Gentleman ignores advice not to drive jeep without brakes

boing
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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/20/gentleman-ignores-advice-not-t.html

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That’s rather funny, as long as you’re not that guy.

I once had the left rear wheel come out of my '58 Chevy like that, after the bearing retainer slipped off. The brakes stopped working, the engine couldn’t be used as a brake, and the parking brake didn’t work. Fortunately, the teardrop-shaped fenderwell held the wheel in the car, and I was driving up a gentle slope, so I was able to pull over and coast to a stop on a flat surface.

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Dumbass. He got what he deserved.

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I have no problem driving up to the flatbed without brakes. But why drive up the ramp, I mean almost certainly there is a winch on the flatbed, even a manual come-a-long would have been a better plan. I guess if he could plan ahead he wouldn’t be a tow truck driver…

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So I see him warning the driver that the “breaks breques are probably really shitty” after the guy was already driving it. I hope he gave a more specific and accurate warning before that point…

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That must be some new and counterintuitive definition of the word “good” that I was previously unaware.

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Seems like the best option would be to push it to the trailer, then wrenchwinch it up it.

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Seems like they were trying to cut corners on this one. The prudent thing to do would be put the vehicle in park, back the wrecker up to it, and then use the wench to get the vehicle up onto it.

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Are you thinking about a winch? Because I can’t see how you’d wrench a truck up a ramp, and I can imagine even less how you’d wench a truck up a ramp.

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You must be replying to me, and yes, winch. Brain typed wrong word bad.

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Something about cars makes a safety-and-logic circuit in some people’s lizard brain turn off.

I sold a useless car to a collector once (online) and he informed me that he’d be picking up the keys that afternoon and driving it to its final destination in Chicago, halfway across the country. I reminded him that the brakes were shot, the carburetor was dead, and the gear-shift cable had snapped. “No problem! I’ve got some socket wrenches in case there’s any trouble on the road, I’m an excellent driver,” he cheerfully replied. I eventually convinced him to have it towed.

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I had that happen to me in a '63 Karmann Ghia! Same wheel, the cotter sheared out of the castellated nut holding the brake drum… thanks to the fenderwell, the stub axle ended up riding on the bottom of the drum, instead of grinding all the threads off on the road surface.

The tire rubbing the top of the fenderwell dragged me to a stop rather quickly, although unfortunately in the middle of an underpass.

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Physics does not care how smart you think you are.

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Brakes.

(Sorry. I just hate the idea that some people keep reading “breaks” and think it is correct … and so it propagates.)

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My thoughts exactly. Just last week I had my car (with really shitty brakes) towed and of course you drive it up to the flatbed and use the winch to pull it up. Even if the brakes are brand new, I’ve never seen a car just driven up onto the flatbed like that. Isn’t that Towing 101?

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The guy looked so incompetent, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised that the winch wasn’t operational. I’ve seen plenty of ow trucks that shouldn’t even be on the road, let alone with a couple tons of steel riding along.

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“You OK?”

“I’m GOOD!”

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I’m goody goody

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Handbrake. Engine braking. It ain’t that complicated.

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Thanks, I had a brain fart. I “fixed” it.

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