You'd think a truck would slide better on it's roof

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Joined
May 10, 2005
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Location
Calgary, Alberta
Our local J**p club had a trail maintanence event at Waiporous Off-road area near Calgary this weekend.

The original plan was to dismantle a bridge that had been washed out. We were going to salvage the decking and any of the structural componants that were still useable.

At the last minute, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who administer all navigatable waters in Canada, decided that the salvage operation might disrupt the spawing activities of some species of trout in the creek. So we wouldn't be able to do the salvage operation.

So, what to do with twenty or thirty volunteers?

I showed up in my suburban, paint was still wet on the 45, and got sent out with a small crew to recover a rolled and abandoned pick-up.

It was in a bit of a wash-out, on its roof. The wheels had been taken, as well as the rear axle, so there was no way we could put it on its wheels and roll it out. The passanger A pillar was collapsed and the drivers one was digging in to the ground, so was the passanger B pillar.

We hooked up the Ribicon to it and tried to slide out on what was left of the roof and the hood. Despite being locked front and rear, the recent rain did not allow the Rubicon's tires enough traction to move it.

We then hooked onto the back of the truck and towed it downhill and onto the trail. That worked fairly easily.

Once the pick-up was on a smoother surface the rubicon was able to tow it up the trail until a sharp turn, where the pick-up decided to slide of the trail and into the bush. That's gravity for you.

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To get the pick-up out of the bush and back onto the trail we hooked up a pair of winch lines. One was snatched of an uphill tree to keep it on the trail and to keep from slipping back in to the bush, and the other was straight from the truck to pull it along the trail.

Once it was through this muddy, slightly off-camber patch, the two J**ps strapped it in tandom and hauled it up a slight hill to the side of a gravel road where a flat deck tow truck would eventually take it to a scrap yard.
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We had that done by about noon, and went looking for another job for the afternoon.

A Conservation Officer that had been with us in the morning told us of a report that said there was a burned out truck stuck way back on a quad trail. and could we scout it out and find it and confirm the report?

Scout a quad trail? Go on a trail that was off normally off limits to trucks? You bet we could.

So we hooked up with five trucks from the CT4WDA (Canadian Toyota 4 Wheel Drive Assoc) and hit the road.

At almost exactly where it was said to be, we found it. It was most likely a stolen vehicle, or an insurance fraud.

The truck must have been there since the spring or early summer becuse it was buried up to the rockers in mud. Every part of the truck that was out of the mud, and was not steel, was ashes. There was nothing salvageble on the truck and nearby trees were quite scorched.

So now we have reason to do the trail again in a few weeks to cut it up and haul it out of the woods. We will first have to wait for the police to investigate it though.

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I rode shotgun in a 2000 TJ for that trail. I'm not used to wheeling in a short wheel base rig, but that thing did OK with 31s and open diffs.

Here are a couple of pics of the CT4WDA rigs that did the quad trail with us. They had some well built trucks.

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That white one looks like my old GMC Sonoma. I sold it to a co-worker - who sold it to a co-worker - who sold it. Probly not mine though. Mine had a rusty rear bumper from a half-assed insurance paint job at Southgate Chev/Olds.

Nice work clearing the trails :cheers:
 
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Yes, the white one was a sonoma, not sure which year.

But who the hell steals the rear axel off a sonoma.
Unless, that was why it was stolen.

The burned out truck was a late model ford.
 
Hey Kevin,

It was great to meet you along with the CJA crew there. Great shots!

Have a great trip to California... hope to see some photo's of your trip!

Hope to see your 45 in person some day!

Nathan
 
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