Posted by Chris Davis from 63.198.237.82 (adsl-63-198-237-82.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net) on Monday, April 01, 2002 at 7:50PM :
My '42 Carryall is up for sale, and I don't know how many more weekends we'll have it to enjoy, so yesterday I gathered up the kids and the dog and we took the old Dodge for a spin. We drove up to a local canyon, one of the few undeveloped sections of Orange county, with the intention of going on up the road to the Cleveland National Forest and taking in a bit of scenery.
But, once we turned off the main road we found entertainment of another sort. A stream bed, currently dry and always rocky, parallels the road at the turn out. Local 4x4 folks test their vehicles here... not 100% legal, but no place in Orange County really is. I pulled over to watch a modified Ford Ranger taking a crack at one of the steep rocky banks of the riverbed. The vehicle was lifted a good three to four inches and well shod with aggressive, over sized tires. He dropped down in easily enough, barely rubbing the rear bumper. He crossed the dry riverbed and took a run at a steep, rutted trail exiting the highest point on the far side.
With some momentum behind him he hopped and scrambled this way and that, rocks flying, engine racing, and ultimately crested the hill, much to my kids delight and a few other on lookers. They turned around and descend the same slope with a little less drama. But then the real fun began. A guy showed up in a new Jeep Grand Cherokee... and decided he wanted to play too! This was too much fun to miss so I told the kids to break out the snacks and sit back for the show.
To make a long story short, the Grand Cherokee (4x4, but unmodified in any way... street tires for goodness sakes, only in Southern California folks...) dragged bottom badly entering the riverbed... but undeterred pressed on, gingerly feeling it's way around the larger rocks and boulders in the watercourse. The Ford, meanwhile had taken another "watch this" run at the far bank and had more or less thrown down the gauntlet. You could see the poor Grand Cherokee driver's pride was at stake, and he went for it, losing traction about 3/4 of the way up. He spun for a bit, then decided descresion was the better part of valor and backed down. Unfortunately, once downward momentum was started, laws of physics took over and he slid the entire length, catching the tail pipe on one of the larger rocks and making a pretzel of it. This effectively killed the engine (no where for the exhaust gases to go).
Several minutes were spent with the tire iron "sort of" straightening the exhaust pipe... at least enough to let the engine breath again, although it scrapped on every bump encountered as the Cherokee followed the easy trail out of the river bed.
I had not planed on it. I was selling the truck for goodness sakes and it's a valuable piece of WWII history. I had never taken it off road and didn't intend to. But from my M37 days, I knew the Carryall could handle this. I told the kids to buckle up and engaged 4 wheel drive and the low first gear. The Ford driver saw us move and stopped to watch. I dropped down in effortlessly, no breaks required, pointed it straight across the river bed at the "bad" trail out and let it idle across, then up, then out, kids and dog happily waving to on lookers. (Ok, the dog just hung her head out and slobbered. She shakes, but we are still working on "wave".)
The Carryall didn't even have to work for it. This was a cake walk for the old war horse... "I'm taking you youngsters to school." :-)
The Ford pulled up... the passenger rolled down the window and shook his head with a smile and gave a little bow. "We aren't worthy."
It was a great day out with the Carryall.
Chris Davis
MVPA# 20000
Lake Forest, CA
'42 WC53 Carryall
http://www.dodgepowerwagon.com/classifieds/davis42.html
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