Ok, you asked, “the stuck”
I was in my Scout II (lifted on 35’s with lockers) This truck never gets stuck. So I’m on the riverside in PA looking for drift wood. The power company controls the river height and they had it low. I drove down a boat ramp and along the river bed that was dry. I was just idling along. Every once an awhile there would be a sand bar that would rise up a foot and then go back down. I go over the second one and the the truck just goes down in a kind of coal dirt. I’m stuck.
After trying to winch for an hour and having nothing to hook to, I call a tow truck. He gets to the boat ramp and says “I’m not going out there”. He can’t reach me from the ramp, So he calls his friend that has a bad ass early Bronco. He says he will drive to the second sand bar and tow me out and we can both drive back. So he proceeds to gun the engine right off the boat ramp and is stuck in 30’. I literally idled over that section and he’s spinning all four wheels like an idiot. The tow truck tows him back to the ramp and try’s two more times the same way. I asked him if I could drive his truck and he got mad. They both leave. It’s like one in the morning now and a friend picks me up and we go to the bar.
Next day, we go down there and there’s a hillbilly near by with a tractor. I ask him if he will help and he agrees. We get to the truck and the power company had raised the river to the top of the tires over night. It was back low again, but now my truck was really in good. The guy with the tractor would only drive to the first sand bar and he nearly got stuck getting there. He had a long cable, but not long enough. We hooked his cable to mine and tried to pull it. The tires made big ruts, but it wouldn’t go. So he backed up and gave it a sudden yank. His cable was 1/2” and mine was 1/4”. You guessed it, mine broke like a guitar string. It was very scary. We tried all kinds of shit and finely gave up and went home again.
Next day the hillbilly came out there with a backhoe. Of course, the power company had raised the level to my windshield and now the truck wouldn’t even start. The still wouldn’t drive the backhoe past the first sand bar, but we hooked the cables to the bucket and when he lifted it, the truck came right out. Then he towed me back to the boat ramp. I paid him and he left.
I drained the gas tank and put ten gallons of gas in. Took the carb apart and cleaned it out. Started the truck and headed home. Got about five miles and it quit. Opened the hood to a ton of whipped cream. The oil in the engine mixed with water was coming out of the valve covers and shit. I changed the oil and headed home again. I had to stop twice more to clean the carb out.
I ended up cleaning that carb about 20 times in the following months. I got real good at taking it apart.
