Mikelly Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Yesterday I did one fo the absolute most dangerous and stupid things I've ever done... REALLY raised the bar on this one... and that's kinda hard to do for me... We had a horrible storm hit Thursday night and got over 4 inches of rain in my area by Friday morning... Friday afternoon on the way home from work, I figured I'd tour the back side of Quantico in my Z71 Chevy, and see how high the water was... This area is known to flood... So I'm following a BWM 3 series into water that is easily 2 FEET DEEP... And water is coming up past his doors on the first section... I'm nervous that he is going to stall, stranding me in the process... So I"m giving him gap... about 300 yards. We make it through... In front of him is a 2 wheel drive truck. He goes into the second flooded section of road and his hood DISAPPEARS! The BMW now has water above his SIDE WINDOWS... I've given them enough room because water is running across the road at a steady clip and I'm thinking "THese guys are gonna get swept away... " So they clear most of this 400-500 Ft. stretch of flooded road... and I go in... Water comes OVER My hood... OVER THE HOOD OF A LIFTED FULL SIZE CHEVY... I about CRAPPED MY PANTS... Then the truck MOVES... Seems more water is getting UNDER my truck than around it and it moves the rear about 2 feet from right to left... Funny, as I never saw either of the other cars MOVE In the water! After that stunt, and getting out unscaithed, I figured I was done for the day... I'll NEVER do that crap again! Dumb Dumb Dumb! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Glad to your still here. Those were some nasty storms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 That is one of my most persitent fears, getting trapped in a car in water. Man, you don't have much chance once the current gets you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Mike Kelly, number 3 on Maximum Exposure's "What Were They Thinking?" Max X List! So, about a dozen HybridZers are watching TV a few months from now wondering about the dumbass going boating in the Chevy truck when the driver climbs on the roof... "Hey, that guy looks like Mike Kelly!" Man, you don't have much chance one the current gets you. Didn't they teach you to steer into the current during driver's ed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruxGNZ Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Ah, Mike you could have done worse. My cousin who was 17 at the time, was in a similar situation. Water was only about three feet deep and he was driving a friends mid size car, I think it was a white, mid '80's Grand Am (this was a few years ago). Well, from what a spectator told the police, he turned around and got a running start at the water... about 70 mph. Car hit the water and hydro planned, then started to turn to the right and was completely sideways when the car lost momentum and the tires grabbed the pavement below and with the help of the water, flipped the car several times. Car came to rest on its roof, underwater with the driver, my cousin knocked out. He was pulled out by the spectator and is lucky to be alive. Had that person not been there to witness his stupidity and have the right mind to help, my cousin would have drowned. To this day, he doesn't remember any of this. I believe there is a picture of the car under water in the local news paper with this story. !M! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synlubes Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 You might want to change some fluids! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JAMIE T Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Mike, I feel you on that. I took the Expedition through some deep flooded roads back during Hurricane Gaston. Every road we turned down was closed going to our house. The ones that weren't, we got passed by fire and rescue trucks so they could close them off ahead of us. I was getting pissed. We finally got to this road that was not closed(but really should have been) and there was a long line of traffic waiting to pass through it. About a dozen or so cars are stalled all around us. An S10 pick-up was windshield deep just sitting in a parking lot near by. There was a tracter trailer in front of me, and a small suv behind me. I watched the tracter trailer(no trailer) pass through it. The water was up to his doors. So, it was my turn to take the road that should have been closed but wasn't. I started into it, the little suv behind me was hugging my bumper so I could make a wake to give him shallower water to tread through. Good thing I didn't stop or stall, cuase we'd both be stuck and I would have been rear ended to boot. My Expedition did start to feel light and I felt the tires grabing debri on the road beneath the water. We made it through it. The next day, the area we'd passed through was completely devestated is considered one of the major losses due to that storm. All of homes and business' had to be CONDEMNED. They were all destroyed. I consider myself lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynekarnes Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 years back, 70 corvette LT-1 convertible. about 8:30 pm, on my way home from work,another 12 hour day at the phone company ( i'm a repairman ) been raining for about 3 weeks ( el nino ) solid, san jose ca. union ave. 2 lanes on either side, mixture residental and business ( mini malls, super markets, wendy's, ect. ), regulary used road about 5 miles long between parts of san jose and campbell, so it's not some cow trail. just a regular avenue, like you'd use to get to the grocery store, use to to the expressway. storm has knocked the power out for about the 20th time that week, winds about 20 mph, gusts up to 60. waiting with my group to pass through the intersection of foxworthy and union. cops with flares directing traffic. i see that the intersection is somewhat flooded, as were almost half the other intersections in town, storm drains were plugged and most of the creeks were over flowing. cops motion my group of about 30 cars forward. as i'm getting closer, i see that the cop has water up to his knees, i'm sitting in a lowered, flared fender well vette, with 14 inch wide tires on front and 18 wide tires on the rear ( tread on the ground ). all the cars in front of me are about 3 cars lengths up, i'm looking for a way out ... oh did i forget to mention i have hooker header side pipes on this thing and they are burbling under water ???? water is seeping in under the doors, there's a driveway to a radio shack, i'm going for it ... officer shines his flashlight in my eyes ... waves me off of the parking lot ... starts yelling at me ... all kinds of nasty obscenities, some things about my mother that i didn't quite catch. he trods over to the driver's door of the vette, pushing a small wake in front of him, he's not wearing rain gear ... he's pissed and carrying a gun and a lit flare. i roll my window down, try to explain that i am not the captain of a submarine and i'd like to park in that lot ... he says a few more profound things about my lineage and my mother's pedigree, and points in the direction of the pond, the intersection, somewhere beneath it ... by now, two officers are at the door, giving me what they felt was good sound advise ... as a good 2 minutes had passed ( roughly the amount of time a light stays green here ), 2 minutes since the moment of my group started moving, until the second officer arrived, i was feeling guilty for holding up my fellow travellers that were behind me. now, as i was having this one sided conversation with the officer, i hadn't seen the cars ahead of me transverse the intersection, and on the word of the expert traffic cop on the scene, the one standing in the rain falling from the biggest storm in over 10 years, with no rain gear on, a loaded gun at his side ( did i mention he unbuckled the strap on his holster as he was urging me on ) and a lit flare in his hand ... i decide to go through the intersection. let the clutch out and proceeded into the pond ... i get about 30 feet into this 120 ft wide intersection. you know how the vettes have pop up head lights ??? the lights were about an inch under water, i'm doing maybe 5 mph. another cop on other side of intersection, with my wipers on high, i can make out that he's in the middle of my lane , standing at the bank of the pond calmly motioning with flashlight and flare that everything is fine, just keep coming. so, i think, i must be in the of the worst of it, just motor on through .. in the middle of the intersection the water is now above the side mirrors on the doors, i'm thinkin the cops started making bets as to whether or not i'd make it across, back about the same time i was thinking about bailing into that radio shack parking lot ... i'm hoping that the carb and dizzy are in a pocket of air trapped under the hood, no idea how the engine is still running ... i'm feeling like a character in one of those submarine movies, where they are frantically turning off valves as the water floods in. i hold the gas pedal steady, still in 1st gear, can feel the rear tires skipping, rear is shuddering a bit. turn wheel left/right ...makes no difference ... but i'm still moving forward ... get traction, head lights above water ... out we are on the other side ... took maybe 10 to 15 seconds. the cop that had been calmly motioning me forward comes to my window, he's in full rain gear, looks into my now open window ... makes eye contact, leans back a bit, surveys the vette, starts shaking his head ... bends down asks me, why did you do a fool thing like that ??? i'd a pulled in that parking lot, gesturing at the radio shack now behind me across the pond. i pointed, explained i tried, how the cop over there wouldn't let me ... he shakes his head, mumbles something about F'N rookies, tells me to be safe, motions me on, and starts screaming into his radio ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaleMX Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Time to change your oil, tranny fluid, diff fluid, Brake fluid, air filter, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikelly Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 Checked everything yesterday and all seems well... No sign of water in the oil or the tranny... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clint78z Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 Agreed on checking the diff fluid, not sure how high the diff breather tubes go on the Z71. On my pathfinder they were extra nice in putting them at the top of the hood along with air intake. They screwed the pooch and put the ecu under the drivers seat though, dumb dumbs !! Fording in water is no big deal if you know what you are doing, you can go past the hood and intake if you maintain a speed which creates a standing wave infront of the truck. It is not smart to cross a rapidly flowing stream, risk the vehicle being washed away. MAIN THING is not to panic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dot Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 You might want to get one of them chrome propelars for your hitch too. edit: and a rudder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody 82 ZXT Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Mike Kelly, number 3 on Maximum Exposure's "What Were They Thinking?" Max X List! I love that show. Would suck to see Mike on TV for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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