Hi Guys !

I'm sitting here on a Sunday morning all wound up on coffee and I came up with an idea for an after market accessory for Ford 4 wheel drive pickups.
First let me tell you a little story.

It was 1976, I had just gotten out of the US Army Airborne Infantry. My dad had a mail route called a "Star Route" and he used his influence to get me my own route. The contract involved hauling canvas bags of mail to various small towns out in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota. A cush job when the weather is good, but a little rough at times in the winter. My dad had a good route, all small towns very little mail, so he ran an F150 with a 302 V8. My route wasn't as good, I had one fairly large town on the end of the run, so I needed an F-250, it was a 1974 with a 360 V8 2 barrel carb, 4 speed manual with a granny 1st gear. Dad and me would go to the post office and load our trucks at about 4:30 in the morning, we each had CB radios and we would chat with each other as we went our separate ways, he went north I went east. It was a winter morning and it had been snowing heavily all night and still snowing.
We finally got out of range of each other and I was alone, the only vehicle on this little two lane road. I could see about a quarter mile ahead, sometimes less than that. 70 miles per hour, that was the only speed I knew, I was young and not very smart. I could not see the road because it was completely covered with snow, I navigated with the telephone poles. At times there were finger drifts across the road which were fun to plow through ! I felt very daring !
Finally I hit a fairly large snow drift and I noticed my headlights and dash lights dim, I must have gotten my alternator wet with snow, this made me look down at the instruments for an instant, then I looked back up at the road and there in front of me was the mother of all snow drifts !!!! The wind was from the north and this drift was thicker on the left side of the road, I had no time to even hit the brakes, I plowed into this drift, snow rolling over the hood, the truck followed the path of least resistance off to the right and into the ditch. My green F250 slowly tilted and tilted as I plowed through snow and finally came to a rest down in the ditch at a 45 degree angle, the engine died and there I sat. The out door temp was below zero and with no heat, it instantly got below zero in the cab. I had a little catalytic heater in the cab with propane bottles, so I lit that off. It helped but not a whole lot, my feet were starting to freeze.
My first thought was " I think I'm gonna die"

Well, I got on my CB radio and started calling for help. There was an interstate highway 4 miles south of me, and I could hear the truckers talking about me. Then I talked to a farmer with a base station. He had a 4 wheel drive pickup, and he found me but he couldn't get me out with his tow rope. Finally I had six 4 by 4's up on the road all hooked together with tow ropes like a train and they still couldn't pull me out. The two lane road was too slick. So we formed a line and passed the mail bags up like a bucket brigade and put the load in the 4 by 4's. They pulled me out with no problem then. Man was I happy to be out of the ditch !!! After I got loaded up again, I opened the hood on my F250 and the engine compartment was completely packed with snow !!!
No wonder it died ! So I took my hand and scooped out enough snow so the fan would turn and the belts would turn. I hit the key and the engine started right up. By this time it was almost noon, the sun was shinning and I could see where I was going, and the snow plows had cleaned the roads.

I took the long way around , but this brings me to the subject of engine compartment splash pans.
If a guy took sheet metal and did a fairly good job of sealing the bottom of the engine compartment, snow, water, mud wouldn't splash up on to the engine. You wouldn't want it too tight because you need air flow through the radiator..
Engine compartment splash pans were an after market option for the old 28 through 31 Ford Model A's.. I've seen them. They would be a good practical thing for a 4 wheeler out tromping around off the road. I think I'll put that on my list of things to do for my old truck. I'm a plumber working for a big sheet metal shop, the boys could whip out a set of pans for me no problem, I just draw it out on a sheet of paper.

Sorry for being such a long winded writer..

LeRoy Wolff
1984 Ford F150 2WD
300 six 3 speed with overdrive
optional dual rusted out fenders
truck's nick name "Old Red"