Breaking Der Winchingstuff and other stories

EvanH · Post by **EvanH** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 1:53 pm

Well, I have had an interesting last couple of weeks. I bought Andre's 710/712 M Frankenstein conversion truck. The body of a 710 grafted to the 712 chassis. I flew from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, where Andre picked me up at the airport. Since it was late, he brought me back to his house and set me up in his motor home for the night. Soon after arriving, I was greeted by one of Andre’s dogs, some sort of low-rider bulldog. I made my best guess as to which end was the head, and scratched it behind what I took to be an ear. Whatever I did was good enough for the dog and he wandered off. The next morning I got to meet more of Andre’s menagerie. The only member of the family that acted really put out by my being there was the Chihuahua. She eventually let me pet her, but she made it clear she was doing me the favor. The Rat Terrier was a bit friendlier. I never did find out which parent was the terrier and which parent was the rat.

My biggest fan was the Great Dane. She had major drooling issues; and found me to be the perfect absorbent for her bodily products. Andre’s wife warned me that the dog didn’t like men. Given how she glommed onto me, I now have serious reason to wonder about the state of my manhood.

But I digress. The Pinzgauer was over at Jim LaGuardia’s house getting some last minute prep for my drive back to Utah. Jim spent considerable time making sure the truck was ready to go. Jim also took me for some rides in his EFI converted 710. He clearly has spent quite a bit of time tuning the EFI. My synopsis of dealing with Jim: If you are hesitating about buying his EFI or having him work on your truck because you don’t know him – go ahead and get to know him. I gained considerable respect during my visit.

There was one major issue while I was there. Generally, when I was not chasing his cats around the yard, I was hovering around Jim like a bad case of halitosis. I saw most everything that happened. Jim was rolling around under the Pinz on a mechanic’s creeper and got his hair tangled under one of the wheels. He could hardly move his head. This put me in major quandary – I felt I had three choices. (1) Run and get the camera. (2) Sit there and laugh my ass off. (3) Help him get untangled.

I soon ruled out option one because I only just met the guy, and I wasn’t sure how he would feel about having close-ups of his writhing face all over the Internet. I ruled out option two because I really did want him to keep working on the truck, and I was already pushing it with my hovering and bad jokes. That only left option three. So I picked up the corner of the creeper and Jim was soon untangled.

I digress yet again.

I was eventually on my way. I hit snow in southern Utah. Shortly after arriving in snow country, I got the Pinz stuck in the snow in a parking lot. Really. There are Mayolas on the front, and for some reason the four-wheel drive locker isn’t working. I made it home without any major incidents, but promptly got stuck in my front yard. I gave up trying to rock it loose, resorted to using my 710 to pull it out. I have a Superwinch (mounted on a T-Lo bumper) which I have never had a reason to use before. With my 14 year-old son’s help, we got the new truck back on the plowed driveway.

As a “reward,” I took him to the outskirts of town in the 710 to practice driving a stick shift. He did a great job – until he attempted a U turn, swung to the right, and put the passenger side into the ditch. The road was sheet ice, the ditch and snow were deep, and the truck was very stuck. I used the winch for the second time – there was a steel fence post anchored in concrete across the road at about a 60 degree angle from the centerline. Then a problem – the truck would not start while canted over about 45 degrees to the side. At that point, I hoped to winch the truck back onto the road and get it started. Didn’t happen. The truck was so buried that the winch cable snapped. I gave up and called a flatbed to drag me out. Even then it was a project – a lot of digging and dragging the tow truck backwards instead of dragging the Pinz forward.

In looking the winch cable, it appears that the hole in the bumper between the cable drum and the roller fairlead is too narrow. The cable was clearly run up hard against the sharp edge of the ¼ plate steel. Definitely a factor in the break.

So, as of now, the 712 is happily stuck in the snow in the back yard; the 710 is back in the driveway, and I have to figure out what to do with soon to be redundant 710M. Meanwhile I have plenty of projects to keep me busy!

On the technical side:

– About half way home the gearshift lever developed a lot of play. It is hard to find the correct gear, especially reverse. Anyone know what causes this? I have not even crawled under the truck to see.

- Anyone have any comments about upgrading to synthetic rope (and a Hawse fairlead)?

- Any thoughts about parting out my old 712M instead of trying to sell it as a “needs work” runner?

- If I can find one new Trxus MT LT255/85R16 I can put the four from my old truck on the rear of the 712, then put two new tires on the front. Is this tire too big for the rear of a 712? Anyone have any leads on where to buy one?

Thanks!

-Evan

Jim LaGuardia · Post by **Jim LaGuardia** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 2:44 pm

Glad to hear you had a good time and got home safe. I would suspect that the locker master is not holding(bad seal)bypassing fluid back to the reservior.

McCall Pinz · Post by **McCall Pinz** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:42 pm

Hmmm, Isn't Ka looking for a 712M?

psychoman · Post by **psychoman** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:57 am

We run synthetic rope on our challenge-spec trucks - fantastic stuff, easier to handle, lighter and doesn't decapitate people if it snaps. Definitely recommended!

Profpinz · Post by **Profpinz** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:58 pm

I agree with psychoman!... I run synethic rope throught a delrin hawse and love it!
Lightweight, easy to handle, relatively safe to work with .... all plus's in my book!
There's no way I'm going back to wire rope in the future.

todds112 · Post by **todds112** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:14 pm

psychoman wrote:We run synthetic rope on our challenge-spec trucks - fantastic stuff, easier to handle, lighter and doesn't decapitate people if it snaps. Definitely recommended!

Had synthetic on my Jeep. Great stuff. Lightened up the front end quite a bit.

Actually bought delrin rollers for my set-up. They were great. got the rope and rollers are winchline.com.