover some damage, but here's where you guys come in: can you think of anything I overlooked? Any hard-to-spot, out-of-sight things under that rear-end I should check? Since that hitch attaches to the frame, I'll have the frame checked for bends/warps - but what else?

Thanks in advance,
KD

 

I'd take the spare off and check the metal on the tailgate. It might be pushed in from the impact.

 

Have a body shop look at it. They have the experience to inspect for damage.

My rear bumper got clipped. Didn't look damaged to me. The body shop guy said there were damaged parts, and he showed me.

 

Glad to here you and you'r dog are alright and the Jeep doesn't have much damage. I would have a shop, maybe even a dealership or somewhere professional inspect the Jeep for any damage, that way you can be sure.

 

have it looked at by a professional, there might be frame damage ,rear body damage, suspension damage ( since it was a impact where you were stopped and brute force made you go forward ) it might have tweaked something that you cannot see. glad everyone is ok

 

absolutely get it looked at professionally. My wife was rear-ended in February in her Chevy Equinox...looked like the bumper cover just needed replaced and originally we were going to be cool to the kid and just buy one and have it painted and just go that route. My wife had some better judgement and took it into a shop who found tons of damage, in the end the car was actually totaled due to damage we could not see, cracked fuel talk, torn underbody, pushed in frame, bent rear axle etc....

 

I agree with these folks. Also, check yourself out. As a passenger I was hit in the same fashion a few years back. It took about two days, but then my back and neck got very sore. It wasn't anything major, but you can't be too careful.

 

Yikes -- glad you made it out ok!

I got rear ended in a very similar way about two years ago. Heavy rain, 5pm, etc. The car behind me was the one to get whacked, and it was pushed into me.

I had my XC mountain bike hanging off the spare tire. I got out expecting to see the bike mangled, and my bumper cover tweaked, etc. etc. It was a pretty good bump.

I could not find 'anything' wrong with the jeep. My bike carrier got tweaked, and my bike needed to have the bars straightened - but that was it. Not even a scratch or white crease on my bumper cover.

The car that had been pushed into me needed to be towed - my trailer hitch (empty receiver) hit their hood just right to push the hood latch in and crack their radiator.

I never had it professionally looked at, but I am VERY picky and inspected things to my hearts desire.

I would think that with the JK, unless you are seeing white creases in the bumper cover, or obvious signs of damage, that you are going to be pretty well off. (I've bumped my front bumper VERY lightly into cars while parking in downtown Boston (its how you park, basically), and the thing will crease if you look at it wrong.)