Farm jacks are cool! ...Getting stuck isn't
June 29, 2006 11:45AM
I went to my parent's house to grab some of the home-made pizza that was left from last night, just a quick stop, heat it up, eat it and I'm ready to move on. Here's where the interesting part comes in...you know, the whole reason this is blog-worthy. I get in the microbus, back up, and see that dreaded tree in my rear-view mirror (we won’t get into *that* story) So I stop and go forward and realize that it would be easier to just go over the hill instead of backing up again and going out of the driveway. So I go up the hill and drop down over the curb and immediately realize that I might be hurting something and put on the brakes. I’m sure any off-roader could tell you that 4x4 is only half the battle in a car. The rest is to keep moving at a steady pace through terrain that has little traction. So I’m stuck, the front wheels are over the curb (it’s a high one too) and the rear wheels are on the hill, and uneven. I tried just driving out but with only one wheel catching dirt and it being mostly mud underneath from the rainstorms, I had nothing. Even with wood in front, and then in back to try to help it catch. Finally I give up and call my dad, the first call he was kind of vague and said bye after I told me story. I waited a bit and called again and he said that he was in the supervisor office thing and couldn’t talk. He also said to try that farm jack that was in the shed. Jack up the front of the bus and put blocks under the wheels and roll down over the curb. So I get the farm jack out and the blocks and bring it all up to the top of the hill. Only the jack doesn’t work as easily as a normal car jack. You have to drop the half moon pin and then pull out the bottom springy pin and then you can adjust the jack to the height you need. Then you have to pop the half moon back into place and do a full stroke on the handle to get it to jack, half a stroke won’t get you anywhere :-/. After I figured out the jack and had the bus in the air it was no problem. Only one wheel had lifted up so I put the block under that, dropped the jack and moved it over to the other side. Here proved a little more diffucult as the bus decided to start sliding over. I was able to make use of this and just keep sliding the block over for support until it was high enough to slide right on to the curb. Drop the jack, hop in the bus, take off the emergency brake and let it roll down the hill a little bit. Hop out of the bus, run the jack down to the shed, run the chains that I ended up not needing down to the comatose F-150, run the blocks down, run back up and grab the keys, fumble with my greasy hands to get into the house and to the bathroom and wash up. All and all it proved to be a cool afternoon that was supposed only be: get the hard drive, get lunch, get lunch for Daniel, mail the stuff and go back to work.” Now I need to carry a farm jack with me ☺ that thing is awesome!
In other news:
Check out eon8, it’s worth about 3 minutes of looking around and wondering what the heck is going on. If you are up for some theories on it all, go here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic
_id=29745&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&start=0
Also I’m getting West Coast mirrors on the bus :-D I’ll post a picture when they are installed but for now, think tractor trailor rear-view mirrors….
I went to my parent's house to grab some of the home-made pizza that was left from last night, just a quick stop, heat it up, eat it and I'm ready to move on. Here's where the interesting part comes in...you know, the whole reason this is blog-worthy. I get in the microbus, back up, and see that dreaded tree in my rear-view mirror (we won’t get into *that* story) So I stop and go forward and realize that it would be easier to just go over the hill instead of backing up again and going out of the driveway. So I go up the hill and drop down over the curb and immediately realize that I might be hurting something and put on the brakes. I’m sure any off-roader could tell you that 4x4 is only half the battle in a car. The rest is to keep moving at a steady pace through terrain that has little traction. So I’m stuck, the front wheels are over the curb (it’s a high one too) and the rear wheels are on the hill, and uneven. I tried just driving out but with only one wheel catching dirt and it being mostly mud underneath from the rainstorms, I had nothing. Even with wood in front, and then in back to try to help it catch. Finally I give up and call my dad, the first call he was kind of vague and said bye after I told me story. I waited a bit and called again and he said that he was in the supervisor office thing and couldn’t talk. He also said to try that farm jack that was in the shed. Jack up the front of the bus and put blocks under the wheels and roll down over the curb. So I get the farm jack out and the blocks and bring it all up to the top of the hill. Only the jack doesn’t work as easily as a normal car jack. You have to drop the half moon pin and then pull out the bottom springy pin and then you can adjust the jack to the height you need. Then you have to pop the half moon back into place and do a full stroke on the handle to get it to jack, half a stroke won’t get you anywhere :-/. After I figured out the jack and had the bus in the air it was no problem. Only one wheel had lifted up so I put the block under that, dropped the jack and moved it over to the other side. Here proved a little more diffucult as the bus decided to start sliding over. I was able to make use of this and just keep sliding the block over for support until it was high enough to slide right on to the curb. Drop the jack, hop in the bus, take off the emergency brake and let it roll down the hill a little bit. Hop out of the bus, run the jack down to the shed, run the chains that I ended up not needing down to the comatose F-150, run the blocks down, run back up and grab the keys, fumble with my greasy hands to get into the house and to the bathroom and wash up. All and all it proved to be a cool afternoon that was supposed only be: get the hard drive, get lunch, get lunch for Daniel, mail the stuff and go back to work.” Now I need to carry a farm jack with me ☺ that thing is awesome!
In other news:
Check out eon8, it’s worth about 3 minutes of looking around and wondering what the heck is going on. If you are up for some theories on it all, go here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic
_id=29745&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&start=0
Also I’m getting West Coast mirrors on the bus :-D I’ll post a picture when they are installed but for now, think tractor trailor rear-view mirrors….
posted by Fadumpt at
6/30/2006 08:59:00 AM
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