Upgrades to the truck...courtesy of a ditch!

[Clark White]

So on Saturday, I'm leaving the grocery store with this new girl that I met and it comes out that shes never been off roading...ever! Well of course that just can't stand to be, not any of MY friends! So I decide we're going to take a shortcut back to her house, which involves driving some dirt roads and crossing a VERY large ditch. It's been raining, so things are muddy, but what ever, I've been down this road PLENTY of times in the mud. With Emily being completely new to the idea of 4x4, I'm taking it quite conservatively, only driving about 10mph. We get to the big ditch and I intentionally don't turn into it until the last second so as to catch Emily off guard (and it worked as planned!) Short little scream, sharp pain to my arm as she **********'s me, and we clear the ditch just as I always do and continue on down the farm road. Being muddy, I keep it in 4x4 and stay right around 10mph. Well towards the end of the road, there is a 10' jog to the right to cross a drainage ditch. Well, I turn the wheels to the right, and the truck does not respond AT ALL. I immediately hit the breaks, but no matter how little pressure I apply, the tires lock up and we actually accelerate rather then slow down. Less then a second later, we slam into the ditch and hit the opposite side like a brick wall at a perfect 90* angle. Now, keep in mind, I was keeping it around 10mph, so it's not like I was being stupid and driving recklessly. I think about it for another second trying to decide if this had really just happened, and deciding that yes, it really did, I check on Emily. Thankfully, she is just fine (besides a sore neck the next day). I get out and take stock of the situation: the front bumper is buried a good 4" into the ditch, my left turn signal is broken, and the camper has slid up hard against the cab, smashing the window on the camper shell. Besides that however, everything seams to be working. I dig out the winch and hook up to a telephone pole nearby. Despite being buried like she is, the winch pulls me right out without hesitation (though I'm rather embarrassed to say the ditch looks like a D8 wen through it). Sadly, in the process the steel cable crimps the hell out of it's self. Amazingly, the very next day, Emily went off roading for real with me, and wasn't TOO concerned (besides warning me about EVERY SINGLE DITCH along the way). Well I later discovered that it actually did crunch my crush cans some.

Well since I'm pulling the bumper off to replace the crush cans, I figure I might as well disassemble the winch and clean/re-grease everything. So then I figure so long as I'm taking the winch off, I might as well take this opportunity to upgrade to synthetic line, new fairlead, and get a proper tree saver. Well then I figure so long as I'm paying for shipping on all this (all but the winch line it's self, which is custom from Viking, it is coming from Sierra Expeditions), I might as well go ahead and get everything I've been wanting on their website. SO! I now also have a fuse block, ARB tire deflator, and a whole bunch of other stuff on the way, all thanks to Emily making me drive into a ditch! Hopefully it will warm up by next weekend, when I have both Sat and Sun off, so that I can do all of my fixes/upgrades! :elkgrin:

Clark White

 

[1speed]

Ah the things we do to try to impress women!

 

[Clark White]

You know it! :bike_rider:

 

[WhereTheHellIsJames?]

Cool- new toys! We get this clay mud around here that we call "Gilhouley Grease"- the name comes from a local mountain here that is just covered in the stuff. Slick slick slick.

 

[XJxplorer]

Cool- new toys! We get this clay mud around here that we call "Gilhouley Grease"- the name comes from a local mountain here that is just covered in the stuff. Slick slick slick.

HAHA! We used to go party up on Gilhouley to stay away from the police back in high school.. Ahhh good times..

 

[CA-RJ]

The real question should be, is Emily still your friend???:elkgrin:

 

[Abel Villesca]

Well, I turn the wheels to the right, and the truck does not respond AT ALL. I immediately hit the breaks, but no matter how little pressure I apply, the tires lock up and we actually accelerate rather then slow down.

In the AWD rally car we always turn the wheels the direction we want to go and floor it rather than brake in this situation. I don't know if that might have made a difference in your situation. It works great in snow and gravel, I don't know about mud. It is counterintuitive to step on the accelerator rather than the brakes when heading toward a hazard, though.

 

[Clark White]

The real question should be, is Emily still your friend???:elkgrin:

Yes indeed! I've seen her every day since actually! :sombrero:

In the AWD rally car we always turn the wheels the direction we want to go and floor it rather than brake in this situation. I don't know if that might have made a difference in your situation. It works great in snow and gravel, I don't know about mud. It is counterintuitive to step on the accelerator rather than the brakes when heading toward a hazard, though.

That thought briefly crossed my mind when I realized the breaks weren't going to work, but I had nowhere near enough time to think about it, and as I almost came off the break, it occurred to me that if that didn't work I might make it even worse by accelerating. IDK, I'm going to have to go find a similar spot minus the ditch and practice. I've done it plenty in sand and snow, but like you never in mud. I would assume it's the same though? I'd be surprised if I had more then .5sec between when I turned the wheel and when we were stopped in the ditch though, so I just didn't have time to move my foot that much. Oh well, in 300,000 miles of driving mostly off road, this is my first accident so I figure I'm doin ok. :smiley_drive:

Clark

 

[Abel Villesca]

Let me know how it works in the mud! Practice makes perfect.