I have a 2011 Tundra Rock Warrior with the SuperCharger kit on it from the factory.
An excellent rig! I’ve climbed some seriously stupid mountains in snow and ice. But, I’ve yet to figure out how to safely come down the steep grades once I’m done scouting.
I’ve stayed hours and even did an overnight on a mountain top because if I tried coming off. I would either be dead or typing this drivel with my nose.
Goin up ain’t ever the problem. It’s down.
😎
Beaver10, T Inman and those who've driven on snow packed on ice;
Top of the morning to you all, I hope the day is breaking bright and clear for you all in your respective corners of the universe.
Since it wouldn't be me if I didn't have a story about something once in awhile, I'll relate if I may a tale of fresh snow on a vertical curling rink base.
My late father used to be quite blasé about road conditions sometimes, which really wasn't exactly a logical position since he was a flat lander for most of his life, but somehow he'd grown to trust my mountain driving ability and the near bullet proof abilities of my '80 Toyota 4x4 longbox.
So it was that we were heading over a local mountain pass logging road, the November sun just beginning to soften up the new snow, when the Toyota pitched sideways on the road without warning.
As per usual, I shut the truck off, left it in first gear, low range and pulled that old ebrake nearly right out of the dash - remember when Toyota's were there?
It became instantly apparent to me we were in for an interesting time when, upon my first boot touching the ground that I slid underneath the truck... oh pooh...
Editing in remainder - not sure what happened there...
The Toyota had a 6000lb Warn on a heavy duty bush bumper, but in order to rig to a large enough tree I had every rope and strap in the box looped together to make it work. Of course being so slippery, the truck pulled straight with ease.
Before continuing on with the process of somehow turning the truck around, I'd just piled all the ropes, cables and straps on the hood and bush guard, then got into the truck to have a quick council of war with Dad as to our next course of action.
The conversation really didn't get started, as the truck - still off, steering wheel locked, in first low, with the ebrake on, took of like an Olympic luge sled backwards down the narrow mountain road!!!
I looked down over the bank on my side and it was a solid couple dozen feet of free air between us and the first trees, admittedly passing us quickly as we careened downwards with ever increasing velocity. I said to Dad, "Put your seatbelt on, we're going over on my side!" and he calmly muttered back, "We'll be fine Dwayne", but began to fumble with his seatbelt...
Suddenly the left rear tire caught in the V-Plow groove - put in so roads don't wash out in hard rains - and through God's providence instead of us going further over the bank, spun the truck around so now we were headed down the narrow pass forwards... the hood still piled with recovery straps, the motor still off, steering wheel locked, etc and etc....
Part ways down the stretch before the corner at the bottom, there's always a corner at the bottom isn't there? Part ways down I got the truck started, found a gear and released the ebrake, but we over shot the corner a tad despite this, but I now had the accelerator pushed down as hard as I'd been pushing the brake and we managed to scratch our way back onto the road.
I turned to Dad and so help me the first words out of his mouth were, "See, we're fine"..
This was in my memory, one of two times that I raised my voice to my father as I respected him greatly, but that day prior to getting out to put the cables and straps away, I replied rather enthusiastically, "We were not fine Dad!"
As a wee bit of an after story, story, this was the first time I was to meet a chap who was the new Conservation Officer in our area and we'd have many pleasant times after that, but as I was finishing up running the winch cable in, down the same slippery road came the BC Conservation Officer Service Chevy 4x4. Now this fine man was full Japanese extraction, but when he rolled down his window, he looked as pale as I did that morning and all he said was a typical Canadian, "Holy S__t Eh?"
He continued on after that brief typical Canadian, winter road condition report and we laughed about it many times after that.
Thanks for letting my mind wander back to a day long ago when my late father and I used to spend a week together in the local mountains. They were wonderful days and when I now travel the same paths with my daughter, I am struck with the thought of how blessed I am to be able to live this life.
Thanks for reading too, all the best to you all.
Dwayne
