These stories remind me of the abuse that a 74 IH Scout II had to endure at the hands of my parents, and later at mine:
- Run into a garage door because it wasn't put in Park. The snowplow frame mounted on the front at the time cracked the wooden garage door.
- Run aground on a big rock in an apple orchard by my mother.
- Driven on half of a two hour trip without the accessory drive. The three pulleys for this fell off on the highway and we kept going on nothing but battery, thermal convection for cooling, and no power steering. It was hauled home on a rollback.
- Caught four feet or so of air off a small rise on a dirt back road. Came down hard, but with no problems.
- Hit a deer fully broadside at about 45MPH. We just pulled the metal grill back out of the radiator and took it in to have the headlights realigned.
- Nearly rolled it during a panic stop when someone pulled out in front of me. Ended up driving down into a ditch, through a field, and back to the road.
What finally killed it was lack of basic maintenance. After not changing the oil for about 20,000 miles the main bearings in the 304 V8 finally gave out.
That was years ago, and I take much better care of my cars now. I don't have any amazing stories to tell regarding my Yukon yet, but give it time.
