Lohnes' Pic of the Week: Snow Wheelin' FailBy Brian Lohnes Posted 02/04/09
Since the old boss won’t be showing his photos here any longer, I’m going to do my best to provide something funny or interesting from my own stacks of old photos every week. I’ve got nowhere near the skills he does, but the quality of the photos may be overshadowed by the stories behind them.
So here we have my '93 GMC stepside 4x4 completely trapped in a giant snow bank. This was a Sunday afternoon bad idea that happened at the tail end of a boring weekend at college. We went out to some of the parking lots on campus that had large open areas and proceeded to go bombing through the snow. “We” was me and my roommate Pete, who, other than being a bad influence, was of no help mechanically or physically with, well, anything.
We blasted through larger and larger drifts until he got on my case about trying to make it over, or through, this massive snow bank. I got a huge head of steam, which was idiotic because I had no idea what was under the snow, and tried to use large amounts of wheel speed to claw through. It obviously didn’t work.
After shoveling for about an hour and trying to call anyone I knew with a four-wheel drive, I was just about to give up, leave the truck overnight, and walk a couple miles home when my buddy Dave called me back. I told him to come, and bring tow straps. He showed up in his sweet lifted ’87 Chevy stepside rolling on 35-inch mudders. It took a while to actually pull the thing free because we were pulling it through the snow as opposed to over it.
Note the killer articulation of the rear axle. The whole tire is about stuffed up inside the wheelwell. That’s with a completely stock suspension as well.
This truck lived a hard life with me, but aside from blowing up the stock motor, it never gave me a problem.
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Written by tiresmoke!
Feb 04 2009
Uh huh...... ;D
Brian, was that a heavy wet snow?
Those seem to be the worst for getting stuck in.......can't do much other than call AAA or an equivalent.
I've been lucky, haven't hung the truck up in any of the "white Hell" that's fallen within the last week(knock on wood).
Written by milner351
Feb 04 2009
I was going to mention that - but I'm glad it came from another chevy guy!
Written by fahrenschnell
Feb 04 2009
I love how us car guys think.....
Quote: Other than the engine blowing up, it never gave me any problems.
Too funny.
Seth
Written by 98ciHemi
Feb 04 2009
This has been my year for getting stuck. To start it off, I was trying to park a empty flatbed trailer attached to my Dad's 1994 Ford F350 with the Non Turbo 7.3... and two wheel drive.... and tire chains. Cut through 2" of ice and a 1" foot of dirt in about 15 seconds. Truck was resting on the differential. Took a big ford tractor to pull it out. Then, while on my way out to go skiing, I stopped to help someone on a two lane gravel. Truck came to a stop, and then the front end proceeded to slide right off the icy road and on into some powder on the side of the road. Epic. I was stuck on a plowed road with the deepest snow in contact with the truck being two inches. Got pushed out. Then got stuck on the same day in the ski lodge PARKING LOT. I managed to work my way out of that one on my own to avoid the shame of being pulled out of a parking lot. There are three more incidents of me getting stuck this year, two of them on a snowmobile, but I will save what dignity I have and not share those.
Written by outlaw57
Feb 04 2009
[quote author=MOPARS RULE link=topic=9608.msg188892#msg188892 date=1233777534]
Slow news day.
[/quote]
I kinda thought it was a cool story, reminded me of a friend and I who both had mid 70's lifted chevys and plowed through a lot of snow, got stuck, broke parts (his not mine), and how easy it is to underjudge the depth of snow! Thanks Lohnes!
Written by Orange95Z
Feb 04 2009
[quote author=MOPARS RULE link=topic=9608.msg188892#msg188892 date=1233777534]
Slow news day.
[/quote]
Beats what's actually on the "news" ::).
Written by milner351
Feb 04 2009
I'm glad I'm not the only one who did stupid stuff with his first 4x4 in college.... mine was also with my roommate - who was generally quite a good influence (a great student who's now in the FBI!) except for this night - when he suggested that a drive along the frozen shore of glen lake (NorthWestern lower Michigan) was an excellent idea.
So - I put my mighty 2.5L I4 one barrel 5spd cherokee "sport" into 4wd, and off we went.
It was going great.... until - one rear wheel broke through the ice.
After a couple hours of levering with small trees we found fallen near by and other sorted attempts at unsticking it - we decided we had to swallow our pride and admit to his grandfather that we'd stuck the damned thing - and ask for his help unsticking it with his "trusty 4wd wagon" also known as an AMC Eagle - and yes - it was a woody!
So the next morning after another one of his Grandmother's fabulous home made breakfast feasts - we headed out with chains, straps, come alongs, and some great ideas.....
after another few hours - we'd accomplished nothing but getting the eagle stuck and getting our selves worn out and near frozen with wet feet from all the struggle near that open hole in the ice.
I think it cost us $50 to have a towtruck come out with outriggers and a huge winch and what must have been a 200 yard spool of cable - he'd obviously rescued his share of ice fishing idiots stuck a good way off shore.
That was just the first of many hard lessons that Jeep taught me- the most valuable was the fact that a blown fuel pump diaphram can make you certain you need rings or valve guide seals - when in fact - you just need a new fuel pump!
Written by MOPARS RULE Feb 04 2009
Slow news day.
Written by outlaw57
Feb 04 2009
that brings back a lot of memories for me!
[quote author=fahrenschnell link=topic=9608.msg188988#msg188988 date=1233791815]
I love how us car guys think.....
Quote: Other than the engine blowing up, it never gave me any problems.
Too funny.
Seth
[/quote]
Glad someone caught that! ;D
The good news was that I stuck a mild TBI specific crate motor in it from an engine builder up this way. It was a good truck but it was pretty used up by the time I parted ways with it to acquire my Cobra.
Smoke! -- It was heavy as shit when I had to shovel 7/8 of the bank out ofthe way to get out. The thing was basically highsided with all the snow underneath it. You can't really see from the photo, but it was deep enough that the bottom of the rear end pumpkin was dragging before I even got to the "real" stuff.
Good times.
Brian