I'm 45, and grew up on a small farm in Virginia, and I've had plenty of time to do stupid stuff, but so far, I'm still here. Yesterday I was pulling an 18 wheeler into the shop, and the guy guiding me in had his back hard against the wall and his belly near my bumper, waving me into place. (he had another rig to pull in behind me, so wanted me pulled up tight). The truck I had just finished testing on my chassis dyno had a prototype engine calibration (electronic fuel system) that ran great at full load, but had a hair-trigger at part throttle.As I was looking down over the hood at David, thinking about being very ... very careful as not to crush him, I was reminded about the many times my older brother was in a similar position as I backed the 8N into the corner of the pole barn as Norm pushed the lower link onto the plow, or blade, or bush hog. ( the Jeep and the snow plow were pretty scary too !! ) I was a feather weight 10 year old and pretty damn good with that grabby clutch, while Norm was 15 and strong enough to push the equipment into position. We were careful, and always seemed to know what the other was thinking even before the hand signals began, and thankfully we never ever had an accident. I certainly dumped the clutch a few times and missed my target, but Norm moved fast and understood how twitchy that clutch was. The 8N is gone, the farm is rented to some fox hunting city slicker, but I’m still thankfully good with a clutch, and David was lucky. Chip DeHart, VA, entered 2003-11-07 My Email Address: Not Displayed |