What Don't Kill You Makes You Stonger? ...

That just might could be so... 'less of course it just keeps whackin' a buster with such fast and hurtful repetition that he don't get a chance to sit and digest his beans proper. Then it just leads to indigestion, compaction, obstruction and disruption of the proper workin' of his bi-oh-logical innards... until...

KABLOOEY! ... and you find yourself searchin' through the yeller pages huntin' up one of those "Restoration Specialist" fellers to clean up the mess!

Just about the time a feller says to himself; "Self? I think I got this deal figgered"...

... is jus' 'bout the time he should oughta be minding an old country tradition. When things are starting to look like the neighbor's kid is chunkin' rocks at a wind mill on a breezy day... That right there is the time to Holler... DUCK!

Didn't feel like goin' all the way to Laramie in one haul... that is most of probably 75 miles you know! ;) So... left late and pulled into a snowmobile parking lot, truly! It don't get much use in the middle of the summer. ;) It sits right near Wycolo... and a mite west of woods landing.

Got up in the morning to the singin' of an errant herd of black cows wanderin' past. After coffee I was walking around the rig looking at things... Not exactly the best time to find things that look like they shouldn't.

But... You know me... always been pretty good at finding parts that aren't complete and whole any more.

Now... Complete and Whole is pretty much how you want to think of axle mounts... not... cracked and warped.

Yup... another high dollar repair slippin' out of the woodwork and bruisin' the kiester... and another repair, due I'm confident, almost entirely to that poorly done Axle flip. Actually the flippin' of the axle was just fine, it was the reinstalling the shocks in a manner that turned 'em into rigid struts that has caused a lot of my difficulties over the past year or so...

In case you weren't aware of it... a fifth wheel should NOT be converted to a "Hard Tail." My son-in-law is already startin' to grouse a bit 'bout the ride of his Harley Hardtail he built last year. They beat you up!

I'm guessin' that lil' dido on Buffalo Pass a few weeks past was the final straw that wasn't the least bit helpful to avoidin' metal fatigue.

Somewhere 'tween there and here... it reared it's ugly head.

There's six points where the springs bolt to the rig's frame. The springs bolt into a double walled construction. Five are just as they should be... the sixth has a crack about halfway across one "Wall" of the mount while the other wall is separating where it's welded to the "Spacer" that is welded in to connect the two "Walls"... with the springs between the walls below the spacer... Totally cornfuzzled now? Let's just say...

...The bottom line is a cracked and warped axle mount. Aw what a shiny way to start off a mornin'... Lookin' at what surely will stack up a couple of grand to properly correct.

That's because you have to combine this with the front axle already being torqued for the past several months. It's been wearing tires in an odd manner... Odd but not yet catastrophic...But it puts a buster in one of those brain pan rusting decision times... Repair Again... or Cut your losses and swap rigs right now?

The only way to do it right is to replace both axles (as they are demonstrating fatigue) and completely replace the mounting framework (which is already cracked)... All that is surely goin' to stack up a couple of grand in repair bill. You have to ask yourself... "Self?"

Where'd he go? ... oh there he is... down there! Ha ha. The lil' bugger ducked! :)  ... so... "Self? is it worth it?"

Even if all the careful considerin' does bring us to the choice of swappin' without bustin' one of those ad your isms... Swappin is gonna be a tricky proposition all by itself. When you pile on the reality that necessity dictates the unpleasant reality of havin' to use somebody else's money to git-r-dun, in these times... it gets as athletic as outrunning a mad husband and you sportin' a eye crossin' hangover to boot.

The REAL difficulty in either the Repairin' or the Swappin' is; Either way, it's gotta get done with Dinero that don't exist. Yup. That Washington that I needed to stretch to look like a Lincoln?... Truly needs to get cinched up juuuuust a mite tighter so that it gets squeezed out to look like a Hamilton!

Just thinkin' on it makes my head feel just like it did when I parted company with a high flyin', sunfishin' bronc and came down to a meal of three pounds of Arizona dirt.

Between the repairs to the truck, the trailer, the dog (last winters emergency surgery) and... ahem!... ME (equalling the Dog's repair)... the piggy bank is in pieces in the dumpster.

The next couple or three weeks should be...just ffff... uh... Ok, I'll try to keep it PG... let's see... the next three weeks should be... uhhhh... a maximum stress test of the obfuscatin', horse tradin', wind suckin', palaverin', deal makin', cajone bustin', word chokin', temper ropin', plea bargainin', double speakin' abilities of a bald headed, puss gut, broke down, penniless language butcherin' drifting, biker cowboy.

Aw hell... that'll make me a gol durn politishun won't it?

Detected, Infected, Dejected and Rejected
Brian