Around 1994/5 we went to Malarrimo beach for a camping trip with a few other trucks. We knew not to drive below the high tine line as we had heard
many stories of bad stucks. Ditto the mud in the wash.
So we are screwing around in the dunes and a front hub on my 1993 Ford Ranger exploded, leaving bearings exposed to dirt. I taped it up best I could
to keep dirt out. Next day we are exploring in the other trucks and off in the distance we see the carcass of a truck stuck. As we got close I
recognized it as a Ford Explorer with the roof removed.
We walked out and found that as a last ditch effort to free the stuck truck someone had put tow strap through the windows and tried to roll the truck
sideways to unstuck it, only to rip the roof off. It was toast and was below water at high tide. I dig down to the front hub with my hands and could
feel it had the manual hub I needed. I new how to remove these in my sleep since I frequently snapped front axles in the Ranger. The muddy water
kept filling in but I got the hub off and it had some barnacles on it but was in the locked position and frozen up that way. We took it to camp,
washed it and installed it on my Ranger and drove it home that way. Once back in San Diego I replaced it and for years had that barnacle encrusted
hub on the wall of my garage. They say you never know what you will find on that beach and it's true! |