61 replies to this topic

[MarkBC]

MarkBC, on our last trip into the Great Basin I told the Lady about your story here. This one really captures the terrain and local folks that you meet out there. It's a good one!

Thanks, ski.
It's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me -- not by a long shot -- (no physical injury, no property damage, no legal consequences), but it's the only time I've had to be rescued.

[CraggyMan]

To this day I still wonder why we allowed our trucks to be pulled through the torrent with the engines running...? Evidently the Gods of "being up **** creek without a paddle" were looking after us. We will never again be so lucky.

[MarkBC]

To this day I still wonder why we allowed our trucks to be pulled through the torrent with the engines running...? Evidently the Gods of "being up **** creek without a paddle" were looking after us. We will never again be so lucky.

Well...it's not a good practice -- that's for sure. But I don't believe in luck (unless it's in a gambling situation) -- it's all physics.
To suck water into the engine where it can do damage it has to be sucked past/through the air filter. Probably wouldn't take long for that to happen, but it can't happen instantaneously...unless you don't have a filter in place. Apparently, it takes longer to happen than the 3-4 seconds that our hoods were underwater...at least for our trucks.
Of course, I didn't actually consider all that when I had my engine running underwater -- I was just clueless.

Maybe somebody else would like to run this test for full-size trucks and for diesel engines.

[CraggyMan]

From what I remember the air intake for the older Toyota trucks was located pretty high in the engine compartment. I'm sure the road crew thought we were pretty stupid for being up there in the first place.

[craig333]

No thanks. We have that huge air intake for a reason, pouring water into it just can't be a good idea.

Last year I had my Jeep out cruising the backcountry of the Plumas NF. Find a group camped by the creek. They had typical suv rigs. I ask about the water crossing. Oh sure, no problem they said. Now with hindsight I'm pretty sure none of them had tried it. On the far side water is coming in through the floorboards and its just about ready to float. I didn't even have the hubs locked in. Sure was a good feeling to climb right out. Not sure if I had an audience or not, I never looked.

Now the Jeep is designed for such stuff. Floorboards have drain holes just for such stuff. If the truck had water inside I'd have something to cry over. I'd really be concerned about the electronics making it through safely. Of course sometimes necessity wins out.

[ski3pin]

In this discussion I'm curious about dunking a hot engine in ice cold water - cracking or tempering something?

[4llamas]

In this discussion I'm curious about dunking a hot engine in ice cold water - cracking or tempering something?

Uh oh. What happened?

[craig333]

Never heard of anything like that. What does happen is you take something hot like a differential, cool it water and suddenly its negatively pressurized and has the possibility of sucking water inside.

[generubin]

Jeez, I have endless stories I can think of. I suppose one of the ones with the funniest ending would be this. I was with my wife heading south through the Algerian Sahara. We had been driving weeks covering hundreds and hundreds of miles of jagged rock and deep sand. At times we were lucky to make 100 miles in a 10 hour day. Suddenly, in the distance, we see a smoothly paved road in the middle of the Sahara and it was going exactly the direction we were headed. I thought it was a mirage! It was real, we hopped up on to that road driving at 45 mph of smooth bliss. What luck this road that seemingly dropped from heaven! Suddenly we were circled by Algerian military in beat up Nissan Patrols. Forced to a stop, these barefoot, raggedly uniformed soldiers complete with machine guns in our faces, explained that we were on a military road. They took our passports from us, separated my wife from me and had me drive between them, headed north to "see the general". Two days travel they said it would take. After a couple of hours, they stopped. Told us to "get out", still separated from my wife by 100 feet or so, each of us surrounded by a circle of men.

 

Funny part: Suddenly I remembered the words of a fellow Sahara traveler. He remarked how with alcohol illegal in Algeria and the fact that none of these men, unless married, have ever seen a female over 10 years old, and certainly not nude, that some wine or beer and a magazine with naked ladies could get you a long ways. I had an idea. I explained to them in my nervous french, that I had a special gift for them if they'd gather around. I dug deep into a secret compartment in our van and produced our only can of beer and our one "Marie Claire" (French fashion magazine with lingerie adverts). Holly ****! Those guys went crazy with excitement! All I remember is a cluster **** of men grabing at the beer and magazine, our passports came flying at us from the mass, we slipped into our van, turned south and hauled ass (20 mph) not stopping for hours and hours, whew!

 

Pics below: Rock art from the Tasilli, about 10 to 12 ybp. , Sand dunes south of Tamanrasset. , On the coast of southern Tunisia, on our way back north.

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[Malamute]

Wasnt me, but theres been a couple situations come up the past few years that caught my attention. I met one of the people involved, he had healed up fairly well, all things considered.

 

 Guy and his buddy had heard some elk were down low in the sagebrush country, so they went looking on their 4 wheelers. They parked after riding a bit, and wandered arounbd looking for tracks. They separated in the 5-6' tall sagebrush. Out of the corner of his eye, guy sees a brown blur, then is knocked down on the ground hard with something on top of him. A sow grizzly had blind sided him, then proceded to beat him up, biting his face, breaking his jaw, tearing his pallate loose, tearing his face and throat badly, then proceeded to bite down his back and leg, breaking ribs, puncturing lungs, and leaving some nasty open wounds. His buddy heard his screams and came running to the sound. The sow left him and ran a few yards to gather up her cubs. Guy gathered himself up and pulled his 41 mag pistol and got 3 shots off, saving 3. He made two good hits, complete pass throughs, and dumped the sow. His buddy got there about that time. Buddy went off on 4 wheeler until he had a cell signal and called guys wife to call for help. The local fire dept made it, and got him stabilized and off to the hospital. They sent him to a larger town, where they put him back together as best they could. It worked out fairly well, he regained most of the use of all the stuff that was torn up, but has some impressive scars and his face and elsewhere. 

 

 Another incident happened at a campground. In the middle of the night,a sow grizzly broke into a couple tents, attacking two different people. One lady fought the bear when it grabbed her by the arm I believe. It left. Another guy was attacked also, but didnt have real serious injuries. That had the campground pretty well wide awake by then, so people went looking. One tent at the end of the campground was in bad shape. Upon further inspection, the tent was destroyed, the sow had grabbed and drug away the guy camping in it, and eaten much of him. The Fish Cops set up a trap and caught the bear, DNA tests from a tooth fragment found in the dead guy, and from remains in her stomach, confirmed she was the one. She was put down, the cubs sent off to live in zoos. She wasnt starving. They dont know why she did it.

 

 About that year or the next a guy was killed and partially eaten in Yellowstone. No known reason. Theres been a few other incidents in the past few years. Geezer hiker guy killed by a large boar grizzly, a few other people mugged They seem to be more frequent in the past 5-10 years. Keeps it interesting out in the hills.

 

Edited by Malamute, 26 March 2015 - 11:39 PM.