The 2008 Ranger Advantage Tour nearly ended in tragedy Saturday, December 6 as you may have read on BassFan.com, but thanks to a new tough Chevy Suburban, Kim and Danny Stricker walked away with almost no injury! Since they had piggybacked their visit to the Ranger factory in Flippin Arkansas with a taping trip for their great show Hook n’ Look to Dale Hollow earlier in the week, they had all of their camera equipment with them. None of it was damaged! While the Chevy Suburban was totaled after rolling, Kim’s Ranger Boat escaped harm with only minimal trailer damage.
The Ranger factory and product knowledge visit went very well with Ranger Boat’s usual annual improvements in manufacturing and employee safety clearly apparent. Danny and Kim were with our group on the tour so we had a chance to talk about their recent taping on smallmouth bass mecca Dale Hollow Reservoir for the 2009 Hook n’ Look season. Kim also shared he had recently picked up his new Chevy Suburban for the 2009 tournament season and was hauling his Team Chevy Ranger boat back home here to Michigan at the end of the tour. Talking to Danny, I told him I knew his camera work was what really makes the show! 
Saturday morning, the Strickers headed out of Flippin much earlier than we did so were several hours ahead of our group of TBF of Michigan president Dennis Beltz, TBF of Michigan youth and state championship director Brian Belevender, Danny North and myself. Roads were okay through Arkansas and Missouri, but started turning bad as we got into Illinois.
Through that same stretch an hour either way of Effingham, we started seeing overturned big rigs, and pickups and SUVs. Those hauling trailers seemed particularly susceptible to the blowing snow and smooth, black ice. We slowed down quite a bit after seeing the 4th or 5th vehicle off the road, almost all of which had rolled!!! Yikes! There were backups and messes all over the median in particular!
We had no idea that a few hours earlier, our own locals had the misfortune to loose it on the icy, windy Interstate 70. Most people were being pretty careful, but conditions were bad and you couldn’t really tell how bad (not like later in the trip through Northern Indiana and into Michigan when things were obviously hairy!).
You never know when you might hit that bad patch at the wrong moment though, or have the extra strong gust of wind push you off balance. So it’s good to know these great American two vehicles we use are built to withstand the worst. The tough frame and air bags kept Kim from serious injury with the Suburban ending up laying on his passenger side, dented in, surrounded by broken safety glass. Somehow, Kim avoided getting whacked by the camera equipment he was working with.
After they were both helped from the vehicle, they found that none of their expensive camera equipment had been damaged, and the Ranger Boat was undamaged after breaking lost of the hitch, suffering only minor trailer damage when the hull slid forward a little. One of the biggest success stories for Ranger Boats is their in-house trailer shop, making the best and most innovative trailer on the road.
Here’s some pics of Kim’s Chevy provider by Stricker Productions to GreatLakesBass.com.
Pretty scary stuff, seeing the new vehicle shortly after the rollover accident on Interstate 70 near Effingham Illinois – a stretch of highway area police call death valley!
Driver side view of Kim Stricker’s Team Chevy Suburban after his rollover accident in December 2008 – they kicked out the windshield to escape from inside.
Head on view of Stricker’s Team Chevy Suburban tournament rig after the unfortunate rollover incident. Let’s hope he get another shortly so he can continue to fish the FLW Tour events.