Stuck again
It's been really dry lately,
but I still managed to get the truck stuck yesterday.
We did a bit of research
prompted by a suggestion from Roland about the differential unit.
I called a local dealer, who
could tell from the VIN number that our particular model does not have
a "locker" mechanism, which locks up when your tires start to spin so
that each wheel turns equally, and then unlocks for regular driving so
that normal turning can still be done.
The parts alone were going to
be around 1000 dollars with an estimate of 300 for the labor. My
current plan is to track down a used differential unit that has the
"locker" feature and have our local mechanic swap them out.
We've also decided to get an
electric winch in the hopes that it might be able to pull us out of
spots like this in the future.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Roland-One senerio I did not consider is the possibility of falling a tree and crushing the truck all in the same day....reminds me of a scene in the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" where the guy forgets the winch is on and it somehow pulls his truck like 40 feet in the air after it pulled the truck from a river.
Shannon-You must have read my mind about the winch. I found one that will snug up to a towing ball on a hitch, and yes I want to also have the option of putting it up front, which I think will entail welding the plate it comes with to the frame somehow. Also having a portable winch could come in handy on other chores away from the truck. My main concern is the low duty rating of all the portable winchs. I guess I'll just be careful not to put too much strain on it.
Funny you should say that.
I just had a local guy visit to explore the possibility of making a chicken cam and on the way out he noticed our stuck truck and offered to bring his "Monkey Winch" over.
http://www.trewhella.co.uk/winches.php
He explained the cable was as thick as your wrist and I instantly was experiencing some kind of winch envy....now that I've looked it up I see why he was so confident in it doing the job.
Maybe I could try to talk him into selling it....he said he bought if off his brother back in 1960 for 30 bucks!
That being said....the weather forecast is calling for rain all day tomorrow, which might mean the truck will have to wait for a week or longer.
cj Kramer-Thanks for turning us on to PowerTrax.
That Lock-Right locker looks like exactly what we need at a price that should make the dealer blush.
Too bad the contact form on their website is broken. My real question is which one do I need to order for our truck and how fast can they send it to us....but when I submit the form it just breaks.....arghhhhhh...