Whistler
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I wish someone would have filmed this because a 20 second video here could speak a thousand words about something as stupid as one truck yanking another one out of a muddy ditch.
This afternoon in the parking lot of my shop’s warehouse, my across the street neighbor got his F350 PS stuck in a ditch.
It’s not much of a ditch, maybe 3ft deep and 12ft wide for drainage ,fully sodded. It’s rained its ass off here in Orlando the past few days but today was dry so the driver probably overlooked the swampy condition of the ditch and plowed right through it at an angle.
His diesel is 4WD but it was only in 2W at the time, and locking into 4W didn’t help because the frame was bottomed out and front wheels were barely touching (and caked with wet mud).
I heard the commotion outside from them trying to power it out, and went to see if I could help. I wrapped a tow strap around the receiver on the Lightning, and to the front hook on the 350’s bumper/frame.
The unremarkableness (is that a word?) of this is what makes it remarkable.
The other driver was behind the wheel, and was going to assist with some throttle to help with the extraction. I told him to hold off first and lets see what happens, I was concerned with his front wheels suddenly getting traction and slamming that rig into my tailgate. I told him just be ready on the brakes, and fugg, glad I did.
I pulled that stuck 350 out of the mud like it was pulling my son’s Little Tykes wagon.
Other than a little clawing noise from my tires, and the ass of my truck raising up slightly (the 350’s nose was in the air), I seriously would have barely known it was there…just eased into the pedal and forward we went.
It felt like there was some sort of torque management kicking in at first, as I slowly crept forward and put tension on the tow strap, then eased into the pedal it felt like the power came on as normal, then backed off on output slightly with no change in throttle position. Then as I increased pedal input slightly more, it was as if the controller recognized the load, and pulled us both forward with unbelievably little effort.
I’m guessing the tow rating of the Lightning is artificially low due to the soft suspension and limited torque capacity of the IRS half shafts.
It feels like it could pull the Space Shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad.
This afternoon in the parking lot of my shop’s warehouse, my across the street neighbor got his F350 PS stuck in a ditch.
It’s not much of a ditch, maybe 3ft deep and 12ft wide for drainage ,fully sodded. It’s rained its ass off here in Orlando the past few days but today was dry so the driver probably overlooked the swampy condition of the ditch and plowed right through it at an angle.
His diesel is 4WD but it was only in 2W at the time, and locking into 4W didn’t help because the frame was bottomed out and front wheels were barely touching (and caked with wet mud).
I heard the commotion outside from them trying to power it out, and went to see if I could help. I wrapped a tow strap around the receiver on the Lightning, and to the front hook on the 350’s bumper/frame.
The unremarkableness (is that a word?) of this is what makes it remarkable.
The other driver was behind the wheel, and was going to assist with some throttle to help with the extraction. I told him to hold off first and lets see what happens, I was concerned with his front wheels suddenly getting traction and slamming that rig into my tailgate. I told him just be ready on the brakes, and fugg, glad I did.
I pulled that stuck 350 out of the mud like it was pulling my son’s Little Tykes wagon.
Other than a little clawing noise from my tires, and the ass of my truck raising up slightly (the 350’s nose was in the air), I seriously would have barely known it was there…just eased into the pedal and forward we went.
It felt like there was some sort of torque management kicking in at first, as I slowly crept forward and put tension on the tow strap, then eased into the pedal it felt like the power came on as normal, then backed off on output slightly with no change in throttle position. Then as I increased pedal input slightly more, it was as if the controller recognized the load, and pulled us both forward with unbelievably little effort.
I’m guessing the tow rating of the Lightning is artificially low due to the soft suspension and limited torque capacity of the IRS half shafts.
It feels like it could pull the Space Shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad.
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