Last friday on a hunting expedition in northern MN I hit a patch of ice and put my baby on her side into some trees. Found out yesterday that she is past the point of return... totaled. I am thankful that my wife and I were physically unhurt and the cruiser played a big part in our protection. Emotionally, we are both distraught. My wife cried. I seriously felt like I was kicked in the nuts and still do.
When we purchased this vehicle 3 years ago, she was the typical mall cruiser. We still loved her. Like many of you I had spent countless hours researching and learning about this truck(most of that time on this forum), saving for upgrades, and wrenching. I am by no means a very good mechanic. I was, however able to upgrade the suspension, wheels, repair the starter contacts, baseline all fluids to synthetic, repaint the side moldings,replace the antenna, wire up Hellas, replace front bushings, figure out the TBs, and keep the driveline properly greased. Needless to say this cruiser was a labor of love and I was proud of the transformation into a very capable off road vehicle.
The sequence of events I keep reliving is as follows: We finished our morning hunt and decided to take a 20 mile drive on a forest road loop, all gravel. The week before I had swapped out Michelin AT2s for AT/KOs. The truck handled and looked flawless. We finished the loop and hit pavement about 8 miles from town. I was at about 35mph when we hit glare ice under the 3" of snow on the road. I had engaged the 4x4 earlier on the drive, although it was not warranted with road conditions as they were. When the back end started to swing I waited for the tires to grab and lightly applied the brakes. They never regained traction and we were heading toward a utility pole when I spun the wheel and we ended up on the other side of the road on our side.
This is a dual purpose post. It is cathartic. I needed to share it with others that might understand how sick I feel. More importantly, the reason is a simple "Thanks". This forum is a fantastic and amazing wealth of knowledge, insight, and intellect. I have learned much of my limited automobile knowledge from you guys.
That said... I will be back. We say 'Skol'.
When we purchased this vehicle 3 years ago, she was the typical mall cruiser. We still loved her. Like many of you I had spent countless hours researching and learning about this truck(most of that time on this forum), saving for upgrades, and wrenching. I am by no means a very good mechanic. I was, however able to upgrade the suspension, wheels, repair the starter contacts, baseline all fluids to synthetic, repaint the side moldings,replace the antenna, wire up Hellas, replace front bushings, figure out the TBs, and keep the driveline properly greased. Needless to say this cruiser was a labor of love and I was proud of the transformation into a very capable off road vehicle.
The sequence of events I keep reliving is as follows: We finished our morning hunt and decided to take a 20 mile drive on a forest road loop, all gravel. The week before I had swapped out Michelin AT2s for AT/KOs. The truck handled and looked flawless. We finished the loop and hit pavement about 8 miles from town. I was at about 35mph when we hit glare ice under the 3" of snow on the road. I had engaged the 4x4 earlier on the drive, although it was not warranted with road conditions as they were. When the back end started to swing I waited for the tires to grab and lightly applied the brakes. They never regained traction and we were heading toward a utility pole when I spun the wheel and we ended up on the other side of the road on our side.
This is a dual purpose post. It is cathartic. I needed to share it with others that might understand how sick I feel. More importantly, the reason is a simple "Thanks". This forum is a fantastic and amazing wealth of knowledge, insight, and intellect. I have learned much of my limited automobile knowledge from you guys.
That said... I will be back. We say 'Skol'.
