Battle Scars

DM Larson

Hall of Famer
Location
Southeast Idaho
Name
Dan
Post the wounds you've received in pursuit of photography. It can be damage to your camera gear, yourself, your sherpa, car, bike, dirigible, pack goat...

I don't know how many times I've dropped my poor Fuji 35mm f1.4. I've bent the hood pretty badly and had to use pliers to reshape it so that it doesn't vignette and so I can remove the lens cap. The lens still works great!

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Post the wounds you've received in pursuit of photography. It can be damage to your camera gear, yourself, your sherpa, car, bike, dirigible, pack goat...

I don't know how many times I've dropped my poor Fuji 35mm f1.4. I've bent the hood pretty badly and had to use pliers to reshape it so that it doesn't vignette and so I can remove the lens cap. The lens still works great!

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good thing it has a metal hood. If you destroy that you'll need a 3d printed one or go hard plastic
 
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This is mostly just cosmetic. I was camping near a trailhead in Southern Utah, planning to start hiking around sunrise. I had driven about 15 miles on a dirt road, most of which was fine for a passenger car, but there were a few washes I had to drive down into an up out that I needed the clearance on my truck. I knew that there was a chance of rain that night, but the sky looked fine before I went to bed. I took 50 mg of diphenhydramine to help me go to sleep. Around 11pm I woke up to a pouring rain. I was concerned that one or more of the washes I'd driven through might get washed out and made the decision to make a dash for the highway.

So there I was driving as fast as I could in a pouring rain, with very low visibility, middle of the night, groggy from sleeping pills, and sliding around on a very wet, clay surface.

I made it back to the highway with only minor damage to the metal plate that my trailer wiring was attached too (second picture, left of the hitch receiver).

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This is mostly just cosmetic. I was camping near a trailhead in Southern Utah, planning to start hiking around sunrise. I had driven about 15 miles on a dirt road, most of which was fine for a passenger car, but there were a few washes I had to drive down into an up out that I needed the clearance on my truck. I knew that there was a chance of rain that night, but the sky looked fine before I went to bed. I took 50 mg of diphenhydramine to help me go to sleep. Around 11pm I woke up to a pouring rain. I was concerned that one or more of the washes I'd driven through might get washed out and made the decision to make a dash for the highway.

So there I was driving as fast as I could in a pouring rain, with very low visibility, middle of the night, groggy from sleeping pills, and sliding around on a very wet, clay surface.

I made it back to the highway with only minor damage to the metal plate that my trailer wiring was attached too (second picture, left of the hitch receiver).

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Dan, lucky escape there!

If you haven't got a sump guard installed (bash plate, in USA parlance), check your sump (oil pan) and engine bay undershield for any damage.

Probably a good idea to have a sump and transmission protection plate/s fitted if you don't already have it/them.

Those plastic underguards just cushion the shock, they offer little to no protection for the sump or transmission housing.
 
Dan, lucky escape there!

If you haven't got a sump guard installed (bash plate, in USA parlance), check your sump (oil pan) and engine bay undershield for any damage.

Probably a good idea to have a sump and transmission protection plate/s fitted if you don't already have it/them.

Those plastic underguards just cushion the shock, they offer little to no protection for the sump or transmission housing.
That vehicle was a tried, true and trusty steed. I used it for a couple more years without much problem, then sold it when it was a little over 180,000 miles. My days of driving on really sketchy roads are probably over because I look back at some moments and shudder at what could have happened.
 
One winter a few years ago I drove to Gray's Lake National Refuge to get some sunrise photos. The refuge is not close to anything but it is just off a highway that had been plowed. Turning on to the road for the refuge I saw the landscape shot below and pulled over on the wide shoulder to get my shot. I thought I'd packed on a solid surface, but when I tried to drive away my car just slid further off the road. I tried digging out of the snow and threw down quite a bit of snow melt, but couldn't get unstuck. To my great good luck a large snowplow drove by not too long after I got stuck and offered to pull me out. The driver gave me a chain which I hooked up to what I thought was part of the car's frame. When the plow started forward, much to my horror, the front fender and grill ripped off the car and went flying down the road. Second time hooking up the chain did the trick and I got unstuck and back on pavement. After getting home I had to order a new fender and grill and was able to reattach them myself instead of taking the car to a body shop.

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One winter a few years ago I drove to Gray's Lake National Refuge to get some sunrise photos. The refuge is not close to anything but it is just off a highway that had been plowed. Turning on to the road for the refuge I saw the landscape shot below and pulled over on the wide shoulder to get my shot. I thought I'd packed on a solid surface, but when I tried to drive away my car just slid further off the road. I tried digging out of the snow and threw down quite a bit of snow melt, but couldn't get unstuck. To my great good luck a large snowplow drove by not too long after I got stuck and offered to pull me out. The driver gave me a chain which I hooked up to what I thought was part of the car's frame. When the plow started forward, much to my horror, the front fender and grill ripped off the car and went flying down the road. Second time hooking up the chain did the trick and I got unstuck and back on pavement. After getting home I had to order a new fender and grill and was able to reattach them myself instead of taking the car to a body shop.

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Dan, see that second from the left bolt hole in the frame?

There is a little square removable plastic piece in the polycarbonate bumper that you remove to get at it.

In your spare wheel well, there is a big strong 'rated' engineering bolt that screws into this (all the way!). Same at the back.

You can use this as an attachment point for recoveries, as per the user manual.
 
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