Hey y'all ! ! Been a while since I stopped by because It's been a while since since I actually DID anything to / with the old girl. Life's been "interesting" for the past year or so. Things were starting to get back to abnormal so I thought I'd pay some attention to the ole' M820. She has been sitting silently where I parked her since last August and has served me well as a residence during that entire time. As I said, life's been interesting. Anyway . . . I decided it was time to see how she was doing mechanically and electrically after her long silence.
Checked all the vital fluids (p/s was still low from when I parked her, all others looked good, although there was a tiny amount of oil floating on top of the coolant at the neck), connected the battery cables ( I had one negative terminal d/c 'd all winter to stop any drain possible ), crawled into the driver's seat, went through the procedures (including a couple pumps of the primer to build fuel pressure for the stert-up - immediate pressure indicated on the gauge) wasn't happy when brake pedal went to the floor (becomes bad ju-ju later) but parking brake seems to hold, batteries to power, switch to start, VRRROOOOOM !
Happy, HAPPY, H A P P Y ! ! ! Oil pressure, great. Air pressure, rising - buzzer off appropriately. Volts - in the green. Checked p/s fluid, turned lock-to-lock a few times and added as needed ( added a bottle of ATP reseal due to the leaking assist ram that caused it to drop during the pick up trip last year ). Recheck all gauges, still all right where they should be, temp starting to come up.
Rechecked p/s fluid, level good for now. Closed hood, stowed ladder, did a walk-around to make sure all clear, no leaks apparent. And theeeeennnnnnn . . .
Wanted to creep forward to fill in the holes dug by the front tires. Put her in gear. Transfer case in low. Released clutch slowly to see if parking brake holds. Near stall, good. Released parking brake ( hand still on handle ). Let clutch out slowly . . . Ummmm, why am I moving BACKWARDS ?
CRAP ! ! ! ( Pretty sure I yelled another word that starts with an F ) Time slows down and speeds up all at the same time. I make a STUPID MISTAKE and pull the shifter thinking I can catch first gear. WRONG ! ! ! Grinding, increasing panic as I realize I'm still heading for the drop-off behind me. Pulled up on parking brake handle but too late. I'm over the drop-off and into the weeds. I guess the parking brake helped but it was a tree that actually stopped me when it contacted the left rear corner of the body.
Shut her down and climb out to see W T F.
( Shaking my head while trying not to punch myself in the face for being SOOOOOO stupid )
(internal monologue begins) OhhhhhKay dummy, so now whatcha gonna do ? Assess, just
HOW badly am I stuck ? Small "weedy" tree springpoled under front end. That has to come out before moving forward. Trip to the orange home improvement store ensues to procure a chainsaw ( my 30 year old Craftsman saw gave up years ago ). Saw gotten, used and tree dragged out with my Blazer.
A'ight, let's see if this 6 x 6 monster will come back out on it's own ! NOPE ! Both left duals just a spinnin' while it lurches maybe a coupla inches. Try some rubble stuffing and all the other "get yerself unstuck" tricks that I could at the time. Same result. CRAP ! Time to call the Towing Specialist.
I'll wrap this up by adding that the truck was successfully winched out of the weeds by Patriot - St. Denis Towing. If you ever need a tow while in / near Lancaster, PA or the surrounding area, I
HIGHLY recommend them. The 35 ton truck made short work of my situation and they also have bigger ( 50 ton ) and smaller ( wheel lifts / rollbacks ) to handle almost anything. The damage to the body was a lot less than I expected, but there certainly are some repair projects in the future (
B R A K E S ! ! ! being numero Uno ! The "main" door to the body is more concave than originally designed and the lower left corner needs a few love taps with a ball peen hammer but beyond those things and a couple bent brackets, I got off
INCREDIBLY easily. I DO have more photos and will add them later. It's now time to crawl in the box, drink a few brews, weep softly to myself, then suck it up, get some sleep and move on to tomorrow.
Moral of the story ?
OBVIOUSLY, NEVER, EVER try to move one of these things under power unless the
BRAKES ARE WORKING. Don't be as stupid as Someoldmoose. Thank you and Good Night.