this past week we took a trip down to az to visit my dad and paint his house for him

on the way down we blow a tire on the 5er

decided to take the scenic route home up 285 out of sante fe nm home

285 drops me at my back door in bailey co

the wife wanted to spend the night in Taos, NM, so we asked the new garmin to find us an rv lot to park the 5er, it found a lot and plotted a route

we checked the route against my rand mcnally atlas, the atlas confirmed a viable route (CR 567 from 285 into taos

CR 567 is upposedly a county maintained road, the narrow two lane road turned to dirt about 10 miles in, wide relatively smooth dirt. It's nearly 11 pm

road signs confirmed our route, we continued on.
we came to signs warning of steep grades and curves ahead, i shifted into 4lo, as NM had a crap load of rain that day and the days prior

we continued down the grades to the river valley below, the road has been washed out in a place or two but nothing too bad

it is raining again, through the rain i see a covered bridge accross the river,
hoping it was big enough for us we cross the bridge, the rain is getting worse and i decide we should turn around when we get the chance,

05 ram, 26 foot 5er, 12 foot flat bed, 59' 9" tip to tail

the wide spot i find isn't wide enough, i walk up about 200 yds and decide to continue util we find a better place to turn around, about 1/4 mile up the road it dead f...... ends. this road has been closed for at least 10 yrs

rand mcnally doesn't know that, garmin doesn't know that, but now i do

my wife and i have to unhook the flat bed about 2k lbs of trailer and equipment in the rain and mud and lift/push it off into the bushes so that i can turn my 5er around, no sweat takes about an hour of hard work

somehow in the fiddling around getting the 5er turned around i managed to snag my breakaway cable and pull the pin, i noticed the indicator on my tekonsha but at 12 am in the situation we were in i didn't have the mind set to put it together, i am in 4 lo so the ram doesn't even feel the locked up brakes

i stopped back at the main road to get out and check the equipment, and notice the hot brakes, now i put 2 and 2 together, melted the caps and lug covers off,

i fix the problem and head out to find a rv lot further up the road

at 3 am, we pull into los antonitos, co, spot a crappy hotel that has rv spots

have to go past it and turn around, it is raining HARD, i see what looks like a good wide lot to turn around in, as i pull into the turn with the truck it dips way down, i know i am going to SCRAPE, we bend off the rear stabilizer jack on the 5er, we have scraped before but not like this

all told $400 in repairs, one tire, one jack, one brake job

good thing i am not a broke s.o.b.

What did I learn, The little gray roads on my atlas are to be avoided especially at midnight in the rain

 

Man I feel for ya. At least it didn't leave you stranded. Don't you just love bad direction's. I have people all the time trying to tell me a better way than mapquest. I had a guy give me wrong direction's and I ended up in a residental area, going up a hill, down a hill on a sharp curve, right into a dead end cultisack (sp) lined with parked car's. Pourning down rain at 2:am. No way to back up. I now have a nice dent in my cab from the trailer.

 

I think I got you beat , back in 87 my wife , two children and I decide on a trip to Yellowstone in our year old Ford Bronco II and lost two transmissions . The first was in Billings Montana at a price of 1200 and the second in Omaha Nebraska at 1500 . The day the second one went I had just got out of the hospital in South Dakota after spending three days in intensive care and almost meeting my maker with adrenal insufficiencies , another story . I only got out of the hospital with the promise of checking in when I got home , ya right . Less then 300 miles down the road the fly wheel shatters and I find that the guys who installed my trans in billings had pinch the vacuum line between the block and trans when they put it together . The warranty in Billings was only good for 500 and I think he thinks I am pulling a con job on him to get that .Amanco transmission can't get the parts for a week so we say the hell with it and book tickets on a plane witch breaks down and leaves us stranded for a few hours till we get booked on another airline and guess what not our luggage . I fly out the next week and pick up the non warranted trans because it is one of those transmissions and find out later that a lot our stuff has been stolen that we had left in the car by Amaco tran's shop employees .
But the story has a happy ending in a few years I trade the Bronco in on my first Dodge Cummins with another trans about to go .

 

great story

I have heard that if you pull the break away pin with your 7 pin plugged in that it'll blow your break controller... I'm guessing that didn't happen?

I tend to get impatient and act quickly instead of CALMLY and slowly when I am in a jam. I think though that I am gettnig better with age

Last time I was lost with a trailer I too put a nice huge dent in my at-the-time several week old beautiful 2-tone 2003 HO 6spd long bed quad cab SLT! (My favorite of the 3 trucks I've had so far!!)

I have been using Microsoft Streets & Trips 06 with pretty good luck. I have an old junk laptop that I loaded it up onto and throw it under the seat in my truck. They give you free construction updates via the internet, but for major updates, you have to buy the new version every year

 

Going camping with my ex-girlfriend would make what happened to you seem like a vacation. (and it was sunny, nothing broke, scraped or locked up and we did not get bad info from a map)

Just a little perspective...

 

I carry Rand maps and use Street Atlas USA 2006 I also have PC miler I try to stay off the little roads unless I know that the roads are ok. one of the other drivers told me that a road was good road but turn into a nightmare with a 34' tow bearly enought room for the truck to make the curves. I had a talk with the man a few weeks later at the yard he thought it was funny.

 

If you don't restrict the roads and select the shortest route using the Garmin (I have a Streetpilot 2620), it will do just what you ask - dirt roads and all. That's the problem with computers - they do what we tell them to instead of what we want them to.

Rusty

 

You vacation guys need to haul milk, livestock, and the worst---crude-oil, in a tractor-trailer, for a while, if you want to get in some predicaments.

When I used to haul crude-oil, we carried two big chainsaws and used them quite frequently.

You know you aren't staying on the blacktop, when the trucks are equipped with "rocking-cradle" fifth-wheels that can swing from side to side.

 

'Bad day on Hog's Back Ridge Rd.' Red Bluff, CA. I'll remember that 'shortcut' beyond my last day on this planet....

'67 Dodge D-100 Town wagon, brand new HP 360-3 under the hood, NP435 trans, 8 3/4 rear with 3.91, pulling a 24' Prowler. All of this LOADED with mining gear, spare engines, dredges, generators, tools etc. and no idea of GVW.

Road started out as a nice country lane and then headed uphill, no turn arounds. Got steeper, and road got worse, then headed downhill, very steep, no turnaround. Road changed to gravel, then to dirt, then to rutted dirt, then something WAY beyond 4WD ONLY. 12" ruts and furrows, steep uphill and downhill grades, twisting and turning and where in blazes am I !???! Simply no place to ever turn around, and impossible to back up.

Ended up slamming the whole trailer box down on the frame up to 3", blew trailer's structural studs, crumpled aluminum skin, took out the holding tanks, tweaked the frame, ripped out ALL 4 motor mounts on truck [only my new custom dual exhaust was holding the engine/trans in!] and significant damage to truck body mounts and flooring, cracked welds in truck body, took out a spring hanger, fried my brand new clutch/pressure plate, heat checked the flywheel, twisted driveshaft, 2 blown u-joints, damaged pinion bearing, and that Dodge 360-3 roaring and running strong!!!

2 weeks later in Washington state on Olympic Peninsula I was coming up on my campground when I heard a tremendous crashing and screeching sound, only to find that the entire rear bumper, hitch and trailer fell off the back of the truck from structural fatigue of metals from that last excursion! Further damage to trailer tongue but a guy came along, a real SAINT, and hooked it up and towed me in to my camp spot.

1 month later the left rear brakes failed on the trailer down by Grass Valley CA, in the narrow canyon of hiway 49. Went into a sway I couldn't correct out of, and applying electric brakes to 'stretch the load' only made it worse. String of cars coming my way up the hill and only one choice if I didn't want to kill them all: lay it over and let it slide. Rolled the truck and trailer and then when 2 semi-type tow trucks came to right the trailer their lift straps slipped. Trailer dropped from a 45 degree angle but the one truck's straps snagged halfway down, ripping the whole trailer body off the frame.

Had them tug the Dodge back up on all 4, fired it up and followed tow rigs into town. Unloaded everything from my trailer, but had just bought 4 gallons of Clover honey, plus some natural foods: grains, rice, beans etc. The honey jars had literally expoded and mixed with all of the food stuffs in mid-air, so entire insides of trailer were covered with something beyond description. Put my stuff in a storage area, got back in my good old Dodge, hugged my good old dog, and thanked my God that we were both alive. So, I guess it was a good day, 'cause right now I'm restoring that same good old Dodge one more time, and we're both still breathing in, breathing out. Cummins this time, and another trailer, and more adventures....

 

Jimmy: tell us some ex girlfriend stories ! I'd love to hear them.

That Bronco trip would have been bad.

 

Brother, don't get me started....

Suffices to say: I've decided to remain single and only have relations with greasy mechanical things, and that for over 20 years now! Lots cheaper too....and more fun. I'm sure it's some kind of qwinky, maybe I'm now a trans-gearite? It's getting worse, too, 'cause now I'm going to start getting weird with a 5 speed instead of doing strange things with a 4 speed. Try it, you might get to liking it after a while?

 

Only a year has passed- I'm still traumatized.
Maybe a little more time....

I've had some great camping/adventure companions, just not this one.

 

Ooops, sorry! I saw Jimmy and thought Jimmie, and got it all jimmied up. Thought that was pointed in my direction......

 

i carry a rand mcnally "motor carriers"atlas.so far it hasn,t put me in any bad situations.