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Thank heavens we don't have any real mountains hereabouts...mostly foothills to you Rockies residents. Roads in backwoods New England are old cow paths, pretty much.
But that would make a great thread - what do you carry in your truck? Sadly, the new SS&P'ers are not into the same stuff as the old farts. Still, I think it would make an interesting topic, and you can always learn something new.
So, what's in your truck? Anybody?
Wow, for my truck that's a looooooong list.
Because of the ranch, logging, hunting, bad roads, bad weather and remote areas, I carry enough tools and equipment in my truck..... Well, let's just say I could probably double my gas milage if I didn't carry that load.
That sounds like a good thread topic, but I don't want to hijack this one which is about using stuff from scrap yards and repurposing it.
There's a great junkyard about 5 miles from my work place. The guy who owns it is a crazy Norwegian. He gets a kick out of the stuff I make in my forge and keeps an eye out for interesting stuff he thinks I may want to use. He's an excellent source of material.
When my leg got bad and I was having problems carrying a heavy pack, I decided to build a survival cart I could use to haul loads in an out of the back country.
I scavenged bicycle wheels, a lightweight axle and some rigid conduit, and an RV ladder from that yard. I bought a black plastic skid and a pair of cross country skis from a yard sale, and I have my cart.
With the wheels on, I can push or pull it like a peddlers cart. In snow or mud I remove the wheels and I have a sled. On down hill runs or crossing ice, I can ride the runners from behind and it works like a kick sled.
Its light enough my dogs can pull it with a fair load of a couple hundred pounds on either snow or dry conditions. The whole cart/sled unloaded only weighs about 35 pounds, but it really helps me move loads of equipment easily in all kind of conditions, and get my game out of the mountains.
I thought about using a production game cart, but my hunting partner has one of them and I was not impressed with its performance, plus it's useless in snow. So I made my own. Using scavenged materials and my own design just made it more satisfying.
That reminds me of how I repurposed one of those metal mesh garden carts into a generator cart. The wheels it came with were inflatable, and always losing air. They were attached with a cheap cotter pin and tended to bend when getting stuck in rough terrain. Not good at all for speeds faster than walking. And the handle needed to be made towable with a mower or ATV.
I can't stand the dinky little wheels and push handles that most gensets come with, thus my idea of using a separate cart to hold it. But it needed to be sturdy enough to be towed at a decent c!ip over rough terrain. I welded new frame parts to the underside, to get rid of the tiny axles and cotter pins, and allow use of bigger wheels with solid tires. Then I changed the handle to a tow bar, hooked it up, and can now transport generators all over the property.
Same with 100 lb propane bottles. These suckers can get heavy when they're full! I hit on the idea of using a hand truck to attach each tank to, more or less permanently. I did some more welding to round out the back, and add a more heavy duty base plate. My BIL pointed out that they already made such a beast, but upon looking at one, it too suffered from a bad case of "dinky". How they can charge these prices with a straight face for such flimsy gear, is beyond me.
But now virtually every item that's heavy around here, that needs frequent moving, has its own cart or truck that makes the job a snap. Now I don't have to lift or struggle with anything more than my own old geezer bones! But I had not thought of the skis or snow runners - as it is now, I pre-position heavy stuff around the property before the real snow piles up, for the winter. But now you've got me thinking, so thank you!
You're welcome. Those of us in snow country work together
We do a lot of work here in the winter because the grounds frozen, so we can get over swamps and bogs to areas we can't reach in the summer.
Logging sucks in the winter, but logs skid easier and don't tear up the ground as bad, so we do a lot of our felling and skidding in the winter, bunk the logs, and run the mill all summer when we don't have to fight frozen hydraulics and engines.
Dad did make a rig that makes it easier to skid using horses. He took the front of an old sled, just the front Bob with the 2 runners, beefed up the reach, it still has the tongue for the team.
A team can skid one or 2 logs at a time, but putting the butts up on that Bob and chaining them reduces the friction and resistance, so using his rig we can haul 5 or 6 logs per run, and its easier on the horses.
I have recently seen some similar stuff on RFDTV at Dad's house, but he's been using his rig for 50 years or so.
Skids using runners have been a part of heavy work with teams and oxen for centuries. Runners are easier to make and maintain than wheels, cheaper too. You can move really heavy loads on skids because of the reduced drag.
Yeah but the governor holds 6 rounds in the cylinder vs. the standard judge's 5 round capacity . 3" chambers would be a nice option though. I really enjoy my governor. It's a lot of fun being able to shoot .45 colt and .410 shells through it. .410 shot is crazy cheap for plinking around too. It came with a few moon clips to shoot .45 acp through it as well.
If S&W ever introduces a 3" chamber, I'll buy one.
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On my wish list for my next truck/survival/homestead gun is a .45-70 Marlin model 1895 guide gun in stainless. I really want a lever action rifle, as I've never owned one. I also want plenty of medicine to put down a bear if needed as well.
I'll take a .30-06 for long distance targets. Bear spray has been proven to be far more effective than firearms on bears. Besides, it doesn't hurt the bear.
We have a separate woodlot here in Maine where we harvest firewood, plus some for the sawmill. Any season other than summer is a decent time. I really prefer late fall (November) or spring before things get too bushy. Now, in March/April is the best time, if the snow is mostly melted and the mud isn't too bad. In recent years, the snow has been too deep in winter to get in there.
Once a tree is down, we limb it and buck it right in place. Much easier that way, to just pile the wood on a trailer, or toss it into the truck bed. Any logs I'm saving for the sawmill will get sent to the mill later in spring, and they do pick up if I have some biomass wood to give them. The mills hereabouts can't get enough biomass, mostly for paper products.
There may be some folks in Maine using horses for this, but I don't know of any. A hundred years ago, it was all horses. It may be hard for some people to imagine how densely forested Maine is. I have walked through woods here that were almost too thick to walk in, and certainly difficult to see much ahead of me. If you buy a good thick woodlot of say, ten acres, it can take 2 or 3 men a decade to clear cut it, if cutting just for cordwood. You can then stump it and resell it for more, as an open lot. They are quite cheap when wooded.
I always carry at least the three F's with me in my truck. Food (preferably peanut butter snickers and a can of sunflower nut butter), Fire (at least a couple of bic lighters), Firearm (currently a S&W governor ). Of course at least a gallon of water as well but that doesn't have a good ring to it and I couldn't think of a F word for water.
What are other valuable things to look out for at auctions/sales/etc. that would store well outside, and hold or even increase in value in time? Or stuff that would be useful to store in a SHTF scenario?
When I lived in Arizona, I was amazed on how well old cars and metal things stored in the desert environment. If you kept the intense sun off of it, and the pack rats out, it seemed like stuff would last forever and never rust.
Where I live now in Alaska, it is also pretty dry most of the time with relatively low humidity. As long as you keep stuff up and off the acidic soils and covered up it also seems to store well.
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. 3" chambers would be a nice option though. I really enjoy my governor. It's a lot of fun being able to shoot .45 colt and .410 shells through it. .410 shot is crazy cheap for plinking around too. It came with a few moon clips to shoot .45 acp through it as well.
