Land Cruiser bailed me out of a situation (1 Viewer)

[Muddy Bean]

My family and I have been touring the country while flat towing our 100 series behind our. Some of you remember our first bus (the white one) which we sold this summer and bought a newer shell and converted it into a nicer coach. We have a nicer tow setup for this rig and we can say we've now clocked nearly 20,000 tow miles. That being said, a few weeks ago we had a mishap with our bus. I was contracted to provide music for an event at the Hilton Doubletree Park Vista hotel in Gatlinburg, TN. If you've been to this particular hotel, you know the drive up to the building is long, curvy, and very very steep. The grade is insane. We unhooked the Land Cruiser at the bottom so as to relieve the workload on the coach a little. Near the top, the drive curves hard right and is banked. The coach actually bottomed out on this curve with the tow hitch embedding in the pavement effectively wedging the coach in the curve. I couldn't move forward or backward. I was stuck even at full throttle. So now all of the tourism trolleys and hotel guests were stuck behind me not able to pass. I had a full line of cars and trolleys that were none to happy I was delaying their schedules. A commercial tow truck would not have been able to get around me to tow me so that was out of the question. In desperation, I turned to my Land Cruiser and thought, "why not". I couldn't re-hitch it to the rear of the bus because of the wedged angle, so I drove it to the front, chained it to my bus tow hooks and the tow hooks on the truck with 12,000 lb rated chains (not nearly enough for a 38,000 bus) put my wife in the drivers seat of the truck, put it in 4wd LO locked all three diffs and told her to drive straight and slow. I drove the bus and feathered the throttle and she pulled me right up the steepest part of that hill. She squalled all four tires at one point but we made it up without much drama. 240,000 miles and going strong. I will tell you I appreciated my truck more than ever before that day. Here's the only shot I was able to nab of the process:

Here's a photo of the bus itself:

And the truck that did it:

 

[woytovich]

Sweet!

 

[tabraha]

Wow. I've hooked the hundy to a stuck big rig tow truck before and blew minds. You, and the diffs get mad props for going triple locked on asphalt. Damn solid field test for the ARB's!

 

[bctlex]

This story could be an ad for LC. Remember the tundra ad where it pulled the space shuttle a few years ago?

 

[Lowbudgetlc100]

those bfg tires are grippy

 

[Ninja Cruiser100]

Very nice!

 

[Manhattan]

That's pretty damn cool. And, I'll bet ya... everyone one of those people who were stuck behind you are telling the same story - "No, really! This guy dragged this massive tour bus up the mountain with an old Land Cruiser"

 

[re_guderian]

That's pretty damn cool. And, I'll bet ya... everyone one of those people who were stuck behind you are telling the same story - "No, really! This guy dragged this massive tour bus up the mountain with an old Land Cruiser"

Well.... Let's not get carried away. Pretty sure that the clientele isn't as infatuated with old land cruisers as they were excited to start enjoying their $300/night rooms... But cool story nonetheless.

 

[Keowee]

Traveled that skinny road once just to check out the hotel. Did the audience know you were the guy blocking the road?

 

[crimsonaudio]

Impressive!

 

[yotasavg]

Wow that's a cool story

 

[Muddy Bean]

Traveled that skinny road once just to check out the hotel. Did the audience know you were the guy blocking the road?

I arrived several days before the event started so thankfully none of the audience has arrived yet. But I heard other people in the hotel talking about the incident and the huge scrape I left in the pavement. I have to return there for another even in December and after talking with hotel security (nice peeps) they have a plan that will make it easier to get up there when we come back. I will tell you this, the hotel security was completely floored that the Land Cruiser actually helped the coach up that hill. They never ever expected it would work.

 

[D21FJ60]

love the look of your Cruiser. That story is sick!

 

[Sandroad]

With the approach, departure, and breakover angles on that bus, I can see where you could run into trouble.

 

[Slickspawn]

Great story, sweet pusher too.

Just checked out your website. I like your music, very cool you are following your dreams!

I'm from Detroit (8 and Livernois).

 

[Patineto]

And I was proud of my bmw GS Motorcycle that tow my girlfriend Mazda 323 for almost 7 miles in somehow hilly part of San Francisco.

I think yours takes the cake big time..

 

[Muddy Bean]

Hey pulling a car with a motorcycle is pretty impressive in my opinion. Slickspawn, I grew up in the Livonia /Novi area. That was my old stomping ground. Now I live on the western side of the state when I'm home. Which is about one month a year down by the lake in St. Joseph.

 

[Itsky]

That is bad ass.