beater_k20
Banned
so Thursday, after work we get dumped on... like 8" of snow within like 3 hours. so, i jump in my 93 and head to my grandma's to pick up the K20. FYI, 2wd in the snow sucks, especially with no balast weight. 
i get there, fire up the truck, and notice an exhaust leak i hadnt noticed before. ok, no big deal, its just a little louder. i hop in and start my plow route. i clear out her street (a private drive) and her neighbor's driveways. after completing that, i drive about a block to the neighbor's daughter's house. i clear a path straight down her L shaped driveway, backing into a fairly busy 4 lane highway a couple times. i go to clear out the other leg of her driveway, and my plow wont move from its position all the way to the right. so i try again, this time, i notice a red geyser shooting over my blade. i get out and inspect the damage, a broken hose. great, its 10:30, nobody is open to get a replacement. so i limp the truck back to my grandma's, the plow dropping the whole way. i back it in to its parking space, and drop the blade the last 3/4" and call it quits for the night.
after work yesterday, i head to my grandma's house and fire up Betsy. after a little warm up time, i hit the seat and i head to the local Western dealer. as i get to the end of the street, and pull out onto the highway, i hear a loud *tink*. immediatel following it is the unmistakable sound of unmuffled small block. great, i lost a muffler. so i check the mirror to see if i left it in the middle of the road. nope, still attached. as i turn back to watch the road, i notice my drivers side windshield wiper isnt doing a very good job. that's probably due to the fact that it was sitting on the hood.
by the time i had a chance to pull over and reinstall it, it was gone. i get to the parts house, buy a hose and a wiper. nothing eventful here... get back to the house, put the hose on, bleed the system, install the wiper and i'm in business. i took it out and hit most of the houses i needed to, and a couple extras. came home last night about 11:00. my dad says the pastor of church most of my family attends is looking for an emergency plow guy. ok, no big deal. i'll be the nice guy and go knock it out real quick. i get over there to see the full 8" of snow... so its a little more than i expected. my best friend and i worked on it for about 2 hours. had 3 massive piles going. we kept hitting them with the blade all the way up, knocking the top off the back side so we could add more snow without killing parking lot space. around 1:40 this morning (sat) i made a charge at the smallest of the piles. only this time, rather than clearing the top off, the blade climbed the snow mound. i back off, move over a little and hit it again. this time it climbs again, only this time it doesnt stay straight. as i reach the top of the mound, my blade swings violently to the right. i back off, and get out to see what's up. yet again, my truck is bleeding in the snow. apparently when i cleared the snow mound the second time, things were lined up just right that it cleared both hydraulic lines for the directional control right off the pump. went this morning, bought new fittings and the second new line, installed em, and finished.
so far i'm down $60 in parts, $50 in gas, and i've made $80. i'll make another $25 in the morning when i go reclear the church parking lot before church. so i will have spent about 8 hours working on the truck in the snow, and probably another 12 in the seat, just to lose $5.
on a better note, last night my grandma (who technically still owns Betsy) jokingly told me that maybe its just time to junk her. she knows what my plans are for it, and i think she really likes the idea. i made mention of my recent ideas of retiring and replacing her with another truck, so that i could start the restoration before the rust got too out of hand. she basically told me that if i found the truck, i could park it at her place, just like Betsy. and that the new truck would have to be available to any of the family who needs to use it, as well as the neighbor who plows the street when i cant get to it. no big deal. none of the family uses the current truck, and the neighbor knows how i feel about the truck, so he just prefers to stay out of it most of the time. so, i may actually get to buy another beater K20 to push my plow, and drag my junk around. overall, i guess the weekend wasnt so bad after all.
i get there, fire up the truck, and notice an exhaust leak i hadnt noticed before. ok, no big deal, its just a little louder. i hop in and start my plow route. i clear out her street (a private drive) and her neighbor's driveways. after completing that, i drive about a block to the neighbor's daughter's house. i clear a path straight down her L shaped driveway, backing into a fairly busy 4 lane highway a couple times. i go to clear out the other leg of her driveway, and my plow wont move from its position all the way to the right. so i try again, this time, i notice a red geyser shooting over my blade. i get out and inspect the damage, a broken hose. great, its 10:30, nobody is open to get a replacement. so i limp the truck back to my grandma's, the plow dropping the whole way. i back it in to its parking space, and drop the blade the last 3/4" and call it quits for the night.after work yesterday, i head to my grandma's house and fire up Betsy. after a little warm up time, i hit the seat and i head to the local Western dealer. as i get to the end of the street, and pull out onto the highway, i hear a loud *tink*. immediatel following it is the unmistakable sound of unmuffled small block. great, i lost a muffler. so i check the mirror to see if i left it in the middle of the road. nope, still attached. as i turn back to watch the road, i notice my drivers side windshield wiper isnt doing a very good job. that's probably due to the fact that it was sitting on the hood.
by the time i had a chance to pull over and reinstall it, it was gone. i get to the parts house, buy a hose and a wiper. nothing eventful here... get back to the house, put the hose on, bleed the system, install the wiper and i'm in business. i took it out and hit most of the houses i needed to, and a couple extras. came home last night about 11:00. my dad says the pastor of church most of my family attends is looking for an emergency plow guy. ok, no big deal. i'll be the nice guy and go knock it out real quick. i get over there to see the full 8" of snow... so its a little more than i expected. my best friend and i worked on it for about 2 hours. had 3 massive piles going. we kept hitting them with the blade all the way up, knocking the top off the back side so we could add more snow without killing parking lot space. around 1:40 this morning (sat) i made a charge at the smallest of the piles. only this time, rather than clearing the top off, the blade climbed the snow mound. i back off, move over a little and hit it again. this time it climbs again, only this time it doesnt stay straight. as i reach the top of the mound, my blade swings violently to the right. i back off, and get out to see what's up. yet again, my truck is bleeding in the snow. apparently when i cleared the snow mound the second time, things were lined up just right that it cleared both hydraulic lines for the directional control right off the pump. went this morning, bought new fittings and the second new line, installed em, and finished. so far i'm down $60 in parts, $50 in gas, and i've made $80. i'll make another $25 in the morning when i go reclear the church parking lot before church. so i will have spent about 8 hours working on the truck in the snow, and probably another 12 in the seat, just to lose $5.
on a better note, last night my grandma (who technically still owns Betsy) jokingly told me that maybe its just time to junk her. she knows what my plans are for it, and i think she really likes the idea. i made mention of my recent ideas of retiring and replacing her with another truck, so that i could start the restoration before the rust got too out of hand. she basically told me that if i found the truck, i could park it at her place, just like Betsy. and that the new truck would have to be available to any of the family who needs to use it, as well as the neighbor who plows the street when i cant get to it. no big deal. none of the family uses the current truck, and the neighbor knows how i feel about the truck, so he just prefers to stay out of it most of the time. so, i may actually get to buy another beater K20 to push my plow, and drag my junk around. overall, i guess the weekend wasnt so bad after all.
-..
i love mine too, its tough love. some times i wanna take the saw and cut her into pieces and haul her to the junk yard, other times shes's amazing.
