This morning I took a few extra guys up to pick up a load of grass. The field was wet and I knew I made a mistake the moment I pulled into the field. The little truck path was muddy and the entrance was downhill. I dropped off the workers and with a knot in my stomach I tried to get the truck back up the little hill.
Our farm vehicle is a mitsubishi L200 4 door diesel pickup truck. It is a pretty decent truck but not as nice as the Toyota Tacoma I had in my previous life. A very popular truck around here, there are 4 identical ones on town and a bunch more of differing colors. There are two major models of our truck, referred to here as the Japanese version and the European version. The European version has lots of nice expensive features on it but we have the cheaper model.
The ground is this slick black muddy slim and the tires are just spinning so I call the 5 grass carriers over for a push. After about 5 minutes with no progress I send them to go put grass under the wheels for better traction. This helps a little but not much
Here I sit with one wheel spinning fruitlessly while the others do nothing. Many 4x4s come with a nice rear wheel differential lock button that prevents the two rear wheels from turning indepently. My L200 doesnt have this crucial feature so I know it is going to be tough.
I try 4 wheel low gear. I try 4 wheel high using only second gear. I try pulsing the peddle. I try rocking the truck. I load 300 lb of grass on the back for weight. I get all the haitians to sit on the back for more weight. We push. We try 3 different approaches. We put palm leaves under the wheels. We put feed sacks under the wheels. We put coconut husks under the wheels. But I am good and stuck. I am not going to make it up that hill so I send Theodore on the bicycle to tell Felicita to send up a bunch more guys.
I will point out here that I was surprised to find out that I had to explain that the traction material needs to go in FRONT of the wheel and not behind it. I also had to explain that putting grass in front of the wheels that are not spinning isnt helping. I sorta thought that was common sense, but I guess not.
Anyway, I am working on a pretty good panic so I decide to get out once more and walk around in the rain trying to think of a solution. I check the other field exit, but there is no way I could make it across the muddy field. I look for a way to rope to a tree but nothing is near enough.
Finally, I get around to double checking the wheel locks. Nice new 4x4 trucks have this thing called shift on the fly or even AWD (all wheel drive). On low end 4x4s like mine, not only do you have to engage the transmission, you also have to get out walk through the mud and twist a little knob on the front tire hubs to enable 4 wheel drive. Since you cant drive on dry pavement with the hubs locked, I spend a lot of time getting in and out of the truck switching the knobs. This "feature" was clearly invented by an engineer who spent very little time outside of his cubical.
Now I dont know if I forgot to lock the hubs, or perhaps I forgot to unlock the hubs the night before and then unlocked them when I meant to lock them but they were NOT locked. How is that for a run on sentence. In either case I waited until no one was looking and quietly locked the hubs. I still needed 5 guys pushing but I finally got the truck out of the field.
