women drivers!

Fordfarmer

Well-known Member
I feel safe posting this here, because 1) the women mentioned won't ever see this and 2) it's true.
A few weeks ago, my aunt called me and asked if I could get her car (it's a Chev Traverse or some-such) unstuck. She had turned too soon when backing out of her driveway, and put the right front wheel in the snowbank. Stuck, but not bad, and an easy mistake to make. Hook up with my truck, and wait for her to start it and put it in reverse. And wait. And wait. Finally hollered to her to ask her if she'd put it in reverse yet. (I knew it wasn't - no backup lights.)
Today, my Mom got stuck stuck in the same spot, for the same reason. Didn't have to prompt her to shift into reverse, but as soon as the slack was out of the chain and I had the car moving well, she hit the brakes! She thought she was going too fast and was going to back into my truck. She has a little Ford Focus, so my V10 F350 just dragged it back with all four wheels skidding.
My Grandpa must have had a LOT of patience, teaching eight daughters to drive, and having them help with planting and haying!
 
fordfarmer,


Having a few hens under my roof, I explicitly attempted to "train" these ladies to understand the vehicle and its dynamics. They all drive quite well.

D.
 
It's not just women drivers!!! 40 years ago, the new preacher at church had a Volkswagon that wouldn't run for some reason and needed towed to the dealer 35 miles away. Young and dumb, I offered to tow him there with my pickup. We got hooked up and took off down the road. MAN, that little car pulled HARD!! We finally got to the dealership and I mentioned that his car sure did pull hard. He said I was going too fast, so he rode the brakes all the way there. That was the last time I did that!!! Chris
 
Not just female drivers but many men are as bad. Like my now ded brother in law who drove into a ditch because he passed out behind the wheel. I pulled him out then got blamed that the car needed to be aligned and the reason it need to be was because I pulled him out not because he had driven into the ditch in the fist place
 
Reminds me of a time maybe 30 years ago. A buddy of mine had a Chevy pickup and a GMC pickup.

One COLD winter morning, he wanted to use the GMC. The Chevy started, but the GMC wouldn't. As the GMC was a stick shift, he decided to pull it with the Chevy. He put his wife in the GMC and he got in the Chevy. Pulled the GMC for a ways down the blacktop road in front of there place, but it wouldn't start. He switched places with his wife and she pulled him in the GMC with the Chevy.

My buddy noticed immediately that his wife had forgotten to turn the ignition on, and of course the GMC started right up. Then he couldn't get his wife to stop. At this point, his wife didn't know the GMC had started. He laid on the horn, and she ignored it. He finally decided that if he laid on the brakes, it might get her to stop. At the same time he stood on the brakes, his wife thought maybe they weren't going fast enough and got on the gas. The end result was the GMC's front bumper, parking lights, wiring harness, etc. were all strung out about 20 feet in front of it.

I'm not sure what happened next, but I heard it involved about 20 minutes of yelling by both parties.
 
Two high schools girls were stuck on ice one morning getting up their driveway. I wasn't much older. They asked me to help so I told 'em that I would give it a try. It was a little Mustang II model and I hated Fords. I revved that thing to the moon smoking the tires but got it up the driveway. The girl that got it stuck was mad as a hornet at me. I asked her if she wanted me to put it back.
 
Not a good idea to tow a car in reverse. Can be hard on the tranny.If it's stuck putting it in reverse does nothing. I always tell them to put it in neutral and let me do the pulling.
 
When you are doing a two person project like that, call her on her cell phone and talk her thru it. I do it with the Mrs. all the time. Cuts WAY down on the stress as the yelling to be heard is often taken as anger by the other person. A quiet explanation in their ear by phone really calms the waves...
Works better than you would expect.
 
If encounter this at work VERY frequently. I can under NO CIRCUMSTANCE hook my work truck to another vehicle unless it is one of our own, or a stuck police car or ambulance. I see both men and women stuck a lot, but usually it is a high school age girl or elderly lady that misjudged snow or slush depth and drove into it. Usually just a bit of shoveling around the tires and a scoop of sand tossed on top of the driving tires and they are on their way.

Ross
 
Back when we were fresh married the pickup battery died when it was parked in the garage. It had a straight stick. I hooked the tractor to it and had Marilyn get in the pickup. I told her to put it in reverse and after she was out of the garage and in the yard let the clutch out to start the engine. She was pretty good with a clutch, being a farm girl. It was my mistake to pull her backward because when she let out the clutch and it started here came the pickup toward the back of the tractor and a three point arm ended up sticking through the tailgate. I was upset and she walked to the house crying. I later admitted to making a bad situation worse.
 
I have backed tractors and wagons out of my driveway hundreds of times without hitting anything, but my wife can't back the car out without backing into something, that poor car is all banged up in the back. Whenever we go someplace together I drive, it is safer that way!
 
I got my pickup stuck once and asked her to back up while I pulled it out, she never stopped, so I had to keep pulling to keep her from running over me.
 
One thing I've noticed about women driving, it's either on the gas or on the brakes, nothing in between. Coming up on a car ahead or stop sign? Don't let off and coast, just keep the power on till you have to brake.
 
Yep, like it only has an on/off switch, but even that would be more evenly applied.

Ross
 
Ahh Mark
You must not have gotten the memo - that we are all perfectly equal.
Well, except for some small, immaterial things that only a sexist man would point out.
 
I had a very similar experience David. I had gotten my pickup stuck and drove my Oliver 77 down to pull it out. Let the wife run the 77 as it was questionable if it would pull it out unless things went perfect in the truck. I was able to get it out, and after I got out to unhook the chain, my wife let the tractor roll ahead and the chain was now tight again. I told her to back it up so I could unhook it. After she backed it up, she was holding the clutch down while I unhooked the chain. Her foot slipped off the clutch and she pinned me between my truck and the tractor tire before she was able to think to push the clutch down. Got lucky, all I got was a big bruise.

Ross
 
Some can and some cant. Maybe its training? Neighbor's daughter cant be more than 19 has been driving tractors and trucks for years. She drove a dodge cummins stick to high school. Drove by the hay field 4-5 years back and she was raking hay with Grandpa's restored 630 JD and a ten wheel rake. Sun was perfect and the long blond hair blowing, I still wish I'd a had a camera. It would have made many a calendar and farm book cover. Last fall I was over to the elevator and she pops out of the semi cab after unloading corn. You young guys are too late though. She's getting hitched this spring. They plan to farm.
 
As others have mentioned, it's not only women. A guy I worked with got off work and his car wouldn't start so he went to get a mechanic to bring him some gas. The mechanic brought some gas and dumped in the car. The guy got in the car and said, it still won't start. The mechanic said, it won't even turn over, your battery must be dead, so he jumped the battery. Still nothing, wouldn't turn over. So the mechanic got in the car and guess what the problem was.. The idiot didn't have it in park, still in drive. This poor guy had zero mechanical ability as you might guess. He should have felt really stupid but he didn't. So goes to show some men are not too bright about what makes a car tick..
 
A female friend of mine has had a 2016 Jeep with a manual transmission for about four months now (she had to search high and low to find one set up that way)
I was riding with her on the interstate the other day, and noticed she was running in fifth - I asked her why she wasn't shifting up to sixth - she said "this has six gears" ???
She drove it for 8'000 miles, much of it interstate, without using high gear...
 
The one time I was married for a couple of years back in the early 80's....it was raining and I was complaining about how the wiper blade was just smearing the water. My then wife, asked "Why is it that it's always the drivers side wiper blades go bad first?".

I explained to her that if the car is moving then that means that there is at least a driver in the car. So, the drivers side of the windshield gets used more than the passenger side.

She said "Oh, okay that makes sense."
 
My wife is a good driver going forward,but can't back up worth a darn. About 20 years ago she backed into one of our son's car in the driveway and convinced him it was his fault for parking there!
 
My wife has never had an accident; she has probably caused a few, but never had one herself. She is my only driver to get to all my medical appointments, so I keep my mouth shut!
 
We've driven a lot of junk in our 45 years married. Pulled many of them many times with a chain or tow strap. Don't even need to remind my wife what to do in the towed vehicle. She knows shes the one running the brakes, she knows to keep the slack out to eliminate the big jerk, knows to swing wide or short. Don't need to do it much anymore, but I know who I want in the towed vehicle. gobble
 
About six 10 months after I got married I ended up going to Saudi Arabia as part of Desert Shield/Desert Storm leaving my bride behind in Florida. We'd actually only been in Florida for about 8 or 9 weeks and only in our house for about 5 weeks before I got sent away. Florida has some pretty peculiar laws about license plates that maybe don't totally jive with the spirit of the Soldiers and Sailors relief act, and this was also when they were doing the big push on Impact fees and new tag fees. Bottom line is tags for her car (worth maybe $1,800-2,000) would be around $600, for my Mustang well over $1,000 since I bought the Mustang from my Dad in Michigan I never paid any sales tax as a transaction between family members was a non-taxable event. This really offended Florida and they wanted me to pay the sales tax. The wife was driving her car to work, the Michigan tags upset the university police so she started driving the Mustang. I get a letter from her that she's driving the Mustang but the gas mileage is really bad. A few days later I get another letter asking me if I knew I had a 5 speed in the Mustang. The University of South Florida Police were still PO'd that she was driving a car with Michigan tags and demanded I get at least Florida "Reg only" tags, yep I'm going to bop over to the Florida DMV office in Dhahran Saudi Arabia and pick 'em up on my day off. We also had an incident in the same Mustang during our honeymoon were I ended up with bruises on the front and back of my head from going to full boost with the turbo to smashing my face on the dash when she realized we were doing about 85 so she up shifted and hit the brakes. We have existed for the last 25 years as a happily married couple BUT anything she's going to drive regularly has had an automatic transmission.
 
Around 1974 I had a run in with a Women driver.......A Police Corporal. After issuing me a Speeding Ticket, I asked her if she would like to go for Coffee some time. The Red haired young Lady showed me the road and said "don't look back"......:)

Bob..
 
The young girl who runs the office for the local BTO (her Dad, herself and two brothers) is the fill-in semi driver for the grape harvesting crew. She loves our place, since they have to back the trucks up the 600 foot drive as there is insufficient room to turn them around here in the yard. It's really not that bad, if you can back in at night when the traffic out on the road is thinner.
 
After we got married. I was teaching my wife how to drive my Studebaker pickup. For some unknown reason at around 60. She shifted into reverse. After the smoke cleared. I got in cranked it up drove home.Don't know how but there was no damage.
 
part time pete:

Actually, that's quite understandable. Her gearshift probably reads R-1-2-3-4-5-OD , and she never realized that the Over Drive was actually High Gear. I've had passengers in my '88 GMC 4x4 P/U ask what the OD on my shifter as for, and mine reads 1-2-3-4-OD-R . What really confuses them is when I use the LOW & HIGH ranges on my transfer case as a "Brownie" and run it like a 10 speed.

:>)
 
Ultradog MN:

If we are all "perfectly equal", - then why would The Creator have gone to so much trouble to differentiate between the sexes and not just made us all UNISEX ???
 
Brown Swiss:

You got her the wrong type of vehicle. She needs a Mil Surplus ARMORED PERSONNEL CARRIER.

LOL
 
I knew the replies on this thread would be good reading! :)
I'm very well aware that it's not just women who are bad drivers, and that not all women are. Like the guy in the silo crew who tore down a couple silos here so we could build the milking parlor. He got stuck pulling out of the barnyard with a gooseneck trailer full of staves. I learned long ago to have the vehicles owner/driver attach the chain/strap. (Unless it's a woman - then I do it...because I'm sexist, you know. I also have a short chain with a hook designed to fit into those little oval holes in car frames. Much better than hunting for a spot a regular chain hook will fit.) He hooked the chain onto his radiator support. I got him out, but you can imagine the damage. He was NOT happy, but since he put the chain there, he didn't say much.
I like the idea of talking them through it with a cell phone. Hadn't thought of that.
 
I have to say your wife had some pretty good driving instincts if she kept a pickup on the road at 60 MPH with the rear axle locked!
 
When my sister was in grad school, she was the only one in her group that could back the boat in the river to collect water samples around the sewer plant.

The one kid tried to hot-rod it pulling the boat back out one day, and got the 2wd F250 stuck (and no cell service to call for help). There was a tractor and brush hog there, keys in it and a chain on the floor, so she pulled the truck out of the water.

On her third car, dad and I replaced her first Neon due to mom being an idiot, her second Neon rusted away around her, and she traded it on a Mazda 6.

Compared to my cousin, we started raking hay when we were in 6th grade. Hasn't had a car survive her ownership yet. Either wrecked or blown up. VW bug, Cutlass, her dad's Dodge pick-up, blew up her Chevy ptcruiser, got a 3/4-ton Chevy box (AKA H2) and took the transfer case out a month later. Can't tell you how many vehicles she's actually had, there was a couple late-model Blazers in there, too.
 

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