Who here has straightened bent metal with the topic items and assorted clamps/vise grips........oh and a hydrocarbon power source?
Who here has straightened bent metal with the topic items and assorted clamps/vise grips........oh and a hydrocarbon power source?
I have. Used a rope/tow strap to pull out a Mustang core support. Left the Mustang strapped to the trailer and let 4 Low take care if the rest.
At first I was eyeballing the phone pole out front, but was told HELL no by SWMBO .
In reply to 759NRNG:
I once used a tow strap and a light pole to reposition the same Mustang on the trailer when I berked up and didn't get it on right. Again let 4 Low do the work.
759NRNG wrote: At first I was eyeballing the phone pole out front, but was told HELL no by SWMBO .
Bad bad idea. At least if you're talking about the wooden variety. They may be made out of trees, but they certainly aren't as strong as trees.
The car trailer is NOT a frame rack?????
It damn sure is at my house...
And parkway trees were planted for just this purpose. A tug here and a nudge there, Voila!
A utility pole screams out to be used as such.
RealMiniParker wrote:759NRNG wrote: At first I was eyeballing the phone pole out front, but was told HELL no by SWMBO .Bad bad idea. At least if you're talking about the wooden variety. They may be made out of trees, but they certainly aren't as strong as trees.
Hmmm, I have an old utility pole (disconnected) that the responsible parties have failed to remove. And I always said body work is no fun. :)
I have pulled more things on cars with a chain and a truck. I found 4wl with someone keeping tension on something and the carful application of various hammers can un bend lots of things. The most recent was when my daughter rear ended a f150 with her Malibu. I moved the core support back out six inches or more and then secured many of f the plastic bits with zip ties. We then un bent the hood using a 2x4 under the frount and applied carful pressure with my foot and it came back to almost perfect. I got all the caps back and the hood to close like it should. The only damage left was a busted plastic grill a crack in the bumper cover and a small dented area on the passinger side leading edge of the hood.
RealMiniParker wrote:759NRNG wrote: At first I was eyeballing the phone pole out front, but was told HELL no by SWMBO .Bad bad idea. At least if you're talking about the wooden variety. They may be made out of trees, but they certainly aren't as strong as trees.
One of the many tangentially related lessons I learned from my high school physics teacher was that if you have the choice between driving into a phone pole or a tree, always take the pole. He was also a volunteer firefighter, so he'd seen some E36 M3.
multiple bent frames with a large cedar tree, a couple lengths of chain and an excavator with a full bucket of soil (for momentum) Works remarkably well.
After my girlfriend had an accident - nowhere near perfect but good enough to bolt stuff back together (with about half of the normal bolts on top of the front bumper). Total cost was (I think) around 500 for hood, bumper, fender, headlight.
Observe the super sketchy setup. That is a strap running from rock sliders on my Montero to the rear of the Miata.
Yes, I did something similar a few weeks ago. The top of the radiator support on my Mustang was bent a few inches. I bought a HF Receiver Tow Hook, a HF Lifting Sling, and a HF Towing Chain. I used my old HF 2 Ton Winch and some HD 3300lb Quick Links to tie it all together. I put the receiver tow hook in my RAV4, chocked both cars, and just used the winch to pull out the radiator support. It all worked better than expected. I did throw a heavy winter coat on the quick links in case they broke.
I have done a bit using a large tree and a come-a-along. the 3/4 ton van I pulled the front cross member out about 4-5 inches was heavy enough to anchor itself.
dj06482 wrote:
that's a good way to make a quick link fail. You are putting all the stress opposite the way it is meant to be used. Glad you put something over it, but a towing/lifting/pear ring would have made a better choice to hook it all together
759NRNG wrote: Who here has straightened bent metal with the topic items and assorted clamps/vise grips........oh and a hydrocarbon power source?
I have never done that.
Parking lot poles and tow straps, however, are very good for yanking bumpers, core supports, and tailgate frames straight enough to work.
In reply to Knurled:
I just happen to have a plethora of stumps from the drought of '10 in SE Texas 
In reply to mad_machine:
I wanted to make a run to the store to get the appropriate hardware, but my wife was impatient and said let's just try what we have
The hooks on the end of both the come-a-long and the trucker's chain were not optimal for what we were doing.
Furious_E wrote:RealMiniParker wrote:One of the many tangentially related lessons I learned from my high school physics teacher was that if you have the choice between driving into a phone pole or a tree, always take the pole. He was also a volunteer firefighter, so he'd seen some E36 M3.759NRNG wrote: At first I was eyeballing the phone pole out front, but was told HELL no by SWMBO .Bad bad idea. At least if you're talking about the wooden variety. They may be made out of trees, but they certainly aren't as strong as trees.
i can attest to this fact first hand, those wooden power/phone poles blow up into splinters when hit by a car.
this was a block away from my house, a van hit it on a 35 mph road, not sure if they tried to slow down but guessing it was around that speed. bottom half of the pole completely broke away leaving top half hanging from the wires. from what i could see on the van i doubt the core support even got bent, probably just needed a new bumper, grill, hood, and windshield. a tree would be much less forgiving.
edizzle89 wrote:Furious_E wrote:i can attest to this fact first hand, those wooden power/phone poles blow up into splinters when hit by a car.RealMiniParker wrote:One of the many tangentially related lessons I learned from my high school physics teacher was that if you have the choice between driving into a phone pole or a tree, always take the pole. He was also a volunteer firefighter, so he'd seen some E36 M3.759NRNG wrote: At first I was eyeballing the phone pole out front, but was told HELL no by SWMBO .Bad bad idea. At least if you're talking about the wooden variety. They may be made out of trees, but they certainly aren't as strong as trees.this was a block away from my house, a van hit it on a 35 mph road, not sure if they tried to slow down but guessing it was around that speed. bottom half of the pole completely broke away leaving top half hanging from the wires. from what i could see on the van i doubt the core support even got bent, probably just needed a new bumper, grill, hood, and windshield. a tree would be much less forgiving.
having worked as a subcontractor for the power companies, those poles are mostly dry rotted. I do not know about most power companies, but PSE&G has NO budget for maintenance, but pay a lot in insurance for when things break and need to be replaced. It works out cheaper than having crews running around replacing stuff before it breaks
edizzle89 wrote:Furious_E wrote:i can attest to this fact first hand, those wooden power/phone poles blow up into splinters when hit by a car.RealMiniParker wrote:One of the many tangentially related lessons I learned from my high school physics teacher was that if you have the choice between driving into a phone pole or a tree, always take the pole. He was also a volunteer firefighter, so he'd seen some E36 M3.759NRNG wrote: At first I was eyeballing the phone pole out front, but was told HELL no by SWMBO .Bad bad idea. At least if you're talking about the wooden variety. They may be made out of trees, but they certainly aren't as strong as trees.
I don't have paybucket, so I can't link the picture of the pole in front of my house, that got blowed up, presumably by a drunk driver, as it happened in the middle of the night and didn't stick around. I found a splinter of dark blue plastic, possibly from a side mirror, but nothing else among the shattered wood. The bottom of the pole was resting on the ground, however
Having been in the passenger seat of a car that hit a tree, I would not want to hit any tree.
I was hoping this was about pulling up tree stumps. 
mtn wrote: Having been in the passenger seat of a car that hit a tree, I would not want to hit any tree.
I've often heard it said that if you have a choice between a phone pole and a tree half its size, hit the pole.
I may or may not have chained the RF suspension of my idiot nephew's ancient Subaru to a construction dumpster, and then advised him on how hard and how many times to back up until the wheel was approximately centered in the wheel arch again after he ran it into a culvert.
My intention was that this would be enough for him to limp it 15 miles or so to the local indie Subaru shop for actual repairs.
His intention was apparently different because he promptly took off on a 300 mile round trip to see his ugly, evil, self-absorbed girlfriend of the time. Just one of many reasons I call him my idiot nephew.
As a surveyor, I survey a lot of power poles. They are usually tagged from their last inspection or 2 or 3. The oldest one I've seen was from 1952. Which means that pole has been in the ground since WWII.
So should I use the massive torque of the diesel to straighten the rear bumper on my too fiddy or chicken out and use a comealong?
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