Well as many of you know my truck, aka Big Bruce, might have taken his last breath today. .. But if it indeed was, it was a warriors death.
Back story for those who dont know; Big Bruce is my Dodge Ram truck. my battleship. we have been to hell and back. I have sank him in water, hit trees, and pulling shit FAR larger then 1/2ton. This has weighed heavily on his heart. and lead to tranny issues which i fixed and more recently loss of compression to multiple cylinders… I have been taking it easy on the country boy truck life and driving like a city boy until i could get another engine
So it has been raining elephants and emus here in Georgia lately and on my way home I saw a car down in a ditch. This is a regular occurrence around atlanta, some atliens are horrible drivers. As i drive closer i see the interior light is on and think to myself “whoa, this must have just happened!?” and sure enough when i get even closer i see a head moving in the back seat and then i see someone walking up the street.
Now i have a constant struggle within myself about things like this.
confession: I pick up hitchhikers. yes, i think ALL people should pick them up! i mean these people are walking down dangerous streets. usually just trying to get home.
Everyone always tries to warn me about stopping for people on the side of the road which makes me second guess my policy on picking people up. So i actually drove past a little but then thought “fuck that, I’m going to help.” So i bust a U-turn and pull up to the guy walking. He tells me he lives around the corner and was going to get his car and the woman in the car, his friend, is calling the cops. I told him that the cops will take forever and that theres water getting in his engine, we need to get it up now. I immediately start kicking myself, I mean i wanna help, but bruce is pretty much running 5cylinders with 40% treads on the tires, i have got NO business helping. I cant help it though, I like to help, i like to do manly things, and I like showing off. We go back to the car. by now it feels like the rain has gotten harder…. I pull out my toe straps a tell the guy make sure they arent hooked to anything but the frame. Im not going down there, i am in stacy adams and khaki slacks i’m not getting in the mud. After hooking up i hop in the truck and give bruce a pep talk.
ok bruce we just need to yank this car out and i’ll take you for some premium gas. so let just do this and be done
Starting off slowly because i’m not sure where this guy put the straps but i have yanked bumpers off. After a few tugs i felt it was good and tight AND this car is really stuck! By this time the cops have showed up, turn the lights on, and is causing a scene. talk about pressure. Third times a charm right? Wrong. one of my straps popped. Good grief. maybe this might be more than i thought i could handle(and i thought i could handle a lot!) so we move the straps and use my winch cable. This time i’m going for gold. I put some slack in the rope and gun it! The truck bucks as the ditch refuses to let go of this little car But i feel bruce slowly moving. Then the wheels lose grip, now i’m burning rubber, bruce is yelling as we slowly disappear into our own cloud of pride smoke BUT we are moving! And sure enough out comes the car! I get out trying to control my pride because inside i’m doing the captain morgan pose. I shake everyones hand and take only their gratitude then hop in the truck only to see a blinking CEL(Check Engine Light). All my gear heads out there have just gasped in horror because we all know that means catastrophic failure. Fortunately i was about a block from the house so we limped home rolled into the driveway and opened my dyno appto test the engine and got this msg
MULTIPLE MISFIRES!!! my truck has basically become a 4cylinder. i turn it off and go i the house. This morning he wouldnt turn over. just turn the key and nothing…he gave his life helping others.