So, Just wanted to throw this in the mix. Since the last couple months have been downright nuts.
Wife got offered a management position with a salary that couldn't be turned down. With one caveat, we had 3 weeks to pack a 3 bedroom house, move and have her show up ready for her first day.
So after a mad dash scramble to get the house packed, vehicles loaded, motorcycles loaded, 3rd car loaded on a trailer, storage closed up and bills paid for. We hit the road and got the first trip completed in the 3 weeks. She started work on time and I was stuck unloading cars, motorcycles and trailers by myself. YAY......
So, I made the 8 hour drive back with an empty 6x12 trailer to pick up the last of our stuff that wouldn't fit in the box of my Dakota, back of a Suburban, back of an Audi wagon or a 6x12 trailer. Got loaded and crashed the night with a friend. The next morning, I should have stayed in bed, because that is where everything went horribly wrong. About half way through the 8 hour drive, my truck stalls out going up slight grade at 80mph-16 miles north of Casper, WY. So I quickly dart off the road and as far over to the edge of the shoulder as possible. Take a moment to collect myself and start figuring out what went wrong. So before i try to start the truck, I listen and don't hear the fuel pump. Crap I am 16 miles outside of town, now what. So I grab what I need and start hoofing it back towards Casper and finally flag someone down after about 5 miles of being on foot. They kindly drop me off at the nearest auto parts store and I get told by that store that the store across town has my pump and being a Saturday they don't have anyone to deliver parts between stores. So I make the 4 mile walk across town and finally get the fuel pump I needed. Now how do I get back to my truck, so i try bribing the counter people to give me a ride(they decline even $50). My luck turned when I walked outside to find a semi driver willing to make the 30 mile round trip out of his way to drop me off at my truck in return for removing the remnants of his deer guard from the front of his rig, so he could move his oversize load banner from in front of his dangerously overheating rigs grille and let it cool down. Yay, so I am back to my truck and traded good karma favors. Then I proceed to drop the 40 gallon fuel tank(still 28 gallons inside) from the ass of the truck, change the fuel pump and get everything shoved back up there and go to prime and try to start the truck. Now I can hear the fuel pump working, but when I went to start the truck I hear a pop like a fuse blowing hard and the starter won't grab(starter is getting old and doesn't engage each time-so didn't thin much of it at the time), so I start digging through fuses. My ecm1 fuse is blown and I know most of what is on the ecm1 fuse, so I start disconnecting things 1 by 1 in hopes to be able to limp it the remaining 300 miles to Billings, MT. No such luck, I blow through 8 more fuses and a handful of things disconnected. As I am disconnecting the O2 sensors I see something odd sticking out of my bellhousing inspection port cover. So I remove the inspection cover and get hit in the chest by a big chunk of my flexplate(flywheel for manual vehicles). Great, so even after all the walking, frustration, repairs on the side of the interstate and electrical problems. Even if I could get the fuse popping issue fixed, I wouldn't be able to get the truck to move under its own power and now don't want to try and crank the motor in fear of doing even further damage. At this point, I throw in the towel. I give up and climb into the truck to get out of the high winds that had been battering me all day. I realize; now that its dark out, I should do the responsible motorist thing and inform the highway patrol that my truck and u-haul trailer are on the side of the road and broke down. The dispatch lady was very empathetic of my situation and informs me that the weather is going to get bad and I mean bad 60+ mile an hour wind, rain and possible winds with a nice toasty 15-20 degrees. She also told me that an officer would be along soon to check and make sure my vehicle is far enough off the road to be safe to leave for the night and inevitably see how I am doing. So about 20 minutes go by and out of nowhere i am being blinded by bright lights in my side mirrors beating my eyeballs that had adjusted to the dark. The officer was a little on edge wen he approached, but was very kind. He asked how I was doing and informed me that I was safely over far enough that the truck could stay the night no problem, but that he could not in good conscious leave me out in my truck in the current weather conditions and didn't want me to be in the vehicle if it was struck by another motorist. At this point my wife had already set up a hotel room for me and I am too exhausted to debate it with him. So, I pack up my travel bag and start getting out of the truck when sadly my worn out state came back to bite me in the ass. My daily CCW came into view when I was climbing out of my truck and I heard him draw his weapon. I froze hoping he wouldn't shoot and waited what seemed like 5 minutes before he asked me about the firearm. So i filled him in and allowed him to remove it from its holster. After a sigh of relief, I got my truck locked up and double checked the trailer lock. He mandated a pat down, for clear but now obvious reasons and he gave me ride back into town right to my hotel. Which was so freaking awesome of him to do and I thanked him and my wife even thanked him profusely over speaker phone.
Now the next 2 days, I spend on the phone with every transport company I could think of and every single one leaves me hanging and I reach a boiling point. At this point i realize my only option is to flat tow the truck and I would need a truck. So after a little reasearch, I find that a 10ft U-haul truck will stand up to the weighty task it is about to be forced to undertake. So i walk through the rain; rent a U-haul truck, transfer all the contents of the trailer to the truck, drag the trailer back into town and drop it off. Drive all over town in the U-haul gathering a 2 tow bars(sadly the best i could find was 5,000lb rated ones-second was a backup), chains, bolts, magnetic emergency lights/blinkers and a padlock for the U-haul truck. I had to get chains and bolts, since I couldn't find suitable mounts to be able to attach the tow bar to the truck, so i made a very jerry rigged mounting solution. I was NOT going to be detered any longer, I was getting everything and my truck home come hell or high water. I didn't care if I had to do it at 2 miles an hour. So I rush out to the truck and remove the grille, all forward lights and flashing plate, just to get to the top bolts holding the bumper on the truck removed. Remove the bumper and reassemble the grille and lights. Then I fashion the mounting points out of the chains and bolts and get the tow bar hooked on. Get the tow bar hooked on the back of the U-haul(not fun to do by yourself) and get the lights mounted to the roof of the truck. Lock the steering wheel as close to straight as possible(took 3 miles and 8 tries to get it right) and lock it back up with all my tools safely back inside. At this point the sun has just set and I am seeing very little traffic on the road, once the truck is moving and I am starting to make progress I call and inform the highway patrol that I got the truck moved. Luckily, since it was slated to be towed to the impound the next morning(proof by the green stickers on the windows I scraped off a couple hours earlier). Over the next 100 miles i cautiously built my speed until I was semi-comfortably doing 80mph with the truck behind me and finally got it pulled all the way home. Unloaded the truck and got the U-haul unloaded, dropped off the u-haul at 4am and finally crawled into bed sore, burnt out and relieved. To be woken up an hour later by an ecstatic wife and a very happy kitty.
Thank you for reading this and sorry if its not in the right spot, but it did have wrenching involved and thought it would apply. Some photos, will follow this post to show a little of what was said.
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