When it comes to TRUCKS…what has been the dumbest thing you have ever done??

[70cst]

OK...I'll go first. 30 years ago my Dad gave me his truck. It was a 54 Chevy 1/2 ton. Then about 6 months later I sold it for $125.00 .

[crzngmychvy]

Sold my 85 silverado that was my DD to a guy down the street. Wouldn't have been as bad if he lived farther away, but I have to see and regret every morning on my way to work. Bummer man.

[Luvlegs]

Home alone, got ready to look at rear brakes - put jack under pumpkin, collected blocks to block the wheels. I was under the carport hooked along the side the house (smooth concrete sloped downhill to my shop). Was just getting staged, only wearing a pair of shorts... went in house, came out, put jack under rear end and started raising jack - both wheels in the air, realized I left out the blocks! The whole rig started rolling backwards towards shop - I was able to jump in and hit the brakes. Ebrake couldn't do anything, it was in gear but rear was in the air so that didn't do anything for me either. I sat there for 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do - there was no way to get out, get to the blocks and get back, lower the jack or anything. My cell phone was 10 feet away. I sat there swithing legs on the brake until they started to ache.... I realized the jack was rolling on the little 1 1/2 inch wheels and staying balanced. I also realised that 20 feet farther back, the driveway had a seam across it. I slowly creaped it the 20 feet until the rear set of jack wheels came to rest in the seam.... I slowly slipped out, ran to the blocks and got 'em behind the front wheels. Then I threw myself around for being careless. The truck was my brand new 2500 Ram TD and there was no way the truck or carport would have faired too well.

[jeffspower]

Originally Posted by Luvlegs

Home alone, got ready to look at rear brakes - put jack under pumpkin, collected blocks to block the wheels. I was under the carport hooked along the side the house (smooth concrete sloped downhill to my shop). Was just getting staged, only wearing a pair of shorts... went in house, came out, put jack under rear end and started raising jack - both wheels in the air, realized I left out the blocks! The whole rig started rolling backwards towards shop - I was able to jump in and hit the brakes. Ebrake couldn't do anything, it was in gear but rear was in the air so that didn't do anything for me either. I sat there for 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do - there was no way to get out, get to the blocks and get back, lower the jack or anything. My cell phone was 10 feet away. I sat there swithing legs on the brake until they started to ache.... I realized the jack was rolling on the little 1 1/2 inch wheels and staying balanced. I also realised that 20 feet farther back, the driveway had a seam across it. I slowly creaped it the 20 feet until the rear set of jack wheels came to rest in the seam.... I slowly slipped out, ran to the blocks and got 'em behind the front wheels. Then I threw myself around for being careless. The truck was my brand new 2500 Ram TD and there was no way the truck or carport would have faired too well.

I think I found a little more humor in your story.

If it was brand new, why did you need to check the brakes? Maybe it's a Dodge thing.

While in the cab,couldn't you have put it in 4x4, so the FRONT wheels would have held it from rolling

[jeffspower]

I guess I should add one of my own stories. When I bought the '68 in '83 when I was 15, I found that in 4x4 it would bang BAD going down the road. It was so severe, I worried that something was going to lock up & send my face into the steering wheel. I didn't know much yet, so I took it to the local 4x4 "experts". They said it was in the transfer case, so they rebuilt it. No change. Next was that the front driveshaft splines were skipping. So they did a new slip & stub. No change. Next, they said they pulled the diff covers to check ratios & found that they were different. So I swapped in a used rear end myself that was the ratio they told me it needed. That made it worse. Turns out their guy couldn't read or was lousy at math- I pulled the front cover to find out they were WRONG! Ratios were not different before the swap! At this point, I was out of money. So a couple of years later, I put in new correct gears in the front. That made it bang less severe like it used to. So I pulled the rear driveshaft & drove it around as a FWD. It would bang, then buzz and quit pulling untill I pushed in the clutch & then it would go again. So I did something dumb- got it to do the bang/ buzz/ lose motion thing, and got out while it was running in gear to see what was going on. Luckily it didn't take off, but I found out what was wrong. The front driveshaft was spinning and the buzz was coming from the right side hub- the OE Spicer lockout wasn't holding!

I don't know what's crazier, that the truck didn't take off, that I had spent as much as I had paid for the truck for "experts" to fix it and all it needed was a lockout, or that I went to work for them 1 week out of high school. It's definately what started my gearhead lifestyle

[Luvlegs]

Originally Posted by jeffspower

I think I found a little more humor in your story.

If it was brand new, why did you need to check the brakes? Maybe it's a Dodge thing.

While in the cab,couldn't you have put it in 4x4, so the FRONT wheels would have held it from rolling

I just remembered, I was actually rotating the tires... couldn't think of that when I was typing it up... (more crs syndrome)
I didn't have the keys in the truck with me so I couldn't shift it out of park (to neutral) to engage the 4x4 - then again, I didn't try it so I'm not sure if that would of worked or not.... hmmmm.... nope, not going to try to find out either! hahahahahah I guess I could just sitting on all 4s.....

[Burbinite]

Bought a "rust free" (rear floor rusted from inside under mat) AZ 1972 GMC Sub. on E-bay that I was promised would make it "no problem" (fuel system nightmare) across the country. Flew to Phoenix to pick it up two days after my son was born... made it to Flagstaff, broke down, had to rent a car to drive back (flagstaff to Little Rock in 12hrs) and have the Sub. shipped the rest of the way....

wait it gets better...

I get back to work and my boss says "My granddad has a 72 sub he'll give you!"

It would have been great to know THAT before I spent a bunch of money and tried to drive a 35 year old vehicle across the country.

I try to think of the time and money as .... tuition

[killer71]

you and I must be brothers cuz that sounds exactly like a situation i would get myself into.

[57sailplane]

man now thats funny to funny. least no one got hurt..

[FELON'S]

Traded in my Dad's '68 Camino in as a down payment on a 91 Nissan Sentra....You know....I still hate my ex wife for that one....

[GREASEMONKEY72]

cant really think of anything at the moment but im looking forward to the stories thats for sure

[ItsRandy]

Originally Posted by FELON'S

Traded in my Dad's '68 Camino in as a down payment on a 91 Nissan Sentra....You know....I still hate my ex wife for that one....

I still hate my ex-wife but it has nothing to do with a truck.

[edmonton72]

Too many to think of. I had one situation similar to luvlegs but my truck fell off the jack. Since im working on my truck in my backyard i dont have level ground to work on. Well one day I had my wheels off to get the new tires for put on the rims I had the front supported by two jack stands and the rear supported by one jack in the middle of the rear axle. Well while I was in the cab do some wiring work the truck just fell off its jack stands. I guess since in working on top of soft dirt and getting in and out of the cab while I was doing my wiring made the jack fall over. Im just glad I wasnt under the truck when it happened. I guess another dumb thing Ive done with my truck is let my cousin get involved because it was his idea to do a whole frame-off resto when I didnt want to at the time. Came home one day from school too find my truck half torn a part. Well two and half years later and over ten grand spent and shes almost done except for the less then perfect body work. Didnt think it would take this long and cost this much.

[DoobieBrother]

Well, I shouldn't even admit this, but now looking back, I find my stupidity kind of funny. And it was REALLY stupid.

A few years ago I had decided to run some Seafoam through my `03 Sierra. No biggie. I had done it before on my Expedition without issue. So, I pulled the brake booster line and w/ truck running started running some SeaFoam down it. My technique was, of course, the origin of my problems. I did a little at a time letting it recover. Did about half the can, then killed it and dumped in the rest. That was the problem. I didn't shut it off with the key. I let the seafoam kill it and then kept pooring and finished the can. Well, we all know liquid doesn't compress like air. So, guess what...Hyrdro lock.

Problem was, I didn't know what it was at the time. I got in to crank the truck up after letting it sit for a while, and of course, it felt like the engine was locked up. Well, it was. With liquid. But wait, it gets better.

After figuring that I was hyrdolocked, I pulled all the plugs. It was obvious which one was the issue because when I pulled the plug, the Seafoam poured out. So, here's where in my continued state, of "Oh, my gawd I've screwed up my truck" and not thinking well enough, I "thought" I disabled the ignition. Pulled the plug right up against the side of the throttle body. Must not have been it, because when I cranked the truck...now don't laugh, I sparked and ignited the still wet Seafoam. Fortunately, I had a fire extinguisher about 6 feet away. One squeeze (dry extinguisher) and it was out. No damage. Was just the Seafoam burning. Stop laughing. Anyway, I put all the plugs back. Plugged everything in, then hosed down the engine to remove any remaining Seafoam and all extinguisher soot. When I was sure everything was ok, I fired it up. It ran fine. Rough at first from the Seafoam, but the rest blew out after a while as expected.

The look of horror on my face and how quickly I ran for the fire extinguisher was probably much more entertaining than the little flame up. Nothing on the truck was damaged. Just my ego was seriously fractured. Fire extinguisher made more mess than anything. What also sucked was my engine compartment was spotless before.

I try not to be that stupid anymore when working on my vehicles. LMAO

[tavenner13]

let my dad trade my first truck -> '66 350 4-spd 3/4 ton for some CRAPPY carpentry work in the kitchen

[killer71]

Man we could sell these stories!

[Wreckless_71]

To be old and wise you must first be young and stupid... I'm young so what is this Seafoam? Octane booster; Engine cleaning stuff?

[DoobieBrother]

Originally Posted by Wreckless_71

To be old and wise you must first be young and stupid... I'm young so what is this Seafoam? Octane booster; Engine cleaning stuff?

Seafoam is some good stuff. You can use it as top end cleaner like I was doing when I decided to play stupid. You can also dump in the gas tank for similar usage. And you can do like I just did on my 68 last week. That is, dump it in the crank case with the oil and drive it around some more letting it work on the crank case. Then change the oil.

[Billla]

I put a new cam (Crane "Fireball", if anyone remembers that one ) in the '69 I had in high school. At the same time, I had this set of mint, factory original LT-1 aluminum valve covers. I thought they'd look really cool so I bolted 'em up. Truck started fine and I got through the break-in...but I had oil leaks on the intake manifold. I figured I just had valve cover gaskets leaking, so I did everything in the book to "fix" it without really looking for the problem.

I finally decided to just get my head in there and look when the engine was running, becuase the leaks were getting worse and worse...and saw that the rockers had carved away the aluminum in the valve covers and there were little spider cracks leaking oil by every rocker. One set of valve covers toast, one oil filter full of aluminum.



Plenty of other dumb things...this one just comes to mind

[MisterE72]

I regret selling my 1985 Chevy Silverado. It had a candy midnight blue paint, Zapco system, lowered 5/7, and rolling on 17" Boyds. I sold it so I could get my wife a wedding ring back in 98. An architect bought it for his 17 year old son. I seen the truck at a Home Depot about a year later all banged up. I almost cried. As bad as that sounds, back in 84, my uncle traded his 1970 AAR cuda for a 1978 cutlass supreme. He regrets that all the way to the bank.

[CrashEd]

Had a guy buying a tc grade trap Remington shotgun from me and didn't have anuff money but wanted it real bad. Well he traded a 72 ford 1/2 ton truck for the rest of the money if it would of been a chevy i would of been thrilled to death. well it took all of 3 day to destroy that ford. Wait you said dumbest i was thinking funnest. LOL!!

[Pl4yboy]

Filled up my 05 chevy duramax with gas... :-/

[Bishops Trucks]

I gave my oldest son, (when he was 15, now 25) my '58 Apache stepside right before I moved to England. I found out a year later that he traded it for a POS four wheeler that stayed broke. The truck had a '78 Corvette 350 w/saginaw 4-speed and 3:73 posi rear. All he had to do was finish running the brake lines. I haven't given him anything since.

[jb4short]

Spent a bunch of money on a DODGE!

[72freak]

Buying a Vortec and then buying another one!!!