I got
stuck on the Reservation not too
long ago looking for a geocache and even though my BIL pulled me out
and my truck still ran, reverse didn't seem to work too well.
At least not at first. But by the time
I got home everything was working fine.
So a couple of days later I head back
up to the same area to find the elusive cache and I have to admit
that I was pretty gun-shy about going down a lot of the trails
leading towards the cache.
Getting stuck twice in one week would
not be good.
So I drove around and around, trying to
find a road in that didn't look like something I'd get stuck on.
But I'd start down a trail and then
after a bit it would slowly deteriorate into nothing and I'd have to
turn around.
Except these trails all had berms on
either side so backing out was my only option.
Backing up is not my strong suit and
backing up in soft sand on a winding trail really wasn't easy. I hit
two trees, ran into three or four berms and managed to almost get
myself stuck too many times to count.
All of this means that I was using
reverse and using it hard. You can't let off the gas in soft sand and
I could tell the truck wasn't doing well in reverse so I kept
switching back and forth between 2 and 4wd and managed to get myself
out each time.
I still didn't find the cache but it
was getting dark so once I found the main road I headed south towards
home.
The truck drove fine and I was pleased
that even though I didn't find the cache, I didn't get stuck and none
of the stuff I'd backed into left any major dents in my truck.
I stopped at a store on my way home and
when I got back to the truck I put it in reverse and went to back out
of the parking spot.
Only nothing happened. The engine
roared but the truck WOULD NOT go into reverse.
I put it in Neutral and a man coming
out of the store tried to help me push it backwards so I could get
out of the parking spot.
It didn't take but a minute to realize
that when I put it in N or R the back wheels locked and no amount of
pushing was going to make this vehicle roll backwards.
Well damn. I've killed reverse in my truck. And not just driving in reverse
but pushing it backwards too. I now have a vehicle that only rolls
forward.
Obviously, I was going to have to jump
the curb in order to get home. Of course it wasn't just a regular
curb either - this one has an island with grass and shrubs between
each row.
It was quite embarrassing when I jumped
the curb, drove across the grass and through the bushes to get out
but it had to be done and I was finally on my way home.
I got home and had to swing in, turning
my yard into a circular driveway – on the only healthy grass in my
entire yard.
I will be getting it fixed next week
and for now I'm still driving around but have to put serious thought
into everywhere I go. If I can't pull through a parking spot I have
to park somewhere else and I can't do a lot of caching because
turning around is a huge part of that (for lost people like me)
You really can't appreciate Reverse
until you have none.
I truly believe that the military needs
to hire me to test vehicles for them. If I can't get it stuck, sink
it or kill it – it's good to go.
Labels: Done