Reminds me of a story an older gentleman, a friend of mine and our former camp cook told me.
Seems that back in the early 70's he was hanging out at the horse track outside my home town when a friend of his showed up. This fella was touting the towing, pulling, and climbing ability of his brand new Ford Bronco. The little Bronco had a positrac rear end and of course Hi-Lo 4 wheel drive. It had the little 289 and a three speed manual transmission. "It'll pull anything", he said, "lock this baby in 4-Lo and it can't be stopped".
Well my friend, being a betting man, after all they were at a horse track, tells him he's on and what are the stakes. The ante is agreed upon at $20 and the cry goes out amongst the hangers on, "anybody got a tow chain". A chain is procured and the commence to hook their chariots together. On one end is the shiny new Bronco and attached to the other is my pal Jim's Oldsmobile Station wagon. Now this wasn't your normal wagon he explained to me, "I special ordered it with a 455 Olds SuperRocket, low geared PosiTrac axle, and of course the wood side trim".
Someone gave the signal to go and the struggle ensued. The man with the Bronco raced the small block and eased the clutch out with the transfer case locked in 4 wheel Lo range, the tires shuddered and grabbed and he started to gain a little ground. About this time old Jim leaned into the old wood side Olds and really opened her up. I've been led to believe there was tires smoking and engines racing when all of the sudden Jim felt he was gaining ground, he was moving forward and it was starting to get easier! Upon looking in the rear view mirror he saw, much to his surprise, that he'd pulled the little Ford hard enough at such an angle that it had climbed itself into a full wheelie! Sensing that he'd won the battle and not wanting to tear up his friend's beloved Bronco he immediately released the accelerator pedal only to roll back and hear a loud crash as the Bronco came down out of its wheelie. He claimed he knew something was very wrong when the crash was followed by a stream of expletives that would make a retired navy man blush. Upon exiting his mighty Oldsmobile he saw that the Bronco's front axle had suffered a severe failure upon reconnecting with the earth, it seems the axle had broken in half leaving it not just crippled but dead on arrival and unable to move!
It's been a long time since Jim told me that story and every time I see one of these silly TugOWar videos I think of him. My mind draws a picture like one of the old Cowtown cartoons and I can't help but crack a smile!
