Continuing saga of Bootjack30 S8313
Willie-We finally got the Bootjack Thirty down to its new home! It has finally escaped the damp, dank, rust and mold inducing confines of the Sierra Nevada and retired to the dry (mostly), warmer high desert of California City.
[img]http://www.ccis.com/home/dld/Bootjack30.jpg[/img]
Several weeks ago Garlic Pete asked me if it was time to retrieve the 30 ("192? Gas Cat 30" posted F/S by Aphonopelma) we discussed last September/October. We had a 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' style trip the first weekend of December and got the thing to its new home here. Pete drove to California City SAT AM, we had breakfast here and my wife took us to the bus stop (AMTRAK) in Mojave. We rode the bus to Bakersfield and then the train to Stockton and a bus on to Sacramento. His uncle (Garlic Mom's brother) took us to Clarksburg, their home place, where we caught up with Pete's truck with a D6C on it to help with the retrieval (and continue on its voyage to Southern California).
Sunday AM we headed towards Mariposa/Bootjack to pick up the Thirty. In as much as neither of us had traveled this section of HWY 49 we hit it at Altaville/Angles Camp and followed it down to Oakhurst, retrieving the Thirty a little SE from Mariposa. It was a somewhat wet day but none of us slipped or slid too much.
We used the D6 to lift and chain the Thirty's blade up and push it up a muddy driveway and push load it onto the trailer.
[img]http://www.ccis.com/home/dld/TurningWithD6C.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.ccis.com/home/dld/LoadingWithD6C.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.ccis.com/home/dld/PushingHerUp.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.ccis.com/home/dld/AlmostLoaded.jpg[/img]
We had dinner in Fresno and made it back to California City late Sunday night.
[img]http://www.ccis.com/home/dld/Home In CalifCity.jpg[/img]
The next weekend I managed to unload the thing though it took both days. I did manage NOT to drop the trailer gooseneck! (Though many other things did go wrong!)
[img]http://www.ccis.com/home/dld/UnloadWithD6C.jpg[/img]
A friend and myself pulled it off the trailer with the D6, but the D6 blade is too wide to fit through my yard gate so, after positioning the thing for a straight shot into the yard, I was going to use my small 20 to pull it home. After cranking enough to receive two blisters on my right hand (the thing would pop but not run) my wife and I pull started the 20. It would only run on a couple of cylinders (I figured wet mag (rain)) but we 'limped' through getting the thirty into the back yard. (I later found I had flooded a couple of the cylinders!)
We reloaded the D6, tied it down, and I found the truck tractor would not back up to the trailer due to uneven ground- one axle spinning on one side the other on the other! I tried with the air bags inflated and deflated (I think 'walking beam' suspension would be better) to no avail. Gave up due to darkness.
Sunday I dug out in front of each wheel and got the tractor to pull forward, smoothed the ground a little more and got the thing back to the trailer. The trailer moved backwards as soon as it lifted. Hooked up the trailer air, set its brakes and got it hooked up finally.
Two days to do a one hour job!
1 min. youtube Hwy 49 trip video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytmm60mK0KY
8.5 min. youtube unloading video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqBCB3oJY8w
