January-February - Air Defense Artillery

64
SAND AND DESElrrs
You can usually get through sand eyen when the
tires are buried if you keep moving fast enough because
the weight of the truck packs the sand underneath and
makes a hard surface. Letting air out of the tires to increase
flotation will help, but it won't if you have a long
way to go on the other side and can't stop to pump them
up again. Run the truck in the same track that other
trucks have made in the sand. Tearing down a chicken
or hog-wire fence and laying it over the 'worst patches
usually works swell-if the farmer's not around.
Tearing do~n a fence works swell.
THE COAST ARTILLERY JOUR~AL
Most of your sand driving will be in the desert. When
you are doing desert driving there are several tips that
may come in handy:
If you get in a sand storm, turn the truck down wind
and wrap paulins around the hood-top, sides and bottom-to
keep the sand out of the engine. Check your
air cleaners every day, and replace the filter element if
necessary. Make sure you know all the dope on map
reading in Chapter 11. Getting lost on the desert is no
joke.
If you are driving on sand that has a top hard crust, do
everything you can not to break through the crust.
Chains, or mud and snow treads do more harm than
good. Dual tires are not as good as single tires, because
the duals slice through the sand and cut the crust. If
you try and take a curve too fast, the front wheels can
easily get locked in the sand and turn the truck over.
Watch out for "rat holes." These are soft sand spots
caused by sand drifting over bushes and shrubs. If you
hit one of them, you'll be properly stuck. You can usually
recognize rat holes because they are lighter than the
rest of the sand around them.
The extreme heat in the desert will shrink all rubber
and cork gaskets. You'll find that your carburetor vvill
go wacky unless you tighten all the gaskets every couple
of days. The heat will also expand all your lubricants,
so keep lubricants af the minimum safe level. Too much
lube in the desert is as bad as too little. It will get hot,
expand and go busting through oil seals and make a fine
mess of things.
CROSSING STREAMS
The first thing to do in crossing streams is to take it
easy-so let's have a smoke and figure out how to get
Tmmarl'-Fehruary
.. -
through a creek that looks pretty deep. Pretty deep?
How deep? In summer you won't mind wading in to
find out, so go ahead. In winter you'll need a pole or
braI?ch to measure it. If the bank is plenty hard, and
you re sure you can get out, nose the truck in slowly,
ready to reverse the instant you think you can't make it.
Don't trust your eyes alone in a clear ~tream-water can
play funny tricks.
If the bottom is hard and you think you won't stick,
and if the stream is not deeper than the lowest vital unit
in the truck the water can damage-say the distributor or
generator-slip the fan belt off the fan. Loosen the nut
on the generator bracket and move the generator enough
to remove the fan belt. Why? To keep the fan from
splashing ,"vaterback over the engine and wetting the
ignition cables, the generator, the distributor, and the
plugs.
Charging into the water will send a wave over the
top, so take her through slowly in low and keep moving.
You'll have to consider the current when checking
the depth of a stream. A strong current will bank against
one side of the truck as much as a foot sometimes, and
drmvn you out when you thought you were safe.
Put the fan belt on again when you're on the other
side. You can't go very far with a boiling engine. Set
the fan belt to the tension the truck manual tells you to
and check the ignition system to see that no water is in
it. Slam the brakes on hard several times in the first
quarter mile to burn them dry. Check them carefully to
see if sand or mud got into 'em. Tell your section leader
if they're dirty.
If the bottom of the stream is soft, try the brushstraw-cornstalk
idea to strengthen the stream beds.
If the water is deep enough to go over the top of the
electrical units or the oil filler cap, better start swimming
if you're alone, or depend on the motor sergeant
to tell vou what to do if it's a convov. It's almost a third
echeJo~ job to prepare the truck ~nd put it together
again after deep sea navigation. \i\1rapping trucks in
canvas and floating them across is a new dodge, but you
can't do this bv yourself.
When you get back after a water crossing, check the
truck carefully to see if water has entered the transmission
or transf~r case through the breather holes. Inspect