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travis

11-01-2003 04:56 PM

This might not have been a good idea, but...

....I did it anyway and it kept my CJ5 from rolling over today. I was
climbing a hill while my friend watched from below in the safety of
his CJ8... I made it about 80% of the way to the top when things
started to go wrong. I wound up getting partially sideways when the
Jeep began to tilt... BADLY. It was leaning WAAAY over to the
left...the driver's side. My side. I felt it begin to totter...
Seemed like time was almost standing still. I looked down and saw
David staring back up with an "OH SH*T" look on his face. I saw the
ground rising up to meet me and realized that this was it. It was
going over and I was up high enough that if it went over, it would
roll several times before reaching the bottom of the hill. I had my
seatbelt on (just a lap belt) and started to lean forward some and
grab the steering wheel as hard as I could to keep from getting
slammed around when it rolled. This was all happening so slowly. I
looked to the left again and the ground was getting closer and closer
to me. I was passed the teeter-totter point... closer and closer the
ground came to me when I realized that if I stuck my left leg outside
of the Jeep (this was the part I said was probably not a good idea...)
that I could actually put my foot on the ground... Now from the time
I started to slide sideways up until this point had taken about one
second probably. I was going over fast. I jammed my left leg out and
my ultra-cool Chuck Taylors grabbed for traction in the muddy hill!!!
And caught traction, too! I quickly stuck my right leg outside, too!
UUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHH..... the Jeep continued its sideways listing, as
both of my Chuck Taylors continued to dig deeper...I felt resistance
on my waist as the weight of the Jeep was now starting to transfer to
the seatbelt...my legs bent....bent more....trembled...and then began
to straighten! SWEET!!! I was doing it! I got the Jeep back to the
teeter-totter point, but it would go no further. The front passenger
tire was WAAY up in the air and the back passenger tire was kinda up
on a wall on the side of the hill. It was that back tire being up
there that brought me to the teeter-totter point. My friend David ran
up and got on top of the front bumper on the passenger side to help
keep it upright. I snapped a picture (that I'll post later) and then
ran around to hold my precious CJ by the front bumper to keep it from
crashing to the bottom of the hill below. David ran back to his CJ8
and repositioned it so that it was at an angle to mine and quickly
hooked his winch up to my left rear bumper. The idea was to pull my
Jeep sideways in the back to get that back passenger side tire off of
the wall so that it would right the Jeep. His Warn 9000 began
furiously winding in...until the line was taut...then he slowly bumped
the winch with the remote just a hair at a time...My Jeep did exactly
what we were hoping it would...the rear passenger tire started to
slide down off of the wall thingie...just to the right point...then I
let go of the bumper and jumped into the driver's seat! I'd put the
parking brake on and left it in first gear during the winch pull
because I was afraid he'd get the Jeep righted and then it'd roll
backwards down the hill. I put it in reverse and let off the parking
brake...hit the starter and it fired up and putted back down the hill
in reverse. In perfect control. WOOT WOOT!!!!! Disaster averted!!!
Time to put a *REAL* roll bar on my shopping list along with some
upgraded seatbelts. I got about 10 pictures of this outing, mostly of
my friend's CJ8. I'll post them to my website soon and send out a
pointer. WHEW! I'm ready to sit down and have an ice cold beer after
that one. :-D

--
Travis
http://jeepadventures.dyndns.org/jeep.html
The meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.
:wq!

Nathan Collier

11-01-2003 05:21 PM