Bad Day getting wood

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Bounty Hunter

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Joined
May 12, 2009
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Location
The Mountains of Los Padres Forest
Ever had a day where you had good intentions, but the whole thing just went to heck in a hand basket anyway? Well, after a days’ work at our “other” job, there was still plenty of daylight left…so why not pack up and go get some more wood? Only thing is, too late for the help…it was going to be just me and Mrs. Bounty Hunter. Undaunted, we loaded up the big wood trailer and hitched it to the ’77 1-ton Chevy utility truck, and the splitter to Mrs. Bounty Hunter’s ’79 Chevy 4 x 4 shortbed.
Up we went to the Los Padres Forest, with 4 saws bouncing around in the trailer: ms220T, for limb’in and trim’in, ms260 Pro for small to medium wood, ms044 for medium to large, and ms660MAG for large to “darn that’s really BIG!”
The fire roads through the forest are rough and sometimes steep, but decent. Near the top of the pass we see a group of downed trees that looked good…except I had already passed them with the lead truck, and on a fairly steep downhill grade. “I’ll just back up” I said (First mistake…unless you count going out that afternoon, in general).
I was watching the trailer back up, and didn’t realize how close the truck itself was to the embankment…a vertical ledge of dirt and rock about 2 feet high. I steered the trailer away from the embankment, and the right rear tire of the truck went right into the ledge (mistake number two).
I was greeted by a load Whoosh and HISSING…A tire losing air FAST! and plenty of shouting by Mrs. Bounty Hunter.
Flat tire…Ah nuts…and this beast wears 36” x 15.5” x 16.5” tires…no room for a spare with the utility body (mistake number three).
But the Bounty Hunter has a backup plan, right? I have tire tools and a tube, plus an on-board compressor…”we will fix this right away!” I say, as I dig out the recycled ammo boxes that store the tools and tube. Guess what…the tube is gone…it’s not in the ammo box labeled “tube” (mistake number four).
“Remember the trip to the Kern river? Didn’t the Kimberly take a tube?” Oh great…now we’re in a fix. “Let’s get the trucks down somewhere level, and see what we can do” I say, while attempting to seem totally confident (while thinking: we’re screwed…)
I look at the tire…the valve stems broken off! “We Have spares!” I happily exclaim, and break out the tools. I exchange the stem, but the big tire is now totally pulled away from the bead of the rim, and needs to be inflated. I try all the tricks…ratcheting tie-downs around the tire, both of us pulling and pushing, but that heavy 10-ply just won’t mount with the wimpy compressor (mistakes five, six and seven).
“Okay…this isn’t working. We gotta take the tire down to the Flying J truck stop…the mechanics there can mount it”
So, we load up the tire and wheel in the ’79…but I don’t want to leave the saws, the trailer, and certainly not the splitter. There’s no one up on these mountains, but who knows? Solution? We loaded the splitter in the trailer with the saws and the rest of the gear, and took off down the mountain.
An hour later, at the Flying J, the mechanic said “Having a bad day? Well it’s about to get worse”.
“There’s a big cut in the sidewall of the tire…it can’t be patched” (mistake number eight, sort of. This actually fits better in the “We’re screwed” part of mistake number four).
Now its 8:00 at night…there’s nothing open…no where to get a replacement tire, especially one that size. “How are we going to get that stupid truck off the mountain?” I snarl, I thought for sure there was a spare tire and wheel at the ranch… (Mistake number nine).
Plus, no one we know has a 1-ton we could swap a wheel, even temporarily, to get the truck back.
Then, like the proverbial light bulb, an idea comes to me…”I know where there’s a wreaked truck off the road…been there for months…I think it’s a one-ton!”
Off we speed, and sure enough, one tire on the wreak is seemingly okay…at least it had some air, which was better that what we had. I get it off, and speed back up the mountain.
The bottle jack is too short to jack up the truck (ten mistakes!!????).
We still had the saws, so I fire up the 200T and cut an 8” round about a foot long to act as a jackstand to support the truck while the jack is reset.
Then realize we can’t put the “loaner” spare in the back axel…it’s got a Detroit Locker differential and different size tires would be a PROBLEM (mistake number…Shoot! Darn! I'm not counting these mistakes no more!)
So it’s like “Musical Chairs” switching wheels around to wind up with the spare in the front.
Air it up, and off we go. Down the mountain, it’s now almost midnight.
The next day, it was INSULT to INJURY…our son walks by the trucks, sees the single 8” round lying there, where I tossed it in after finishing with it as a jackstand, and says “You guys went out for wood and that’s all you got?”
 
The next day, it was INSULT to INJURY…our son walks by the trucks, sees the single 8” round lying there, where I tossed it in after finishing with it as a jackstand, and says “You guys went out for wood and that’s all you got?”

I had to chuckle at this line :D
Sounds like quite the afternoon :dizzy: I think we've all been there before, hopefully next time out your luck will be a little better.
 
That's a mighty tough day indeed.

I gotta say though, that while you were counting all of the mistakes, there was an almost equal number of ingenious ideas you came up in your battle against those evil spirits. Scoring that tire off of the wrecked truck gets you bonus points in my book. You did good, you got the truck home; so in the end, you prevailed. :cheers:
 
You must be related to me, as that is about par for the course with anything involving the wife.

If she isn't along, I do the greatest feats in the fastest times. She's there, anything that can even remotely happen (locusts, raining frogs, gates of hell open) will. And for the next 10-15 years I will hear about:

-"the summer trip to Michigan in the jeep with no top or doors, and it was 45F out"
-"the other summer trip with the jeep, where the top flew off the jeep during a thunderstorm, which proceeded for another 12 hours"
-"the third summer trip with the jeep (see the theme), where the popup camper broke loose in Ontario and damn near killed us"
-"the time the jeep rolled over (oh yeah, she was driving that time)"

et cetera

There is a laundry list of ones, categorized into groups:

-"the evil Jeep"
-"road trips in general"
-"hauling heavy stuff"
-"winter driving"
-"home improvement projects"
-"your damn job"
-"how many times I have moved for you"

Yet, I still love her for some damn fool reason :)
 
Dude, you had me cracking up big time. This is one of the best stories I have read here. Chuckling the whole way through. Thank you for sharing your humble, challenging times in such a humorous way:clap::cheers:

I'm familiar with the areas you speak of and yes, Los Padres has some gnarly climbs/descents.
 
Been there...done that. More times than I can count.

I now have a "three strikes" rule. Three SNAFU's on a project and I just move on to something else and try again the next day.
 
Sounds like a hell of a day, bountyhunter. Your story reminded me of one of my favorite homer simpson quotes:
"Trying is the first step towards failure."

It sure is the truth.
 
Dude, you had me cracking up big time. This is one of the best stories I have read here. Chuckling the whole way through. Thank you for sharing your humble, challenging times in such a humorous way:clap::cheers:


:agree2: That is a story right there lol Just think - you just took care of like.... a YEAR'S worth of "mistake #'s " right there, all in one shot!!! So, you should be good to go for quite a while now!!! :cheers:
 
I copied, pasted and printed your story. I wife is reading it right now and laughing, as we thought we were unique. I'm going to keep it in the chain saw gear box as when my wood gathering adventures go south (it is inevitable) I will read it to lighten up the mood.
 
So whats the problem with staying up late ???
at least you DID something instead of sitting on front of the tube !!
got firewood and didnt even use a tank of gas !
Got quality time with the OL,exercise,adventure,see the sights,practice mechanical skills,etc..
wish i had good days like that...
"some days a diamond,some days a stone".............
i think more threads of messed up wood gathering trips is warranted,,,helps us laugh at our self's,,we all been there,done that,,got the T-shirt to prove it..
May a 100ft white oak fall in your path when when you have 5 gals of gas and all day left..
 
Ever had a day where you had good intentions, but the whole thing just went to heck in a hand basket anyway? Well, after a days’ work at our “other” job, there was still plenty of daylight left…so why not pack up and go get some more wood? Only thing is, too late for the help…it was going to be just me and Mrs. Bounty Hunter. Undaunted, we loaded up the big wood trailer and hitched it to the ’77 1-ton Chevy utility truck, and the splitter to Mrs. Bounty Hunter’s ’79 Chevy 4 x 4 shortbed.
Up we went to the Los Padres Forest, with 4 saws bouncing around in the trailer: ms220T, for limb’in and trim’in, ms260 Pro for small to medium wood, ms044 for medium to large, and ms660MAG for large to “darn that’s really BIG!”
The fire roads through the forest are rough and sometimes steep, but decent. Near the top of the pass we see a group of downed trees that looked good…except I had already passed them with the lead truck, and on a fairly steep downhill grade. “I’ll just back up” I said (First mistake…unless you count going out that afternoon, in general).
I was watching the trailer back up, and didn’t realize how close the truck itself was to the embankment…a vertical ledge of dirt and rock about 2 feet high. I steered the trailer away from the embankment, and the right rear tire of the truck went right into the ledge (mistake number two).
I was greeted by a load Whoosh and HISSING…A tire losing air FAST! and plenty of shouting by Mrs. Bounty Hunter.
Flat tire…Ah nuts…and this beast wears 36” x 15.5” x 16.5” tires…no room for a spare with the utility body (mistake number three).
But the Bounty Hunter has a backup plan, right? I have tire tools and a tube, plus an on-board compressor…”we will fix this right away!” I say, as I dig out the recycled ammo boxes that store the tools and tube. Guess what…the tube is gone…it’s not in the ammo box labeled “tube” (mistake number four).
“Remember the trip to the Kern river? Didn’t the Kimberly take a tube?” Oh great…now we’re in a fix. “Let’s get the trucks down somewhere level, and see what we can do” I say, while attempting to seem totally confident (while thinking: we’re screwed…)
I look at the tire…the valve stems broken off! “We Have spares!” I happily exclaim, and break out the tools. I exchange the stem, but the big tire is now totally pulled away from the bead of the rim, and needs to be inflated. I try all the tricks…ratcheting tie-downs around the tire, both of us pulling and pushing, but that heavy 10-ply just won’t mount with the wimpy compressor (mistakes five, six and seven).
“Okay…this isn’t working. We gotta take the tire down to the Flying J truck stop…the mechanics there can mount it”
So, we load up the tire and wheel in the ’79…but I don’t want to leave the saws, the trailer, and certainly not the splitter. There’s no one up on these mountains, but who knows? Solution? We loaded the splitter in the trailer with the saws and the rest of the gear, and took off down the mountain.
An hour later, at the Flying J, the mechanic said “Having a bad day? Well it’s about to get worse”.
“There’s a big cut in the sidewall of the tire…it can’t be patched” (mistake number eight, sort of. This actually fits better in the “We’re screwed” part of mistake number four).
Now its 8:00 at night…there’s nothing open…no where to get a replacement tire, especially one that size. “How are we going to get that stupid truck off the mountain?” I snarl, I thought for sure there was a spare tire and wheel at the ranch… (Mistake number nine).
Plus, no one we know has a 1-ton we could swap a wheel, even temporarily, to get the truck back.
Then, like the proverbial light bulb, an idea comes to me…”I know where there’s a wreaked truck off the road…been there for months…I think it’s a one-ton!”
Off we speed, and sure enough, one tire on the wreak is seemingly okay…at least it had some air, which was better that what we had. I get it off, and speed back up the mountain.
The bottle jack is too short to jack up the truck (ten mistakes!!????).
We still had the saws, so I fire up the 200T and cut an 8” round about a foot long to act as a jackstand to support the truck while the jack is reset.
Then realize we can’t put the “loaner” spare in the back axel…it’s got a Detroit Locker differential and different size tires would be a PROBLEM (mistake number…Shoot! Darn! I'm not counting these mistakes no more!)
So it’s like “Musical Chairs” switching wheels around to wind up with the spare in the front.
Air it up, and off we go. Down the mountain, it’s now almost midnight.
The next day, it was INSULT to INJURY…our son walks by the trucks, sees the single 8” round lying there, where I tossed it in after finishing with it as a jackstand, and says “You guys went out for wood and that’s all you got?”

I've had days like those....
Well, the good news is that nobody got hurt except for your pride maybe.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

Glad you're ok.
 
Don't feel bad, I broke a shackle today in my 92 F150. I was toteing the stump grinder and 660 back from a job, hit a bump...BANG! I did a little better than you though, I could drive it home to fix it.

Glad you got your truck home.

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Now I know why I'm having such a good week. Murphy has decided to leave me alone and spend some quality time with the bountyhunter. Good job not giving up and getting the truck home.
 
Not Bad

I'd say you would have done well. Most of us would have also found a way to break the back window on one or both of your trucks!
 
my brother forgot he had my 6x10' trailer on his truck saturday and threw the ctd 3500 into reverse.....the only thing that is salvegeable is the hitch, axle, tires and signals. it also ruined the hip over the rear tires on his truck.
luckily i work at a technical college and some of the welding students will begin fabbing a new one tomorrow. it will be 6x12' this time.
 
here's an idea for you

have you ever tried seating a tire with a can of starting fluid? takes about a second's worth shot of SF into the tire, then get some fire by it, BOING! tire on rim. Fill with air soon, because what air is left in the tire will get burned by the remaining SF, and the tire will collapse inward from the pressure of the outside atmosphere being greater than what is now inside the tire.
 
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