Phelps Mt. Travelette Recovery

[SS2]

well it all started innocently enough with Dad and mayben talking at the last IHSTO meeting. Somehow they get on the subject of the travelette that we bought a few months ago but still had not brought down from its mountain home.

One thing leads to another and a plan was struck for mayben to drive my traveler from his place to the ihcs. (for those of you not following along this traveler is one of the 3 scouts that I bought in ashland and the only one that still needed to get home)
once mayben arrived at ihcs they would hop in a rig and drive up the mountain to retrieve the travelett. I was a little nervous about a recovery taking place without my help. However I figured how much trouble can two old guys get into? ….I soon found out.
The call came in at 5:00pm I figured they were home and wanted me to come take a look at it now that it was home. However it was Dad on the other end “bring the suburban we are stuck” ok “how stuck?” are my words. “not bad just can’t make it up a hill” so we talk a bit more and we deiced that uber Scout might provide more options with the winch and super low gears. So off I go. It takes me about 45 min to get up to phelps mt where they are. When I arrive the trucks are on the side of the road but Dad and mayben are not around.

After a couple of minutes they come walking up out of the shade by the creek. So we take a look at the situation and form a plan. I string out the winch cable and winch both travelettes back onto the road and up the hill.

We then unhook and I start out of the logging road with Dad following me. Dad is flat towing the travelette with his travelette and to make this even funnier mayben is riding in the back of dads travelette.
So I go down a hill and around a corner and pull over into a wide spot to wait for the “travelette train” to catch up. It turns out this was the perfect spot to watch what had to be the most comical thing I have ever seen involving an IH.
So as Dad comes down the gravel hill he is in low and applying the brakes to keep the speed down but the rear travelette is pushing pretty hard. So try to picture this..mayben sitting on the bedside of the front travelette my Dad driving. The rearend of dads travelette is slowly starting to be pushed around by the rear truck. I can see dads face and I know he can feel what is happening but is completely helpless on the gravel with so much weight pushing him. Now here comes the funny. I look to mayben who has realized that things are not right. He sort of stands up like he is going to jump for it then thinks better of it and sits back down to enjoy the ride. Well the trucks come to a rest jackknifed in the road with dads bumper shoved into a dirt bank on one side of the road and the other truck resting what we deiced is much too close to over the edge of the canyon.

Once again I hook uber Scout up to the front of dads truck and drag him straight. Then I get behind the “travelette train” and lower them down the rest of the hills.

At this point mayben decides it would be best to ride in the cab of the truck.. once we reach the bottom I unhook and then get in front again and the rest of the way out of the canyon was trouble free.

One last picture of the "travelette train" back at ihcs..

I will post more pictures of the inside of this truck as we blow off the dust and you will see why it was worth the trip...

 

[Michael Mayben]

I ain't had so much fun and cheep thrills since I quit pitchpolin' hobie cats at 25mph back in the 80's!

If ya coulda seen the towbar arrangement we had ya would know why I wuz in the azzend with eyeballs glued to the connection! This happened in superslow motion and I wuz watchin ken's eyeballs pop outta his haid and laffin' my azz off. About that time I saw tha canyon and tha tow rig went up on it's side like it wuz gonna roll so I prepared to bail. But all offa sudden everything stopped before we all rolled down into tha canyon. So I jes' set back down and laffed 'til I crapped the drawers!!!

So tha toad wuz hangin onna kinda high center with the passenger rear hangin' over tha dropoff, jes' likea cartoon.

Uber did real nice...can't say no more trash about that mousemotor and electric carb. But tha new warn winch really made tha day!

So me an granpa lernt how to have fun, influence people, and got enuff storeez for tha next year. And from now on, mountain top recoveries will only be performed with two 4x4 rigs, one to pull with, that other to brake with!

Them folks what owned tha rig been living up there with no lectrikalsparks for over 70 years makin' a subsistence livin'. Second/third generations are still up there with surplus diesel gensets makin' juice when needed and pumpin' water from a spring.

 

[Michael Mayben]

How come we ain't gotta pic of mikee with that 7lb. Bag of crushed ice stuck in hiz pants??

 

[SS2]

how come we ain't gotta pic of mikee with that 7lb. Bag of crushed ice stuck in hiz pants??

We didn't take any of those pictures. They would only serve as a reminder....

 

[Michael Mayben]

Here's a pic of the rigs just before we started down the hill. That house has been added to many times over the years and is really nice inside, beautiful view of the valley and mt. Hood. Miz phelps is in her 90's now and doesn't stay there by herself in the summer anymore, but stays with a daughter down the hill at another family compound.

This was quite a place back in the day, really nice landscaping and obviously a place where a very large family unit gathered over generations. Now frozen in time.

 

[Michael Mayben]

And here's the compound refrigerator...still chock full of home cannin' that May be 25 years or more old! Built with heavy insulation just like an old-time ice house. The thermometer inside read 60f, it was over 100f outside.

No doubt they cut ice blocks and snow blocks back in the day and prolly stored it inside year 'round.

 

[Michael Mayben]

Here's one of several gensets in the "powerhouse". This one is a british lister twin cylinder diesel. There was another single cylinder gas rig (prolly around 15hp) that was also british, and a much larger waukesha unit also that was turnin' a palmer generator, made by the same folks that did the palmer marine conversions on IH gasoline engines.

 

[Scoutboy74]

Man oh man! Me-n-cambo didn't have near that much fun when we fetched the turd and zombie off the wacky tuhbacky plantation. You fullers kno how tuh git-r-dun! There ain't nuthin' better than a rural binder recovery. If'n you don't ask yourself "what the f$%k are we doin'?" at least once during the process, ya ain't doin' sumthin' raht. Nice pics and great story. I wish I cudda been there. Mike roth, yer dam lucky I didn't hook ontuh the turd last time I wuz at mayben's. I thought long and hard about runnin' into springtucky fer a tow dolly. But, I thought better of it, said another tearful goodbye and headed south.

 

[Greg R]

I'm just damn glad everyone and thing got home safe and ok! I would suspect if you can't make it up hill without assistance, you might need assistance com'in down; good lesson for me here.

Maybe next recovery you should take a camcorder

 

[RobertC]

Glad you guys made it home safely...

Almost 30 years ago, I flat towed a disabled 1965 corvair home (about 120 miles) with my t/a using a rented bumper hitch.

I did not think the guy that put the hitch on did it correctly -- so trying to get out of the parking area by backing up with the corvair attached, one side of the bumper hitch popped off the bumper. I put it back on the way I thought it should go and "off" we went.

The "safety" chain on the draw bar was just that -- a chain. I do not think it would have held.

Whenever I think of this, I am grateful we got home safely -- nobody hurt (us or anybody else).

I have always been leery of towing since an incident that occurred way back when (1961?) returning from a winter desert camping trip out around / north of palm springs. The wind was howling at "the gap" -- area where the mountains "meet" the desert.

Traffic was backed up going about 20 - 25 mph and there was an early Scout pulling around a 14 ft travel trailer a few vehicles ahead of us. We went behind / into a "cut" which shielded us from the wind blowing down off the mountains.

When the Scout / trailer came out of the cut, the wind caught the trailer and flipped it end to end ( back end over the front ) and flipped the Scout on its roof. Fortunately, the people only suffered cuts and bruises (besides probably shock).

I thought of this again when seeing a picutre on the bb where bill usn-1's son pulled a travelette home on a trailer with his Scout.

Take care.

 

[SS2]

a few more pictures of the phelps mt travelette. The more we uncover the better it gets. It is a very solid rig. In fact what we thought was going to be a parts rig for out other travelette. We are now thinking May need to be sold as a whole truck and made into a tow rig for somebody. Or we will part out the other one. To many choices..

did anyone even sit here??

no rust over the cab and fancy lights!

 

[Michael Mayben]

Bingo!! We gotta new home for the ride!

This one's goin' back east and will live real close to knute!

Next time we hear from her, she should hava dodge/cummins runnin' gear transplant. But that could change...the new owner rolled a duramax today and made a total, so an isuzu May be in the old gals future now.

Anutha crosskuntree road trip May be in the makin's, and action plan is in tha works!

Let's go find sum more...only I git ta drive this time and pop rides in tha azzend.

 

[Drew Merrick]

It has already turned over? You know the roth's are more like an IH adoption agency. Always finding binders in bad homes and relocating them to loving families. Even for the ugly ones!

 

[SS2]

it has already turned over? You know the roth's are more like an IH adoption agency. Always finding binders in bad homes and relocating them to loving families. Even for the ugly ones!

Aw come on drew don't be so hard on yourself. We don't think of you as ugly so much. More like "mirror challanged"... I'm sure that Travelall will be real happy at your place...

 

[Scoutboy74]

Nlow that's funny raht there, I don't care who ya are...that's funny! Sorry drew, but you did set him up perfectly for that.

 

[Michael Mayben]

Sumbitch definitely gotta complex now.

Longterm therapy's a pita for shit like that. But at least he'll come out witha thick skin that will serve him well when them coilee springs in them seats go ta pokin' through.

Miz phelpsette seat cover blanket/varmint nest needs to go through tha washmachine so drew can use it azza seat cover/azz-protector. That'll make him feel like he weren't left outta this deal.

 

[Drew Merrick]

Not only am I ugly, but I am to dumb to know you guys are talking about me. I do know one thing for sure, the words cute and my name have never been used in the same sentence not counting my wife. But her judgement skills are under question anyways for marrying me in the first place.

 

[Michael Mayben]

Dani sed yore "cute". But then I didn't have my hearin' aids in...mabee she sed "scruit"??? Go ask her what she sed!