Max in the water - unintentionally

[IanPNG]

Just to clarify he wasn't trying to shift on the steep hill. If you look at the second picture you can see the guy standing at the top and up there it is pretty much flat. Until this incident I would have said it was flat, but now I have to change my opinion of that.

We debated where to pick it up, but since the roll bar was the only thing that was above the water we went with that. We actually used the bars twice, once to get it out and when towing it back was turning into a pain to load it onto a truck. We went really slowly to let the water drain out as much as possible to reduce the water weight we were lifting, and hence reduce the chance of twisting anything important. Once the grating at the side was clear of the water we moved it as slowly as we could to get the water to drain out the holes at the back.

Edit: Well we think that we finally got the full story out of our workers. Rolled 3 times end over end going down the hill and landed on its wheels in the water. Good thing that Ailia (pronounced i-lie and the one smiling in the pictures) bailed or he would be hurting right now. We are all thrilled at the abuse these things can take without major damage, although we would all be happier if the abuse hadn't been tested in the way it was.

[Russell King]

You may also need to change the fluid in the transmission (a couple of times). It has a vent in the upper plug and water probably got in the transmission also. Please check anyway.

[IanPNG]

We have 2 Buffalo's and 2 VI's at my site, but one buffalo has basically been stripped for parts so we just swapped out the tranny from that one. We learned a lot in the first couple of months of having them and are still waiting to get the rest of our parts after all the unintentional damage they took at the start. Takes forever and a day to get things out where I am so we have been using 1 to support all the others. We did flush all the fluid in the one that sunk but without the positrack additive (good luck finding that on an island in PNG where, besides our site, there is 1 car or truck) we just put it on the shelf.

[Noel Woods]

This proves my point, folks that didn't actually pay for a machine are always the ones to drive it the worst. I've never rolled or sank an aatv and have been driving them for close to fifty years. Have had close calls but nothing like this.

Another point, those holding brakes aren't really designed for a near vertical descent. I've always thought the holding brakes were best for driving the machine off the ramp of the trailer.

[hydromike]

This proves my point, folks that didn't actually pay for a machine are always the ones to drive it the worst.

I concur...