Working out in the field, which is to say, working in often times remote locations, can be tricky when something goes wrong with a vehicle. Our most recent equipment malfunction occurred with our Rhino trailer. Louis and Doug were returning from a long day out in the field when the trailer they were pulling suddenly wasn’t pulling any longer. The leaf spring on the trailer had snapped. Luckily they were only 20 miles from Pullman, and within cell coverage. They called David, who drove out to see what he could do to get them back on the road. David used a tie down strap from Northwest River Supply (aka a NRS strap) to connect the spring mount and the axle. They used the winch on the Rhino to help pull the axle back into position, and once the NRS strap was cinched up tight, they released the winch. They cut off the excess strap so it wouldn’t wrap around the wheel. FIELD FIX! Louis and Doug were able to drive back to Pullman, towing the trailer and Rhino, for a more official leaf spring replacement.
Amazingly, this is not the first time David has used a NRS strap to fix a vehicle. Back when Washington State University still had a CRM company, David and his crew were driving a WSU Suburban in remote Oregon with extremely bad “roads.” The vehicle vibrated so badly that the bolts to the transmission snapped off. The crew used a NRS strap to cinch the transmission back in place. FIELD FIX!
Needless to say, we’ll be heading over to Moscow, Idaho to pick up some additional NRS straps from Northwest River Supply!
