Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
My Cummins ran backwards!!
OK, polish up the Bonehead Award and carve my name in a prominent spot. Not everyone can make a Cummins run backwards, you know. The sudden realization of what is happening is a guaranteed sphincter-factor of 9. 8 on the Rectum scale, too.
My 15 year old son and his buddy wanted to go fishing, so I hauled them and the jonboat down to the boat ramp Monday. Yes, it was a madhouse being a Holiday. My son actually drove there, then got in the boat so I could back the trailer down the long, steep, crowded 4-lane boat ramp and launch him.
I jumped in behind the wheel with the truck already on the incline as my son and his buddy and the dog jumped into the boat on the trailer. There is only 1 small dock, and it was full of boats already, so it was going to be a straight into the water and bon-voyage launch since I was not going with them.
I released the parking brake on my 5-speed 4x4 and began slowly rolling backwards down the ramp, which is about 1/2 a block long.
It is important here to make my feeble excuses and confess to you that I drive a semi for a living and bump a dock at least 20 times every night in some very tight places, so I am really, really good at backing trailers. I can do it very accurately and quickly with very minimal steering corrections, which, along with using only your mirrors, is actually the key to expertly backing a trailer.
But this was not the time or place for "quickly" due to the number of people not paying attention to where they were, and I wanted to go very slow in case someone stepped behind my boat trailer. People just don't have good situational awareness on boat ramps. And I was about to prove that, unfortunately...
I slipped the transmission into reverse and slowly let the clutch out to allow the engine to do some braking and to make some noise (to make sure people heard me coming). Like I said, I was already slowly rolling backwards. I launch there often and usually just let the incline roll me backwards in neutral with just a little foot brake action to control the speed. Not today... I wanted the truck in gear and the engine helping.
That's when everything went wrong at once!
The truck lurched hard, the transmission or t-case seemed to go into neutral (thought maybe I broke the t-case chain or a u-joint), the brake pedal got real hard to push and didn't do anything, and my oil pressure gauge went straight to zero. The engine was running, but was unresponsive to the throttle, just idling, and doing it badly. Worst of all, it was making the most bizarre and tortured wheezing sound like it was sucking in air through the tailpipe and exhausting it through turbo!
WTF??!!
This all occurred at once and lasted maybe 10 seconds max before the 'zero oil pressure' reading caught my eye and made me instantly turn the key off, which thankfully did kill the motor.
I knew then what had happened. I knew my 12 to 14 hours a night in my semi compared to maybe 2 hours a week in my Dodge was my undoing.
You see, in my semi, the one I am constantly backing into docks and under trailers, "reverse" is up-and-to-the-left. In my Dodge, it is down-and-to-the -right. That conflict has haunted my reflexes many times over the years, but with no bad results since I always have my foot on the brake firmly when going to reverse.
But not this time. This time I was already rolling backwards down a steep ramp when my brain failed and motor reflexes took over...
So there I sat, cursing myself and wondering not "if", but "how badly", I had destroyed my Cummins. When no clatter of iron pieces hitting the ground was forthcoming, I tried the ignition switch to see what would happen.
It fired right up, and in the right direction, and ran like a top. the oil pressure was fine. Everything was, and still is, just fine! I can't believe it... but I'll take a lucky break if I can catch one. Yes, there IS a Santa Claus, and YES, a Cummins will run backwards and even survive it.
OK, polish up the Bonehead Award and carve my name in a prominent spot. Not everyone can make a Cummins run backwards, you know. The sudden realization of what is happening is a guaranteed sphincter-factor of 9. 8 on the Rectum scale, too.
My 15 year old son and his buddy wanted to go fishing, so I hauled them and the jonboat down to the boat ramp Monday. Yes, it was a madhouse being a Holiday. My son actually drove there, then got in the boat so I could back the trailer down the long, steep, crowded 4-lane boat ramp and launch him.
I jumped in behind the wheel with the truck already on the incline as my son and his buddy and the dog jumped into the boat on the trailer. There is only 1 small dock, and it was full of boats already, so it was going to be a straight into the water and bon-voyage launch since I was not going with them.
I released the parking brake on my 5-speed 4x4 and began slowly rolling backwards down the ramp, which is about 1/2 a block long.
It is important here to make my feeble excuses and confess to you that I drive a semi for a living and bump a dock at least 20 times every night in some very tight places, so I am really, really good at backing trailers. I can do it very accurately and quickly with very minimal steering corrections, which, along with using only your mirrors, is actually the key to expertly backing a trailer.
But this was not the time or place for "quickly" due to the number of people not paying attention to where they were, and I wanted to go very slow in case someone stepped behind my boat trailer. People just don't have good situational awareness on boat ramps. And I was about to prove that, unfortunately...
I slipped the transmission into reverse and slowly let the clutch out to allow the engine to do some braking and to make some noise (to make sure people heard me coming). Like I said, I was already slowly rolling backwards. I launch there often and usually just let the incline roll me backwards in neutral with just a little foot brake action to control the speed. Not today... I wanted the truck in gear and the engine helping.
That's when everything went wrong at once!
The truck lurched hard, the transmission or t-case seemed to go into neutral (thought maybe I broke the t-case chain or a u-joint), the brake pedal got real hard to push and didn't do anything, and my oil pressure gauge went straight to zero. The engine was running, but was unresponsive to the throttle, just idling, and doing it badly. Worst of all, it was making the most bizarre and tortured wheezing sound like it was sucking in air through the tailpipe and exhausting it through turbo!
WTF??!!
This all occurred at once and lasted maybe 10 seconds max before the 'zero oil pressure' reading caught my eye and made me instantly turn the key off, which thankfully did kill the motor.
I knew then what had happened. I knew my 12 to 14 hours a night in my semi compared to maybe 2 hours a week in my Dodge was my undoing.
You see, in my semi, the one I am constantly backing into docks and under trailers, "reverse" is up-and-to-the-left. In my Dodge, it is down-and-to-the -right. That conflict has haunted my reflexes many times over the years, but with no bad results since I always have my foot on the brake firmly when going to reverse.
But not this time. This time I was already rolling backwards down a steep ramp when my brain failed and motor reflexes took over...
So there I sat, cursing myself and wondering not "if", but "how badly", I had destroyed my Cummins. When no clatter of iron pieces hitting the ground was forthcoming, I tried the ignition switch to see what would happen.
It fired right up, and in the right direction, and ran like a top. the oil pressure was fine. Everything was, and still is, just fine! I can't believe it... but I'll take a lucky break if I can catch one. Yes, there IS a Santa Claus, and YES, a Cummins will run backwards and even survive it.
