Toyota 4Runner: Bragging Rights
jusamaphonic
Member Posts: 10
I thought a vehicle such as the 4Runner deserved a thread dedicated solely to bragging 
This morning I used my 91 4Runner (295K miles on it) to pull out a Hummer H2 that was stuck in a snowbank. I can elaborate if anyone is interested.
This morning I used my 91 4Runner (295K miles on it) to pull out a Hummer H2 that was stuck in a snowbank. I can elaborate if anyone is interested.
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So I'm driving to work the other morning, six days after we got a large snowfall (I think it was about 20 inches that dumped in a day). Having the personality type that takes the road less travelled (both figuratively and literally), I have dirt roads on my drive to work each morning, which are at this point plowed, but still snowpacked.
As I'm driving in my '91 Toyota 4Runner (with 295K miles on it), a Hummer H2 pulls out in front of me and is hopping down the road right in front. I figure with a truck like that, they have the right to be blazing trails too, eh?
About a half mile later, the H2 must have clipped a snowbank or something, because the thing spun 3/4 of the way around towards facing me. It was blocking the entire road now, so I was forced to stop.
I watched the lady inside frantically try to regain sanity after her adrenaline surge, and tried to pull her yuppie assault vehicle out of the mess she got herself into. All she could do was spin the tires. She got her $50K+ unstoppable vehicle stuck in the snow on the plains.
I got out and tried to help push her out, but the thing wouldn't move. Either I'm a wuss, or the truck weighs 6400 lbs. Probably both. So I turn to my only friend that has gotten me through this blizzard- the 4Runner.
Two days earlier, my Ford Explorer got high centered when I tried to back it out of the unshoveled driveway. After digging it out, the car was sitting on a column of densely packed snow, and the tires spun freeley as the made little contact with the ground. Stupid Americans. It would still be stuch there if I hadn't pulled the thing off of it's ivory tower using the 4Runner.
In this situation now, however, I am faced with a much heavier vehicle, and in a stickier situation. Her front end is buried, and is closer to me then her back end, but the H2 is nearly perpendicular to the road. I can't pull her from the back, as leaving the road is impossible in this condition. My only choice is to pull her from the side.
I hook up a couple of thin little straps to my front, and attach them to that big ugly tow ring that all of those Hummers have on their back bumpers. I think the original intent was for them to be used to pull things, not to be pulled. I tighten the straps down, get back in the truck, put the tranny in reverse and the transfer case in 4WD low. The tires slide, put after a few tugs on an icy dirt road, I'm able to pull the H2 horizontally, bringing the back end around enough to get the front side unburied.
Unfortunately, I ruined the straps in the endeavor (the metal hooks bent, but the straps themselves didn't break). Sorry, no witnesses, aside from myself, the lady, and her child. I'll need to remember to carry a camera in the car for next time. I suppose you'll just have to take my word on this one.
I had similar problems as a former Explorer owner with it "centering out". Never had to be pulled out, but I had to back up, bounce it up and down, and rock it out of stuck situations a few times. The best thing I can say about the Explorer was that my wife and I survived when we rolled it twice. (Actually, it might have 1 1/2 times, but we were upside down twice. We just don't remember which direction we made the last half roll to land on the wheels again.)
Keeping a cheap disposable camera in our vehicles is a good idea for all of us. Never know when we need to document something important.
BTW... was the lady talking on a cell phone and drinking a cup of Starbucks best when she passed you?
Drive safely! :shades:
Another reason to drive a 4R vs. a UAV (Urban Assault Vehicle)
Maybe she was doing her nails also.
Just kidding ladies!