niferous
Member
- 715
- 6
- 18
- Location
- Houston, TX
Last night at around 3:30 am I was getting ready to head off to sleep when I noticed very close thunder and lightning. I went and looked out the front door and about 45 seconds after I did the sky just opened up. Well for me this isn't a big deal but I just moved into my apartment from a house where it is. I was living in another house for about 4-5 months with a bunch of guys from work until my girlfriend could move to Houston and we could get an apartment together. She finally got the ok from work to transfer and we have an apartment where the water drains well. However at my old house it floods somewhat easy with hard rain and in the last big storm one guys car got totaled and anothers was in the body shop for about 2 months. Its usually only the people who park in the street and if you are in the driveway most of the time your car will not get flooded. I work late so I decided to call some of the guys who live there to warn them that if they are parked in the street they should move their vehicle. Well of course at 3 am nobody answered so I decided to do the good friend thing and go warn them.
So I went outside and started up the M1009! Well the first thing I noticed was that the driver's side door seemed to leak a little at the seam. No big deal though I knew they needed replacing anyhow. Well I start heading over and to my amazement it had already started flooding bad. On the first street out of my complex I encoutered extremely high water and had to divert through a parking lot. Well that too was flooded even though it is elevated a few feet higher than the street! Well now a bad problem started. Ever since I have gotten my truck running the GEN 2 light comes on when I let off the gas. The voltage stays in the green but the light still comes on. After I step on the accelerator it goes off and the voltage goes back up. Well last night it wouldn't go off. Infact my voltage was reading in the yellow anytime I was in water and the belts squealed bad. Anyway I hit Briarforrest, which is somewhat of a well travled street. I figured it would have good drainage but boy was I wrong. I'm glad I have a lot of training in driving in water (National Guard and did a lot of flood duty) because last night I used it. To it's extreme credit my M1009 soldiered through it all even when the volts read in the yellow. Also the belts started squealling like crazy and I was starting to get a little worried. There were Houston PD cars and motorists all up on the curbs just trying to keep from getting flooded. I would have liked to stop and help but I knew doing so in the high water wasn't smart and there wasn't much I could do for them anyhow. At this point I'm still moving well and I now have water in the floorboards. it was was very dark but I don't think this was from the water being higher than my lower door edge but instead just the combination of all the water my tires were throwing up and my weak doors seals. Well I made it to the house (all of 2-3 miles away) and was able to warn everyone. Another problem I had was that right before I pulled into their streer my heater (I had the windows on defrost) started chirping really bad. Is there a belt in there that might have gotten wet? I was able to wake everyone up and for two guys it was litterally just in time. One has a Honda Accord and about another 30 mintues of rain he would have been at least replacing the interior. One guy had a Yukon and his was about 2 inches away from being in the doors. The sorry thing of it all was one of the guys has a 2007 2500 Chevrolet company truck and because they were out of room in the driveway we moved it to a neighbors drive and put a note on their door saying to come get us if they needed it moved. Well instead sometime between 4:30 am and 6:00 am they just had it towed. They probably called the tow truck as soon as we pulled it in. That one probably would have been fine as it sits high but we moved it for good measure. It cost my buddy $200 to get his truck back and half a day running around trying to find it.
All in all it turned out well. The truck made it and today I tightened up the belts which I found out were a little loose (I just replaced them and have been tightening and re-tightening for about a week now). I'd say the highest the water got for me while driving was about 2-1/2'. I would have liked actually got out and checked but like I said I was always trained to go slow but not stop in water like that.
So I went outside and started up the M1009! Well the first thing I noticed was that the driver's side door seemed to leak a little at the seam. No big deal though I knew they needed replacing anyhow. Well I start heading over and to my amazement it had already started flooding bad. On the first street out of my complex I encoutered extremely high water and had to divert through a parking lot. Well that too was flooded even though it is elevated a few feet higher than the street! Well now a bad problem started. Ever since I have gotten my truck running the GEN 2 light comes on when I let off the gas. The voltage stays in the green but the light still comes on. After I step on the accelerator it goes off and the voltage goes back up. Well last night it wouldn't go off. Infact my voltage was reading in the yellow anytime I was in water and the belts squealed bad. Anyway I hit Briarforrest, which is somewhat of a well travled street. I figured it would have good drainage but boy was I wrong. I'm glad I have a lot of training in driving in water (National Guard and did a lot of flood duty) because last night I used it. To it's extreme credit my M1009 soldiered through it all even when the volts read in the yellow. Also the belts started squealling like crazy and I was starting to get a little worried. There were Houston PD cars and motorists all up on the curbs just trying to keep from getting flooded. I would have liked to stop and help but I knew doing so in the high water wasn't smart and there wasn't much I could do for them anyhow. At this point I'm still moving well and I now have water in the floorboards. it was was very dark but I don't think this was from the water being higher than my lower door edge but instead just the combination of all the water my tires were throwing up and my weak doors seals. Well I made it to the house (all of 2-3 miles away) and was able to warn everyone. Another problem I had was that right before I pulled into their streer my heater (I had the windows on defrost) started chirping really bad. Is there a belt in there that might have gotten wet? I was able to wake everyone up and for two guys it was litterally just in time. One has a Honda Accord and about another 30 mintues of rain he would have been at least replacing the interior. One guy had a Yukon and his was about 2 inches away from being in the doors. The sorry thing of it all was one of the guys has a 2007 2500 Chevrolet company truck and because they were out of room in the driveway we moved it to a neighbors drive and put a note on their door saying to come get us if they needed it moved. Well instead sometime between 4:30 am and 6:00 am they just had it towed. They probably called the tow truck as soon as we pulled it in. That one probably would have been fine as it sits high but we moved it for good measure. It cost my buddy $200 to get his truck back and half a day running around trying to find it.
All in all it turned out well. The truck made it and today I tightened up the belts which I found out were a little loose (I just replaced them and have been tightening and re-tightening for about a week now). I'd say the highest the water got for me while driving was about 2-1/2'. I would have liked actually got out and checked but like I said I was always trained to go slow but not stop in water like that.
Yeah, most people have do idea on how to drive through water, let alone normal everyday driving!
