Serious Mud

From : Annonymous

Q: on mon 26 dec 2005 045308 gmt krenelka@bowie-cass-ssac.com wrote over at moms for christmas. i get into a discussion with brother-in-law about how worthless the my cummins 4x4 was in mud due to the heavy front end. he has a 05 chevy 4x4 z71 that is more technology advanced than my outdated ram. well my pride was under attack by a chevy gasser no less! mom has 14 acers and a creek runs thru it. so i said wanna bet i can drive the length of the creek bottom faster than you he rolls over lauffing at me and says sure but you go first so boys and girls here we go to the creek my trusted1 ram and his fancy chevy2. we agree that time started when the judges our wifes say go we would than drive into the creek bed and follow it for 140 fence to fence 155 time would stop when rear tires cleared the bank at the other end. we also agreed that the loser would donate $100 to the local gander mountain. so i pulled up to the edge of the creek and shifted into low 4x4 his eyes got big when i shifted into drive and the tires torque a little. i hear go and ease off into the creek deepest area is like 18 i turn up the creek and ease into the fuel half way up the creek ram is throwing mud 20 or 30 into the air moderate forward movement but i can feel the nose pushing mud and i notice that i am losing altitude. so i started working the steering left to right. the swappers get a bite and the front end rises sharply i stood on the fuel and finished the length of the course sharp left and im up and out 43 sec. i walked over to his truck and started inspecting the front end he asks me what i am doing and i explained that i wanted to make sure his tow hooks are heavy enufe to handle my tow strap. he yells oh ya jumps into his chevy and tells the judges to say go. they do and he does making pretty good time en till he hit that spot about half way his head lights submerge and the chevy stalls he he apparently my m/ts have left a sizable rut after negotiating a new tow strap since mine was about to get very muddy i agreed to try and pull him out. my 12 year old nephew agreed to be the hook up man to keep the interior of the chevy clean. i installed my receiver hook and backed down the creek i eased back en till i felt the rear tires start to sink than stopped. this left about 10 between our bumpers 12 tow strap nephew hooks us together and tells us that the hooks are about 6 under the muck. i shift in to drive and let the idle power tighten the strap when the strap got tight i eased down on the fuel pedal my beast starts bouncing and i think i wont be able to do the deed it is important to disclose that we are currently working on our 2ed gallon of southern comfort egg nog at this point. i yell come on baby! and floor the foot feed the turbo replies with hell yaaaaaaaa and we start to move he pops out of the hole and i ease off the fuel cut the wheel left and pull the chevy up the bank and into the dry. the chevy still wont crank so we decide to pull it to the house and hose it off once we get the hood up and start inspecting we cant find anything he trys it one more time and it cranks runs fine no problem. i wish that i had pictures but i dont. i will take a picture of my mud covered truck and post it tomorrow. disclaimer this post has no significant controbutation other than to narrate the kick ass christmas that i have had and to prove that i can still type under the influence of egg nog so any and all misspellings are artistic expressions on my behalf. merry christmas!! great story better writing... im waiting for the book then the movie.. mac please remove splinters before emailing .

Replies:

From : fmb

alrighty i think i know what im doing now. thanks guys. found the plug for the block heater just gotta run the cord now. the oil filter looks to be a bit of a pain to get to but id noticed it before just wasnt sure that was it. id already bought a wix oil filter for this change but i notice you recommend fleetguard. any reason you recommend them over others and is there any problem using this wix this time and getting those ordered for next time. on those fleetguards id read this on that site - at genos garage we took time to analyze the filter purchasing quantities of our customers. predictably in a given maintenance interval i.e. a 30000 mile period the oil filter is changed four times the fuel filter two times and the air cleaner is changed once. that looks to be an oil change every 7500 miles is that where you typically change yours id been still aiming for 3000-5000 miles for changes. equals out to a fuel filter change every 15000 like you said. and is the fuel filter located inline from the tank hopefully not located in the tank like on my old 94 with the 360 gas. bought a case of six gallons of rotella-t 15w40 so im set there. if im gonna remove the air box to get to the oil filter anyway id been looking at getting an aircharger kit like this one http//www.knfilters.com/search/product.aspxprod=63-1532 from k&n to put in there and that would be a good time i imagine since id have it out anyway. id also seen one from airaid i believe it was. any preference of one over the other ive had good luck with k&n so far and figured on sticking with them but just didnt know if there were any noticable differences. thanks again guys! .

From : mac davis

i have a 1999 durango 5.9l 4x4 slt and need to find either a replacement pcm or a mopar performance or other compatible pcm for this vehicle. i had been holding out hoping that the older durango pcms would begin to fall in price but it looks like that is not in the cards for a while anyway. my stock pcm has the no bus problem that has been referenced before that occurs after the engine heats up the engine compartment while in slower traffic the pcm will kill the engine and after three tone beeps will display the no bus message in the vfd trip odometer display. the only solution is to wait for the engine compartment to cool off or as i do keep a can of water in the back seat that i flow over the heatsink area of the pcm to cool it off faster. 3-5 minutes instead of 15-30 minutes to get it to start again. i was keeping track for a while but as i recall i had 30+ durango identified with the exact same issue a few months back. my durango has all the cooling fixes applied or were installed from the factory like the improved shroud and the viper mechanical fan with more blades etc. in addition i have installed a 180 degree t-stat per mopar performance recommendations. thanks in advance for any and all replies joe. go here http//www.ecudirect.com/finditfast/ coasty .