Ah, this is a farm, so while this is all wonderful creativity, basically none of that is really applicable. a) The truck is definitely not going into any shop; we repaired it by ripping off the bent chunk of fender, and it's back in service. It pops out of Drive sometimes, so it's likely that popping out of Park was inevitable. b) no, the gradient hasn't appreciably changed, the truck is just sort of shitty. c) no, the gradient is the farm road, it can't really be changed without making the hill non-traversable, which isn't going to work for, like, the entire rest of the farm's operations. It's just the dirt road that goes past the barn. The barn, I might mention, despite being nearly-brand-new construction, does not have a floor of any kind, and is made of wood sunk directly into dirt. This is not that high-budget an operation, there is no poured concrete anywhere on this farm even though BIL has a background in working in concrete-- ah, I lied, the sidewalk into the house is poured concrete and it took them five years to get that, even after I fell off the pavers, so like. Not holding our breath, here, for terrain adjustments. d) Possibly they will begin carrying wooden chocks or a brick or something, or possibly backing the truck into the barn entryway; various of the other implements get chocked whenever parked, so it's not unlikely. I don't know what was done today. Probably a brick or cinder block.
There's a five- to eight-year backlog of Urgent construction projects around here. Improving the chore truck's parking ability is pretty low on the list, especially since as this is a pasture operation, most of the hills the truck gets parked on through the course of chores change between one and seven times per week, as the pastures get rotated to fresh grass. While it wouldn't be as much of a disaster if the truck ran away down a hill into a ditch somewhere on the farm's back forty, it would still be a disaster, so any changes would have to be to the truck, not to the farm road right outside the animal barn.
BIL almost lost the water wagon into the creek last year or the year before when the chocks he'd put in place were sufficient for the empty weight, but not the full weight; as he filled the tank, it suddenly hit a tipping point and got heavy enough to push the chock out. He was bright enough to realize he couldn't catch it, so he stood and watched, and the heavy brush caught it at the edge of the streambed, fortunately. So now we know-- you really really really gotta brace that water wagon. The new one, usually he only fills it while it's hitched to the tractor. (It's 1100 gallons, so about 8000 pounds when full, but the tractor has weighted wheels so it's 10k lbs.)
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Date: 2020-06-22 02:27 am (UTC)a) The truck is definitely not going into any shop; we repaired it by ripping off the bent chunk of fender, and it's back in service. It pops out of Drive sometimes, so it's likely that popping out of Park was inevitable.
b) no, the gradient hasn't appreciably changed, the truck is just sort of shitty.
c) no, the gradient is the farm road, it can't really be changed without making the hill non-traversable, which isn't going to work for, like, the entire rest of the farm's operations. It's just the dirt road that goes past the barn. The barn, I might mention, despite being nearly-brand-new construction, does not have a floor of any kind, and is made of wood sunk directly into dirt. This is not that high-budget an operation, there is no poured concrete anywhere on this farm even though BIL has a background in working in concrete-- ah, I lied, the sidewalk into the house is poured concrete and it took them five years to get that, even after I fell off the pavers, so like. Not holding our breath, here, for terrain adjustments.
d) Possibly they will begin carrying wooden chocks or a brick or something, or possibly backing the truck into the barn entryway; various of the other implements get chocked whenever parked, so it's not unlikely. I don't know what was done today. Probably a brick or cinder block.
There's a five- to eight-year backlog of Urgent construction projects around here. Improving the chore truck's parking ability is pretty low on the list, especially since as this is a pasture operation, most of the hills the truck gets parked on through the course of chores change between one and seven times per week, as the pastures get rotated to fresh grass. While it wouldn't be as much of a disaster if the truck ran away down a hill into a ditch somewhere on the farm's back forty, it would still be a disaster, so any changes would have to be to the truck, not to the farm road right outside the animal barn.
BIL almost lost the water wagon into the creek last year or the year before when the chocks he'd put in place were sufficient for the empty weight, but not the full weight; as he filled the tank, it suddenly hit a tipping point and got heavy enough to push the chock out. He was bright enough to realize he couldn't catch it, so he stood and watched, and the heavy brush caught it at the edge of the streambed, fortunately. So now we know-- you really really really gotta brace that water wagon. The new one, usually he only fills it while it's hitched to the tractor. (It's 1100 gallons, so about 8000 pounds when full, but the tractor has weighted wheels so it's 10k lbs.)