Here's the pics of my rollover.
http://gclcny.com/events/rollover/
Here's the whole story from my spotters eyes. Which is acurate.
Some things to consider in no particular order...
1. An 80s roof cannot support its own weight. I was amazed at how much
the A pillars collapsed as a result of what appeared to me to be a
gentle roll as opposed to a flop. I am strongly considering some sort of
A pillar support, either external or internal.
2. When you decide that more throttle will help, you've made the wrong
decision. More throttle equals less control.
3. Always question the strength of a weld.
Chris' situation was one that one that I have seen a dozen times before.
A difficult, but not impossible rock face, several attempts each
yielding no result, increased throttle response at each one. At no point
was he (IMO) in danger of rolling. However on his last attempt, his
front wheels had crested the rock and either the rear control arm mount
or some other dangly bit harshly into the rock and kicked the truck's
rear to the right. As gravity pulled the truck back down the front left
dropped off the rock face and that, as they say, was that. When he
stopped he was wheels up, motor running. We all just stood there for a
moment, mouths open, not fully believing what we just witnessed.
We jumped into action, first just calling out to him to get some
response. He answered calling out that he was alright. Several of us
shouted out to him to shut down the motor and we helped him out the
driver's window. I checked him immediately for lacerations and
contusions, checked for equal pupil dilation, etc. He was in better
shape than his truck. Let the recovery effort begin.
Don dropped a winch line down from above to secure the front of the 80
and keep it from sliding further down the steep hill. Mark pulled his 60
along side the trail on a bypass to the right of the hill and we
snatched off a tree to the near (driver's side) slider. Then we moved
Don's winch cable to another snatch block again to the right of the
trail and pulled the fallen 80s nose back to the high side of the hill
in order to straighten out and put the truck back on the fall line of
the slope. We then moved Mark's cable to the far side slider and pulled
the 80 back on its side. Mark continued pulling to right the truck when
the welds on the slider let go (see point #3 above). Luckily the 80 just
rested on its side. We snapped the rest of the hanging slider off and
moved the strap to the frame. Mark resumed pulling and the 80 landed
safely on its wheels.
Mark repositioned his 60 along side Don on top of the hill and with 2
Warn M12Ks pulling and Chris steering, the 80 was brought onto level
ground. I strapped Chris from the front and Mark strapped him from the
rear to act as an extra set of brakes as we were unable to get the truck
started on the hill. Once we were all safely back down at the field on
level ground, Todd and his crew went to work on the motor. She had been
sitting inverted for a while so the top half of the motor was filled
with oil. Plugs were pulled, motor was cranked and let's just say the
compression was good as a geyser of oil shot from under the hood. The
EFI fuse was blown and replaced and she fired up. For about 40 minutes
there were no mosquitoes in the area, but the motor ran fine. All fluids
were checked and Chris drove her around for a while.
Dave's dad drove the front loader up to the 80 and with a snatch strap
from the bucket to the a pillar, lifted the roof line back into
reasonable shape. All totaled it was about a 6 hour recovery and quite a
learning experience for me. One I don't wish to repeat on any level.
JH
