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Posted by Tim Holloway [69.54.28.229] on Monday, March 07, 2011 at 17:17:55 :
Well it has come and gone, the 2011 Vermont Winter Rally!
Activitys began after lunch today, I waded through thigh deep snow from my house about a thousand feet to the shop. Like Dave Horvath's picture of Wendell out in the elements, my Power Wagon was also outside. However, instead of icesickles hanging daintily from the front fenders, I was confronted by a large white blob, sort of resembling a truck, and roughly where I remembered parking last. I got it brushed off and scraped yesterdays freezing rain off the windshield. Got it fired up, and continued to clean the snow off. Then I notice steam starting to waft out from the radiator cap. What the... I checked and the electric fan isnt turning. I turned the truck off, and found that yesterday's freezing rain had frozen the fan in place. Time for the Rally's first tech session, "Troubleshooting Electrical Problems" I checked the fuse, and fortunately found it blown. Trudged into the shop for fuses, put one in and voila, fan noise!
Next fun activity was snow plowing! This storm dropped about 28" oof hard dense snow, with drifts up to my chest. After about two hours, it was mostly cleaned up, and dont I manage to get stuck! The storm started yesterday, with a long period of heavy rain, which melted a lot of the snow we had, and softened the ground up a lot. It wasnt really frozen this winter due to a heavy snow cover this winter. Anyway, I had the front and rear axles locked, all 4 wheels digging, rear wheels chained up, not going anywhere. Next Rally activity, "Self Extraction techniques" I over to the pole barn and fired up my 1968 Case 580CK backhoe. Its a beast but the engine is really tired, the hydraulics leak like sieves, but it is heavy and strong. I fired it right up, it ran a few seconds and quit. I tried it again, battery too flat to turn it over. Into the shop for the battery booster, ran a cord out for the booster, and fired it back up. There was a big berm of snow right behind the tractor I had to climb out over, took a few passes at it getting further each time, then go into reverse and the right wheel spins like it was in the air, nothing out of the left. Very curious, I tried frontwards, same thing, backwards same thing. Broken axle? Didnt hear any bad noises. Anyway I shut it down, time for plan "B" Last year when I bought my 09 Ram 2500, I put a 10K electric winch on the front, using a new type Power Wagon winch mount. Time to put it to work. Went back to the house where the Ram was, cleaned the snow off the hood and windshield, and backed out through as yet unplowed snow.
Now of course where the Power Wagon was stuck, was at a bottleneck in the driveway. There wasnt room to pass with the Ram without punching through a deep drift. I made it about half way through and got hung, now the Ram and the Power Wagon were both stuck, and forming a Tee, with the Ram almost touching the tailgate of the PW. Out came the winch cable, and I was able to reach the backhoe in the pole barn. About then Joan came out with our daughter Claire, needing to get to the Post Office. She got in the Ram and ran the winch and got herself pulled out. Then I turned it around and chained the back of the ram to the backhoe and ran the cable to the rear of the Power Wagon. With Jona on the winch and me helping from the cab of the Power Wagon it came free. Re wrapped the winch cable nice and smooth and she took off to make the Post Office! I finished up the plowing and adjourned the Rally! A good time was had by all, but when is spring?
Tim
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