From: owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net On Behalf Of Mr. Plow
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 10:17 AM
To: dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net
Subject: Re: DML: Neil's tow hooks
<I barely remember hearing about this, was it from pulling, or was it an
impact Neil?>
OK, Here's the story;
About three years ago, at the local railroad museum, we needed to move an
elderly Lull, rough-terrain, fork lift.
It had settled into the dirt up to the edge of the wheel rims. The tires
were good, not flat, the machine was in neutral, and we only needed to move
it six feet.
The Dodge tow hook kit had been on the truck for six months. The tow strap
was adequate to the task.
The first few tugs produced no movement at all.
Since the tow strap was advertised to be able to stretch, store energy, and
then release it; why not stretch it?
Providing plenty of slack, and then backing up at what was no more than
eight mph should have done it.
Two conclusions:
1. the stretchy strap business is bogus . . or, the one I have is
defective. It does not stretch, even a little.
2. The tow hook kit mounting isn't strong enough.
One mounting tab pulled out of the truck cross member and the rectangular
tube bent about 45 degrees.
The Lull still hadn't budged.
The hook mounting frame was distorted enough to require cutting it apart to
remove it and twenty minutes of careful work with a hot air gun took the
kinks out of the plastic air dam.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:47:02 EST