Got it. And it was a challenge.
Oh lord. Where do I start? From the top I suppose.
Day started out at 9am gathering the tools I would need to get the tires changed on the Bronco in order to get it to roll. Buddy Mike rolls on over about 9:15am and we head over to another friend's house to grab his 97 F-350 4X2 Powerstroke dually which should be more than capable of towing the Bronco out of its spot and up to Oceanside. By 9:30am we head out to U-Haul to rent a tow-dolly because there is no way we are getting a flat bed up the hill its located and make it around a tight corner to head back down after we are hooked up.
U-Haul thinks their tow-dolly is too small (and it would have been tight, very tight). So we head down the road to El Camino Rental where they have the rustiest piece of crap tow-dolly available. But its larger and wider and would make it much easier to load. The guy asks what we are towing and I tell him. He goes to his co-worker and says to make sure to get the longer of the two sets of tow straps to go over the tires because we are towing a Bronco. This is an important detail.
Rolling down the road about 10:30am, it takes us about 45 minutes to get to Lakeside and we arrive at 11:15am.
Even with the video below, its hard to tell how steep this incline is. Plus the asphalt must have been laid about 50 years ago so its slicker than snot.
As we arrived on scene.
First, its hot as crap at about 95. Its dry and we are working in the sun with no shade around. Turns out the old tires were actual 40" Gumbo Mudders that had gone completely flat. My 30" replacements look just silly but at least it rolls.
The next conundrum we have is that the F-350 is almost too wide to get into the entrance of the small pad that the Bronco is located. We manage to get it down though to drop the tow-dolly. The pad opens up a bit to allow other vehicles down the sides once past the entrance. We pull the F-350 up and out of there so Chuck (seller) can get his 76 CJ-7 with a Corvette 383 TPI motor in next to the Willys and Bronco. Why you may ask? Cause the slope of the pad rolls away from the tow-dolly. We had to use a snatch block to winch the Bronco on to the tow-dolly. This process took an hour or so because of various angle issues, the Bronco transfer case being in 4x4 so it was dragging the front end, soft ass dirt, the F-350 being a good dead-man but still getting tipped on three wheels after we hitched it up, etc. A Jeeping neighbor came up the hill to see what was cooking and helped us out. Very nice.
Its at this point that we realize the nuck fut at El Camino Rental totally screwed us. He went and got the smallest straps and we couldn't install the straps over our measly 30" tires and quickly had to improvise. :doh0715: We had to use the two they supplied us (which are the web design that go over the top of the tires) for one side and use the extra tow strap I brought to cinch down the other side. This was going to be a pain in our ass for the whole remainder of the trip.
We went up and finished up the paperwork and complete the sale. Then we head back down to where the action was to get the Bronco out of there after getting hitched up properly. Being there was soft dirt our F-350 being 4X2 and having street tires, we couldn't get it out of there. Chuck went and got his other truck to hook up to the F-350 that was attached to the tow-dolly which held the Bronco (now with transfer case in neutral) to give us a tug up until the F-350 could get some traction. That wasn't so difficult, just another thing to do.
Here it is gone with that nice long drag mark after we got it on the tow dolly. See the Jeep.
Three of the 40" mudders were loaded into the back of the Bronco and the remaining one loaded into the bed of the F-350. This is an important detail. So visually imagine the rear axle of the Bronco on the tow-dolly with three mud tires in the bed with the tail gate seemingly shut. Its a large angle that the nose of the Bronco is pointing down. Well, after we made one of the turns on the way down, the slope of the chip and tar road was so much that the angle of the Bronco's bed was flat if not pointing down some.
Mike and the F-350 began to slide down the long stretch down the hill, I am in the Bronco driving the front end down and standing on the brakes trying to slow things down even just a little. Chuck (standing on his property) and I had been screaming to Mike to get the F-350 to stop, but the rig just kept going. Finally the F-350 gets some traction and the mudders' weight was too much for the Bronco's tail gate and all three of the tires come out shooting off into three different directions. One follows the road all the way down to the bottom where a right turn is and stops there. Another falls out and just flops over the the side of the tow-rig (amen). The other careens off the side of the truck, down a hill, through trees, bush and other obstacles where it settles next to a fence about 150' down. Chuck and I get down to the bottom of the hill and struggle to get it up to the road where Chuck and get his truck and drive the wheel down to the F-350. Its hot, he is old and I have a sinus infection. It just sucked.
Mike took the F-350 and Bronco down the remaining part of the street where it flattens out and we decided to assess the situation. The tow strap situation was ugly and this was the first time we inspected them and they hadn't gone 1/4 of a mile down a hill without coming loose. One of the neighbors is down at the bottom of the hill where we pulled the tow-rig and really urged us to turn the Bronco around. So we did. But that required the neighbor to use his Jeep to pull us off the tow-dolly, up the street, unhook us, let us get about half way around via freewheeling, rehook up, drag the Bronco around, tow us back up the hill a bit to get a run at the tow-dolly. We did it. Got it loaded up properly and strapped down again.
After we got it oriented properly.
The whole time, we had been planning on running up to Alpine to look at a machine for my wife's business but it was 3:30pm and both Mike and I had had our asses kicked at this point. The wife basically conned me into going up there so off we head up to Alpine towing the Bronco. On the way, before the climb up to Alpine on the 8, we feel the transmission of the F-350 slipping a little bit (the thing leaks, everywhere). We pull over to check the tow-dolly and the transmission fluid (not even on the dipstick). We have to adjust the tow straps again, of course. And lo-and-behold, there's a Tractor Supply Company about 100 yards away. We drive up and park the rig so we can get some ATF. I wind up buying a 2 gallon jug of ATF and using half of it to get it on the dipstick. Oil was a bit low too so we topped that up. Secured and ready to roll, we steamed up to Alpine.
We pull over in Palo Verde Ranch to take a look at this machine, shoot the breeze a bit before we head back down the hill towards home (its about 6:30pm when we leave the guy's house). Of course, the tow straps couldn't handle the 10 mile drive so we readjusted them and cinched things up one more time at the guy's house. We decided to stop and get some fast food before heading down the hill. The straps are loose and I notice the back right tire on the Bronco is getting a little low. Mike tries to back up the whole rig a bit and it is abundantly clear that backing up this arrangement is a fool's errand. No matter. We roll out of the parking lot to a gas station where they have air. There is no way we are going into the parking lot so we pull up on the side of the street and the air line barely makes it. Its at this time we decide to go full aggro on the tow straps. We go over the axle instead in hopes they won't get loose anymore. This worked finally.
At the Alpine Carl's Jr. parking lot. First evidence that backing this sucker up was going to blow.
Same same. But different.
Right after we got the tow strap situation corrected and put air in the right rear tire.
Thinking that our troubles had left us behind for the duration, we set out down the 8 towards San Diego and the 15 north. Everything is going smoothly at this point. That is until we both notice smoke coming out of the back right tire of the Bronco. I had been here before and knew exactly what the problem was. Using the brakes to slow us down the hill at Chuck's house broke open the wheel cylinders' rubber and dumped brake fluid onto the shoes. They get soaked up with fluid and then begin to drag on the drum.
So there we are on the 15 at Miramar, we pull over and get to work on pulling the wheel off to gut the drum. Well, its 8:00pm at this point, dark and the drum is hotter than hell. We wait for it to cool down a bit, but decide to relieve ourselves of our finger tips (we wore gloves, but it didn't matter) and get after it. It took screw drivers and crowbars and about a half hour or so to get the drum off the seized up shoe. Finally it comes off and we put the drum back on without the brake gear in it and we are on our way back to Oceanside. We completely forgot to check the condition of the tow straps, but fortunately they were fine.
At 9:15 or so we show up at my house. I live on a hill and the only way to get the Bronco in my drive way is to back into it. Well, after more failed attempts at backing the Bronco in on the tow-dolly, I say screw it. We park up the hill and undo the tow straps and chains. I hop into the Bronco with three brakes, one e-brake, and rotors that have more rust than material on them and prayed for the best. The wife comes out and is paranoid about me driving the Bronco into the house so she gets as many large and heavy objects as she can and lines the front of the garage with them in hopes of slowing me down when I try to freewheel it into the driveway.
Fortunately, Mike was able to rock the Bronco off the tow-dolly and I set off down the hill. I made it, it was about 70% of the position I wanted it in. We unhitched the tow-dolly and Mike pushed the Bronco up the rest of the way to the spot it currently sits.
In the driveway, finally.
[
My buddy Mike next to the bastard that beat on us all day.
And we found this little jerk in the gas tank filler. Just mocking us.
Needless to say, it was about 10pm by the time we were done dicking around with this fiasco.
At any rate: :whiteflag