Biscuit on its way home

Lost biscuit finally arrived in Prosser, though The Jeep is a shadow of its former self. The original 3.8L V-6 was burning oil badly out of cylinder one, so while replacing the engine I also replaced the transmission, switching from an TH350 automatic to a T-18 with a low first. But, I could never find the time to complete that transition. Engine placement, driveline angle, and  header angles seemed to fight me the entire transition. However, now that Biscuit is here, I’ll eventually have some time to devote to it (first, the race jeep’s seat will get adjusted for my height, then I will deal with Patterson’s generator and with the brake-clutch pedals, then Lost Biscuit).

To get Biscuit home, first I had to install a winch onto the tilt bed. After thinking through various ideas, I came up with a trial system that secured a winch frame to the tilt deck, but used a vertical angle against the from of the tilt deck as added leverage for the winch.

Here are some of the pieces I started with:

This shows the underside of the tilt deck. The square tubing in the pic above this one was drilled and bolted to the deck, with the bolts going through the wood and into angled pieces on either side of the hydraulic arm. I figured that was the least invasive way of mounting a winch (for now).

This shows the completed platform bolted onto the deck. Note how the front angle piece on the left sits down in front of the tilt bed. This allows the tilt bed to open and shut:

Here are a few other pics from different angles with and without the winch:

The winch is a Traveller 9500lb winch from Tractor Supply. It was relatively inexpensive and, frankly, overkill for its assigned task. Below, it’s in action with Ann running the controller. The winch is connection via jumper cables to an extra battery (from Patterson) that I brought to run the winch.

Here’s Biscuit tied down with chains and a tie down strap for extra protection (double failure security).

Near Cle Elum, one of our tires with only 300 miles on it blew. Why’d it happen? We can’t say, but after consulting with multiple people, I learned just how cheap these tires probably are. Thankfully, we only had to limp a couple miles into town and had a new tire mounted in about 10 minutes thanks to the guys at the local Shell station. We plan to replace all four tires with quality tires, then save the others for spares.

And, finally, here’s biscuit at home. If you’d told me 10 years ago that it would take a decade before Biscuit and I would be in the same place, I wouldn’t have believed it. It’s certainly been an interesting journey!