As the months wore on, we really beat that s**t out of that truck. Driving it through the woods soon resulted in all the air brake lines being ripped out. Which then resulted in driving it around with the spring brakes being engaged. (I can just feel mechanically inclined people everywhere cringing. ) One day, while I wasn't there, my friend decided to take the truck for a spin around the trails. Unaware that it had no brakes, and was extremely difficult to downshift (or shift in any direction, double clutching and what not) my friend started driving it down a hill, couldn't stop, bailed out, and ended up embedding the truck into a stand of trees at the bottom of the hill. The engine went through the firewall and the front end was smashed up something awful. It was so far in the woods as to make towing impossible, I don't think it would've been worth the scrap.
My favorite safety feature of this vehicle was the seat belt. It appeared 100% intact and fastened correctly. However, the belt was only attached to the bench seat and the bench seat was not attached to the cab. The first of many collisions I got in with it, the whole seat simply lifted up and towards the windshield with me attached. I stopped bothering with the seatbelt afterwards. :bang:
Sorry for threadjacking Patrick, anyone else have some typical "missed moments"?
EDIT: Also, re: recouping my "investment", I actually stupidly paid for the registration/tags on the truck when I bought it, which, because of the GW was around $400.. I had delusions of grandeur (can anything related to a 1970 dump truck be considered "grandeur"?) about using the truck to use money. Unfortunately a friend who works on big trucks assured me that if I ever did get the thing on the road I would probably kill someone... hence it's second life as a battering ram.
