OOHHH!!!!! You Dirty Rat!!!!!

Well, I had dinner last night with Royce, my friend and owner of the ATV that educated the both of us this last Sunday. After our little learning experience he had chosen to take that particular ATV and check it out to see why the 4 wheel drive had failed both of us on the steep hill, causing my season ending injury.

All lab reports and tests are back and it has been determined that the malfunction was caused by a little field mouse. With the ATV being left on Royce's property during the week, this little fellow had made himself right at home and stopped in for a quick snack. He had chewed the wire that engaged the 4 wheel drive just barely leaving enough of it so it would make contact some of the time.

We feel like this little rat had been trained in terrorist activities. We have not found out the means and we have not established his identity, nor has he been captured. We know he is held up somewhere on the 500 acre farm in Central Oklahoma. We also do not know his ranging capabilities, so use caution if operating an ATV anywhere in the Central United States until this suspect has be apprehended.

So, if you are planning an ATV outing we encourage you to check out your vehicle completely and use good judgement in your quests. You never know when Al-Qo-mouseo has made another attempt to sabotage another ATV. :)

God Bless you and yours and have a Great Week

CONTINUING EDUCATION

As a Safety Director for a trucking company I am well aware of the value of continuing education programs. You can never achieve enough knowledge in any specific field. In contradiction to the old phrase, "You can't teach an OLD Dog new tricks", I tend to disagree.

As with my latest educational experience with gravity, this Old Dog did learn some valuable information.

First being that roll cages are a good thing. Having run tests on this before I have determined that in most cases if you stay in the roll cage of an offroad vehicle and it is constructed properly you are always better off than getting out of it in the event of a roll over.

Second being that they do not put roll cages of 4 wheelers (ATV.

Third being that 270lbs can be a little too much for an (ATV) on a real steep hill.

Fourth is that sometimes equipment fails and usually at a bad time.

Fifth is that if you don't make a climb with an ATV that gravity will assist in helping it back to the bottom on the hill.

Last being that a 53 year old body can not win a battle with a rapidly traveling ATV that is tumbling down a hill.

These test results were determined at an outing with our church group this last Sunday. After leaving the safety of the roll cage of my Jeep to try a trail that was too small for the Wrangler, I mounted a large 4x4 ATV. We traveled through some winding trails to a real steep hill. I stopped and checked to see the 4 wheel drive was engaged and then powered up the hill. The 4 wheel drive failed and I lost traction and came to a stop. I fought the ATV most of the way down the hill as it was assisted by gravity. As I neared the last few yards I rolled off to the top side and it rolled safely to the bottom.

The owner saw that we had a problem and since he was a good 100 lbs less weight he felt that he could take the ATV up the hill. As he reached the same point where I had failed, it reared high into the air and started to come over backwards. I ran swiftly up the hill to assist as he fought to hold the ATV from rolling. Just as my hands touched the rear of the ATV, gravity won the battle. It started to roll and the rear of the ATV struck me and knocked me back hitting me hard in the back of my right leg. It continued to roll and rolled over the owner but by the Grace of the Lord, he was spared any physical damage.

As the dust settled, we took inventory and found that at this point my leg was useless. The hamstring had been torn at both ends and movement of my leg could only be made by manual means. After 30 minutes of trying to figure out how to get 270lbs of meat out of the holler with out quartering me and packing me out in pieces, I finally convinced them to roll the ATV down below me on the hill and let me drag myself onto it side saddle and ride it back out. At least that way I could stay in one piece. After conquering several hurdles I was loaded into the pickup and hustled off to the hospital.

Well, its been different sitting around and watching movies all day. Praise God that my buddy was uninjured and that no bones were broken on my favorite body. I guess I can use the time to sit and catch up on old movies, HUH. I really just missed 2 days of work thanks to having a desk job. And they tell me in a few months I will be better. A lesson learned!!!!

After reviewing all aspects of this test, it has been determined that:

1) Old, fat, wore-out men should use great caution when riding ATV's
2) Old, fat, wore-out men would be better off to stay in his roll cage of his jeep
3) Gravity has a great advantage over the human body when on a steep hill
4) Hamstring muscles take a long time to heal, especially when it is a double tear
5) And finally, God watches over us and takes care of us when we are not smart enough to make the right decisions.

Until the next lesson... Yours in Christ..David

It was sure hard for editor Mike Troy to hold back his excitement about running the Behind the Rock trail at Moab,Utah during the Skyjacker Invitational run at Easter Jeep Safari this last week. All kidding aside, we had a great time in fellowship and wheeling with Mike, Stan Pruitt and his family( T-REX) and Robin and Teresa of the White Knight race team.

We had a great trip out and back with just a few tire problems.

Keep watching for Mike's articles of Moab Easter Jeep Safari in the May issue of C4X4/

Well Brad's Blue Beast 2 passed all tests on a late minute test run to Disney. All aspects performed without a hitch. He is still running the training engine (327) but it is running smooth and has plently of power unless he is just wanting to flat out show off which we all know he never does. This was also a test run for the big International tow rig before the trip to Moab. It did not do as well. Looks like it must have some injectors bad or a fueling problem of some sort. It was very under powered. IT will go to the shop this morning to see if we can get that worked out. If not we will scale back and just take 2 jeeps and have to leave my wifes at home. We still have plenty of seats but she really wants to take hers too so I will see what I can get done. Just don't want to haul more that 2 jeeps behind a 3/4 ton pickup.