Brody's Ford F 150

[Brody]

Here are a couple of photos of an F150 I had that I endoed. The camper top and the cab were crushed almost flat and I had only a small opening to crawl out of.I was in the middle of the road and needed to get the truck rubber side down again so that I could roll it to the side. It was an entertaining process as I first had to get the truck off it's crushed top, then unto it's side, then finally rubber side down. All with no help and one winch and a Hi Lift.The photos were taken when I was taking a break after getting it onto it's side. BTW, the truck was totaled and all the good stuff went into a 69 Bronco: engine, tranny, transfer case, axles, most of the exhaust, shocks, winch, etc., etc. I think that I even managed to use both the bumpers that I had made on the Bronco, too.

I managed to get the truck off the road by dusk, and camped up the hill.I had to stash all my gear in the trees, grab a day pack and walk 9 miles to where some friends were camping and rock climbing. I climbed with them the rest of the day and did the truck recovery later that evening.

Custom (old school) trac bars in the rear and custom long travel in the front. My first try at these. Also a good shot at my first try at a custom exhaust. My 2nd try at custom bumpers, too. The rear had a decent swingaway tire carrier.All worked fine up to this final test...

[Funrover]

OUCH!!!!!!!! What year is that thing?

[Brody]

1977. Bored, stroked, decked, port matched and polished, high rise manifold, two 4 barrel Holleys, headers, comp cam, Mallory coil, wires, 4.38s (I think), spool in the rear, locker in front, 38x15.50x15 Cepeks. Not too bad, but very 80s. Picture was taken in 85 or 86. I'm trying to find shots of the 69 Bronco. It basically is a Bronco version of my current heap. Very MadMax looking...

[Pathrat]

As my son would say, "that is so metal!" that you were able to do that, and you are someone I want in my camp if the world goes to hell.

Since I am allowed to ask questions, I have yet another. It seems that an impediment, besides weight, for getting this rig tires down from laying on the doors are the large tires. You saw the physics of this at work. Would it help to air down as much as you could to reduce resistance and decrease the angle you would need to overcome to right the rig? Or do you risk axle damage?

[Brody]

I don't really think so, but a good question all the same. I bet Jimmy, Aaron, Jeff or Bear will come back with some interesting stuff on that one!

My biggest problem was that the truck was upside down in a ditch and all the trees were on the other side of the road. The truck was actually leaning into the hillside in the opposite direction of where I needed to pull from. I just hooked the winch to the frame rail on the far side, climbed high up the biggest tree on the opposite side, rigged the snatch block to that and just yarded it over. By the time it was actually on it's side, it was almost in the middle of the road, where I took the pictures. (I was tired)

If I had had trees on the side where the top of the truck is in the pictures, I would've tied off the truck as close to the road as possible and then winched from the highest part of the frame(from the opposite side of the road) to pop it back over. Less air in the tires might have made rolling the rig over easier, but also could have popped a bead. No big deal at this point as I wasn't going to drive away.Air in the tires might have helped make a better pivot point or not. I never crossed my mind, to tell the truth. Good question all the same. Anyway, I just reanchored the rope way down low on the tress and pulled from there, eventually getting the truck rubber side down.

The whole process, wreck to finish, including stashing all my camping/climbing stuff, probably took around 4 hours. Physics is interesting...gravity sucks...

Turned the Bronco around on a narrow snowy downhill by standing it on it's bumper and winching it 180 degrees once. That little escapade took almost all day...Another application of applied physics..and another reason to not wheel by yourself...