Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 11:05PM :
In Reply to: Re: Glad you made it safe and sound! posted by Willy-N on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 10:52PM :
That Tucker was an easy load for the deuce. Last year, however, I blew the tranny out of my other deuce halfway up the Orondo-Waterville (Corbaley canyon) grade on US 2. I had 10,000 lbs of tire chains in the truck and M105 trailer, plus a bunch of other heavy stuff. The collar around the back bearing shattered and tore it all up inside. Thankfully it still worked a little bit in first gear if I didn't push it too hard and I managed to crawl up the hill at 1-2 mph and coast down into Waterville. After I put in a spare tranny I happened to have in Wallace, I took the truck across the scales at the grain bins and the GVW was 31,000. I had no idea I was that heavy. Anyway, ever since then, I've been a bit aprehensive of that grade whenever I'm pulling a heavy load. This time I got halfway up at 25 mph in 3rd gear before the chevy got too hot and I had to finish at 10-15 mph in 2nd gear. For those who don't know it, that grade climbs about 2000' in 7 miles and in the summer it's like an oven, all lined with lava rock cliffs.
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