Posted by Dan (NH) [173.9.49.14] on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at 10:29:52 :
This past weekend I was volunteered to move a small but heavy piano for my mother that she had just purchased and wanted brought home. She also volunteered my brother in-law, "Brian" but he just didn't know it yet. Anyway, I drove my Chevy K3500 over to pick up my brother in-law at his place where we would then go pick up the piano. Well, I got to his house and after turning off my truck discovered lots of green snow in his driveway right under my truck. Seems my radiator had corroded severely where the auto tranny lines enter the radiator and it was leaking pretty bad. This is where I discovered how useful a cheap snow sled can be used as a drip pan. We cleaned it up best we could and jumped into Brian's 2WD truck "brother in-law" and headed off to pick up the piano, griping the whole way about what wonderful stuff we get volunteered for without knowing about it until the last moment.
The piano loading went way better than either of us had planned. The loading platform was above his truck bed and there was ample help available there to get it into the truck. They even let us borrow a 4 wheel dolly so it would be easier to unload and wheel around when we got to my mothers. Tied down and rolling, it took us a short 30 minutes to get to the base of the driveway leading up to my parents house.
This is where it gets a little tricky, as the driveway is about a 15-18% grade and is on the shaded side of a mountain. It is a straight shot, but there is a 2 inch layer of snow that has been glazed over and it is now slicker than snot, to the point it is hard to walk on even out of the ruts. We entered the driveway, and I figured we would be parking in a little sandlot at the bottom so we could get my fathers plow truck "with spiky chains" and transfer the piano out of Brian's 2WD and into the 4WD truck. I was wrong, as I heard him mumble "I am gonna try it".
Not two seconds after I heard him say that and felt the truck speed up, the rear of the truck started to move to the right while the front started heading left. It was apparent he wasn't intentionally making it do this as there was a rather large beech tree now directly in front of his truck, and not enough room to slow down and stop even if there had been no snow on the ground.
I had hoped he could save it, but reality came down on that little truck and the two of us inside of it in the split second it took that tree to remove all the momentum we had built up to that point. I saw the airbag pop out of the steering wheel out of the corner of eye, then felt my seatbelt cinch up on my chest as the front of my body got heavy. I thought I had gotten lucky and the airbag in front of me would see that there was no need to go off, but about halfway through that thought it went off and all I saw was white/yellow then grey smoke. Took me a minute to get out, as I figured there wasn't any rush now, truck wasn't moving anyway.
Brian was the first out, and he circled around front to see the damage. It was bad, hood was crinkled halfway backwards onto itself, bumper wrapped around the front tire and fluids leaking from everywhere. Brian kept way cooler than I could have, even made the statement about how he needed a new radiator now too. We were both OK and no blood was showing. We walked up to my parents and got the 4WD truck, like we should have in the first place and transferred the piano into the back of the truck.
The piano "with all it's weight" had pushed the front of the bed into the rear of the cab a good inch and a half. We put the piano in the house then pulled Brian's truck out of the tree. It had hit on the drivers side tow hook and where they would normally be even to each other the hit side was a good four inches backwards. Tow hook wasn't bent, but I suspect the frame might be. I will get a picture if you guys want, but I figured this might make you feel better about your weekend.
Firm believer in seat belts. Please be safe this season.
Although a tree was injured, it is expected to make a full recovery.
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