ICEngineering Subjects

Monday, January 24, 2011

Lake Superior Pro Rally - Part 3: The Recovery

We didn't want to make the long drive back to Kenton to get the car out of the woods in the dark, so after a couple of phone calls confirming that we weren't in some sort of deep wilderness tow-away zone, we decided to retrieve the car on our way back home. Armed with a come-along and a ridiculous plan, we headed back to Passmore.

Here's where we went off. The tire tracks in the middle of the photo are ours. This is about where we stopped.


And here's how we found the car. Apparently the lug bolts had all sheared off between the hub and the wheel spacer.


We "re-attached" the wheel by crossthreading a couple of bolts back in, and started pulling it back onto the trailer with the come-along. The wheel was obviously not mounted true.


This took about an hour, but at least the whole hour was hilarious. In that last pic, the car is being held up by that jack in the lower right and an assortment of tree branches that Dmitriy had found (visible to his left). Finally, to get it home safely without tossing a wheel at some poor motorist on the highway, we fastened the wheel back to the hub with a ratchet strap.


Then we drove home. In the end, a disappointing rally but still great fun and a very valuable learning experience. We'll be back at Sno*Drift hopefully with a car that doesn't fall apart!

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