Mountain Driving
We took a drive to the mountains this beautiful Sunday to enjoy the weather, do a little target shooting, and get lunch out.
While on one of the county roads, we were carefully maneuvering the washouts and slick spots, when we slid into what ended up being a 2 foot deep mud hole. Now my truck is pretty rugged, but not equipped for this kind of mishap, and we were unable to rock out, even in 4 WD low.
Luckily, another pleasure seeker came along before we could even get out of the truck to figure things out, and had a tow chain that he could pull us out with. (Outdoors-men (red-necks really) are great at this type of thing! So, to make things easier, the kids got out without getting muddy, and animal_co took off his shoes to wallow in the mud and hook up the chain to my tow bar, while I manned the wheel.
On the way out, my truck was sliding a bit, and we could hear some scraping, but nothing that sounded too bad. Once we were on dry ground, we decided to go back the way we came, just to be on the safe side. The truck was running well (although covered in mud) and everything sounded fine. After eating, we noticed one running board was a little loose, and could hear an odd vibration if we were sitting still, but still the truck seemed fine. So on to home. Around the corner from the house, we ran through a quick wash to get the majority of the dirt off, and on to home.
animal_co was looking at the running board when I walked around the truck, and noticed a rip in the back bumper. When we opened the back to get out our gear, I noticed a metal fold where the bumper bracket had pushed into the truck body and downward, and my tow hooks are now bent upwards. The exhaust pipe also seems to be slightly bent upwards.
So now I'll have to get my truck fixed, from the rock that obviously hit us harder than we thought on the way out of the mud.
But we did have a lovely outing! :)
While on one of the county roads, we were carefully maneuvering the washouts and slick spots, when we slid into what ended up being a 2 foot deep mud hole. Now my truck is pretty rugged, but not equipped for this kind of mishap, and we were unable to rock out, even in 4 WD low.
Luckily, another pleasure seeker came along before we could even get out of the truck to figure things out, and had a tow chain that he could pull us out with. (Outdoors-men (red-necks really) are great at this type of thing! So, to make things easier, the kids got out without getting muddy, and animal_co took off his shoes to wallow in the mud and hook up the chain to my tow bar, while I manned the wheel.
On the way out, my truck was sliding a bit, and we could hear some scraping, but nothing that sounded too bad. Once we were on dry ground, we decided to go back the way we came, just to be on the safe side. The truck was running well (although covered in mud) and everything sounded fine. After eating, we noticed one running board was a little loose, and could hear an odd vibration if we were sitting still, but still the truck seemed fine. So on to home. Around the corner from the house, we ran through a quick wash to get the majority of the dirt off, and on to home.
animal_co was looking at the running board when I walked around the truck, and noticed a rip in the back bumper. When we opened the back to get out our gear, I noticed a metal fold where the bumper bracket had pushed into the truck body and downward, and my tow hooks are now bent upwards. The exhaust pipe also seems to be slightly bent upwards.
So now I'll have to get my truck fixed, from the rock that obviously hit us harder than we thought on the way out of the mud.
But we did have a lovely outing! :)