Major BOV fail

[Bearman202]

Okay. I'm in the middle of the middle of the country, and we got 17.7 inches of snow on Monday night/Tuesday. The town is shut down, and has been for three days. A friend on the list has a wife that is seriously pregnant. I told him that if he absolutely needed it, I could probably come out to where he is and give him a ride. His wife called this morning. Their car was socked in, and he was showing the signs of pneumonia. Could I come and give him a ride to urgent care? I told her I was more than willing to try. I have a 4 wheel drive truck, and although it's not a monster, I figured I would be able to get around enough to help them out.

I went to the truck and the snow was almost half-way up the 16 inch wheels. Not only that, but there was at least that much snow all the way around it, and on top of it. Okay. I got most of the snow off the front of the truck, and managed to get the door open. I got in and the truck started after cranking longer than usual. I let it run for almost fifteen minutes while moving more snow. I noticed that while it was running, it was emitting an unusual odor. I have no idea what that was. After that, I turned it off and went inside to warm up before I attempted to drive it out. I went back out, and the truck wouldn't start. It would crank, but it wouldn't fire.

Shortly after I went back inside, she called and told me that her neighbors had come over and dug out their car. They were able to get to the Dr.'s office.

Needless to say, this is VERY upsetting to me. I bought the truck to deal with this kind of thing, and it didn't do it. I know that "stuff" happens, but it bothers me a lot. I don't have a backup plan for this. The truck WAS the backup plan. If he had no neighbors, or neighbors who were unwilling to help him out, this could have been a real disaster.

[arcangel911]

Bearman-

Although you may be unhappy about how your day turned out... you have several things to be looking on the brightside of...

1. You didn't have pneumonia and the friends were taken care of
2. Although you were socked in with snow, your phones still work
3. You learned that your BOV, had some issues and I am sure you will either get them fixed or get a new BOV
(Most important)
4. It happended in a time that you can fix the problem. Better to find out now, than when the SHTF. ;)

[Tofu]

I agree with arcangel. Now is the time to practice with your preps. My first two attempts at making bread with my stored grain has landed me with two sets of whole wheat bricks. But I'm actually happy with the result because I learned that my inexpensive grain grinder isn't up to the task.

Hang in there.

[Cimarron]

I had issues with mine too.
The Weekend before the snow storm hit was nice, it was in the 70's so i was out looking over the truck. checking oil, belts and whathavyas.

Monday night took it in to top off the tank, everything fine. Wednesday afternoon got out to go somewhere and --nothing-- all I got was a clicking sound. Couldn't find jumper cables and even if I did I doubt I could get another vehicle close to my truck to jump it. I did have a solar powered battery charger "tender" that I hooked up that morning. We could get the car out, it's one of those AWD's and I bought some jumper cables. Got back and the battery was charged enough to start--cool

Took it out on the road in 4wd and there's some ratteling noise near the front of the truck...(sigh)

This was not my first choice in BOV's but since we are essentially allready here it went to low priority.

Like Arcangel and Tofu says. At least I know somethings wrong now when I have a chance to fix it.

[Lowdown3]

You folks in these storms stay safe and warm! We are praying for ya

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Bearman was the snow up to the exhaust? Mine was and has to be cleared to (a) keep it from killing me and (b) keep the truck running without the back compresssion.
Cimarron back when I was a young man I used bailing wire to jump one. It got real hot but did it!

Better in training than SHTF!!!

[slingshot]

I've also jumped vehicles when vehicles had metal bumpers. I'd butt two front bumpers together for ground contact and use anything, wire, coat hanger, etc., to jump to the two + poles. Takes a while, and like Matt says, it got hot, but it worked.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I've also jumped vehicles when vehicles had metal bumpers. I'd butt two front bumpers together for ground contact and use anything, wire, coat hanger, etc., to jump to the two + poles. Takes a while, and like Matt says, it got hot, but it worked.

Yep but ya gotta scrape that chrome and get down to the metal to make it happen.
Just to let you know i had a fail too. I performed my cold starts, as trained to in the Military, with the temps around 0 and single digits, several times a day and still had my truck freeze up on me and for the first time ever and fail to start. I had to put a box heater and a 600 watt work lamp on the motor at the battery and the throttle body area to get it started. I never figured out wether it was the battery or water in the fuel line freezing but I got it going later.
..it happens.
we live, we learn and we get better

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Snow, who's got snow. I thought we were in global warming (LOL). It was 75* and sunny here today.

Sorry to here about everyone's issues, but like others have said, it's a good learning period. We will continue to pray for all you guys/gals safety. Please post the "fixes" when you figure them out so we all can learn.