What I did with my SMB this weekend

[DesertSMB]

While looking for a place to camp in the Mecca Hills near the Salton Sea I came upon this disaster.

This is partway through the extraction process. Lots of digging by the poor souls, lumber and my winch.

After separating the moving van and trailer we finally got the van out and then I used the winch to pull the trailer around ninety degrees, pulled it out of the hole and hitched it up and pulled it to firm ground.

The happy campers in front of Big Thunder and the UHaul Van behind.

They said they had talked to a tow truck driver who said he would charge them $800 just to come out and look at their situation without promising to get them out.

[KTMRIDER]

Way to help out!

[JoeH]

That's good Karma. Strong work.

[BrianW]

Wow, what were they thinking? Did they buy you a really nice dinner or anything?

[shenrie]

Originally Posted by JoeH

That's good Karma. Strong work.

^^^ x2.

love that last pic...

[BroncoHauler]

Based on that first pic, maybe they were digging a well looking for water.

What everyone else has said, good karma.


Herb

[DesertSMB]

They offered me a Ben Franklin but I turned it down. I would have taken a beer but they didn't have any. All they had was that yellow fizzy liquid Coors and I had much better than that in my fridge. What made it particularly difficult is that the topography prevented a straight shot in the pull so I was kind of having to pull them around a turn. Even with the winch it took about 4 1/2 hours. The tongue jack on the trailer didn't have a wheel or even a pad at the bottom, only a straight hollow tube so it would just sink straight into the ground. When we pulled the trailer around 90 degrees one guy held a shovel blade under it as a sled while another frantically cleared the sand piling up ahead. Kind of reminded me of the sweepers in the winter sport of curling.

[shenrie]

^^^ good on ya for turing down the franklin. even better travelers karma is coming your way

we stopped at a dodge ram one day heading into the woods that was dang near blocking the road and asked if they needed any help. they asked if they could borrow my jack. i said sure and dug it out. when i walked over to hand it to them, i noticed they were using the jack from another member in their groups subaru. needless to say, it wasnt designed for the weight of a truck, let alone the pisspour positioning of said jack (right next to oilpan rather than on the outer part of lca, so they were trying to lift the truck in the center instead of just lifting the one wheel), oh and teh suby jack was stripped out. i knelt down and explained to them the errors and started jacking up the truck for them. I told the guy to get his spare and he wheeled it around. one look at the spare and i told the guy that he better turn right around and head back to town or at least camp in the first spot they found. it was spent and actually had steel cords hanging out. i walked around his truck trying to find a better tire to put in front, but they were all right near the end of their life. once on, they lowered the truck and sure enough that spare was mostly flat. i backed up and turned on the compressor to get him aired up. once we got it full, i started putting away our stuff and the guy walked up and handed me a big wad of cash. i have no idea how much was there, but i saw a 50, some 20's, a few 10's and a bunch of singles. i handed it back and told him to put that money towards a new set of tires and a jack. he looked like he was about to get hit by a train, lol. all the group was like well we have to give you something. i told them to just pay it forward and we would be square. just as we were pulling away, the wife remembered that she forget to get worms for fishing, so we jumped back out and asked if they had any worms. they did, and hooked up up with enough for the weekend. everyone was happy. i think they even made it back to town as i didnt see their rig on the way out a few days later.

[larrie]

Money is always nice but a good deed done without any expectations is so much better.