OK, so I am really slammed to move stuff out of my rental unit from a neighbor and out to a field that I have been offered for temporary strorage. (Thanks Heath and Jeff!)
I told myself that the timing was bad idea when I opened the gate and slid all the way through it's opening arc, however, I had towed the SX4 there and was late leaving to a trip for Fayetteville. The field is at a pretty intense angle, maybe 8% grade(?) but hey, I am in a hurry so what could possibly go wrong?
I creeped the truck out a few feet and immediately knew I was screwed when I started a graceful slide. As I realized there was no stopping I decided to try to get pointed uphill. I suddenly shot out to around 30-40 MPH and was headed for the fences... did I mention the SX4 was in a tow bar? Oh, and the field ended in a steep ditch with a nasty fence!
The SX4 started pushing and totally jack-knifed. I stayed off the brakes and as soon as the mighty J10 was heading parralell to the fence I started feeding it the skinny pedal. The SX4 whipped around got me pointed uphill at which point I was heading for a nasty fall... so I gunned it and was able to slow the descent, though I wasn't going any further.
I came to a stop at last. When I got out of the truck, I started sliding backwards myself. I had to hop from Cowpie to cowpie during the whole operation of extricating and straightening the SX4 in it's position. It was so slick the SX4 wouldn't stay put. I had removed the front bumper so I re-installed the bolts halfway, and smashed them into the ice. Then I let the SX4 roll back and stop on it.
After the icecapades I had dinged the perfect front valence (gravel pan) when the car jackknifed.
Regardless, it could have been MUCH WORSE than it was! If I had video-taped either of these events I would be a richer man than I am today!
Jesse
