I Leak Oil
Expedition Leader
With the amount of time spent on this thread you could have shoveled the thing out and driven away.
Soooo....I got stuck! Any recovery advice?
- Thread starter Silmarillion
- Start date
xplrn42
Adventurer
Cheers to that!!
Silmarillion
Observer
I'm out! More details in the morning, but in short, shovels and knock off maxtrax did the trick!
More pics, vids, and the whole story in the morning!
StreetsofCompton
Adventurer
I believe a golf clap is appropriate here. And a cheers to the Maxsa's! :beer:
patoz
Expedition Leader
Now we need a whole review on how the MAXSA Traction Mats did!
And, are they heavy duty and big enough to work with a full size F250 Super Duty truck?
I need a set for occasional use myself.
Campndad
Essayons!!
Silmarillion
Observer
All,
Thank you again for the great ideas in getting out! The "escaper buddies" were clutch! I'm convinced that if I had just had a set of these $140 tools and, not even shovels, the truck would not have gotten stuck for a week in the first place. They held up very well. I'm honestly glad I didn't have to use the ARB snatch strap as I was quite close to the edge of the pond and reaaaaaaaly didn't want to land in it. It would have been a bad angle for that method.
We arrive on site - my wife, brother, and friend whose property the LR3 was stuck on. We geared up and walked down to the stream/valley area. For the first round of recovery attempts, we brought 4 Maxsa escaper buddies/traction pads and shovels, and a hoe (not sure how that tool really made the cut, but it saw a little action).
First off, always remember to wear the appropriate safety gear. :archaeolo
We proceeded to dig out the wheels and place the traction pads under the rear side of the wheels. I chose to first attempt to go backwards because there was less mud behind us, and the vehicle was much much lower to the ground on the front side - it looked like going backwards first would be fighting less mud. I aired down the tires to 18psi (I had lowered them to about 22psi after I had gotten stuck).
I was slightly convinced that the front left escaper buddy would crack - it was placed at an angle for the best grip and the fact that there was a 3 inch log wedged under the vehicle from our prior attempts to free it when it first got stuck. It couldn't angle straight back like the other pads.
The vehicle quickly caught traction and easily lifted itself out of the mud.
I got out, assessed the situation, and my brother and friend were convinced I needed to go forward with a strong accelleration and head for the middle of the road.There was very little usable space behind the rover, so it made some sense to angle towards the middle of the road, try to go through the thick of it and get to a clearing at the other side.
It took about 3 feet to get stuck again hah. BUT, instead of all 4 tires being stuck deep in the crap, only the left two were.
We then slowly worked out way out, going back and forth until the vehicle was clear of the mudpit/slope
notice the big mud pit that we end up on the edge of - we were worried that if it slid 1.5ft down into that, it would be much harder to get out. We eventually placed a trax directly under the front left tire and used that to avoid slipping down the mud slope as we backed up the vehicle, moved foward to the right, backed up, moved forward to the right, in very slow adjustments.
After we felt we were not at risk of sliding into the bog, we decided to go for it on the "road" again. We walked it to find the firmest spots and picked a path.
My buddy really did yell at me to stop while I was right in the middle of the muddy road, I slowed down for a brief second and put the peddle back down - I was NOT going to do that again!
I did a 30 point turn, we laid out the trax over the spots we thought were the most slippery, and headed back to the other side with no problems. My wife was really good at making stressed out noises throughout the whole filming process haha
If you're on a budget, the bike pump does get the job done! It also was much safer than my brother's crappy cig lighter socket air pump which we found smoking in the socket! It started to melt. Good thing we caught that!!
I got a Viar 400p for my birthday a few days later (bad timing huh?)
And of course, we blew off some steam shooting guns post rescue.
For detailed and close up pics of the Maxsa Escaper Buddies / Maxtrax knockoffs, go here - http://imgur.com/a/DMszB
- this is the worst of the damage.
I found that they held up very well. One board had a small crack in one of the support fins. I plan to contact them to find out if that is a warranty item, or if it's normal wear and tear. My guess is that this was the one that was placed at a weird angle under the front left tire. There was also signs of plastic stress - when it turns white under pressure. It does not look excessive though. The nubs held up very well.
I would highly recommend buying a set of those Maxsa! I've never used maxtrax before, but I can only guess that at half the price AND free 2 day Prime shipping, it's a fantastic value.
Thanks again for the help y'all!
Thank you again for the great ideas in getting out! The "escaper buddies" were clutch! I'm convinced that if I had just had a set of these $140 tools and, not even shovels, the truck would not have gotten stuck for a week in the first place. They held up very well. I'm honestly glad I didn't have to use the ARB snatch strap as I was quite close to the edge of the pond and reaaaaaaaly didn't want to land in it. It would have been a bad angle for that method.
We arrive on site - my wife, brother, and friend whose property the LR3 was stuck on. We geared up and walked down to the stream/valley area. For the first round of recovery attempts, we brought 4 Maxsa escaper buddies/traction pads and shovels, and a hoe (not sure how that tool really made the cut, but it saw a little action).
First off, always remember to wear the appropriate safety gear. :archaeolo
We proceeded to dig out the wheels and place the traction pads under the rear side of the wheels. I chose to first attempt to go backwards because there was less mud behind us, and the vehicle was much much lower to the ground on the front side - it looked like going backwards first would be fighting less mud. I aired down the tires to 18psi (I had lowered them to about 22psi after I had gotten stuck).
The vehicle quickly caught traction and easily lifted itself out of the mud.
I got out, assessed the situation, and my brother and friend were convinced I needed to go forward with a strong accelleration and head for the middle of the road.There was very little usable space behind the rover, so it made some sense to angle towards the middle of the road, try to go through the thick of it and get to a clearing at the other side.
It took about 3 feet to get stuck again hah. BUT, instead of all 4 tires being stuck deep in the crap, only the left two were.
We then slowly worked out way out, going back and forth until the vehicle was clear of the mudpit/slope
notice the big mud pit that we end up on the edge of - we were worried that if it slid 1.5ft down into that, it would be much harder to get out. We eventually placed a trax directly under the front left tire and used that to avoid slipping down the mud slope as we backed up the vehicle, moved foward to the right, backed up, moved forward to the right, in very slow adjustments.
After we felt we were not at risk of sliding into the bog, we decided to go for it on the "road" again. We walked it to find the firmest spots and picked a path.
My buddy really did yell at me to stop while I was right in the middle of the muddy road, I slowed down for a brief second and put the peddle back down - I was NOT going to do that again!
I did a 30 point turn, we laid out the trax over the spots we thought were the most slippery, and headed back to the other side with no problems. My wife was really good at making stressed out noises throughout the whole filming process haha
If you're on a budget, the bike pump does get the job done! It also was much safer than my brother's crappy cig lighter socket air pump which we found smoking in the socket! It started to melt. Good thing we caught that!!
I got a Viar 400p for my birthday a few days later (bad timing huh?)
And of course, we blew off some steam shooting guns post rescue.
For detailed and close up pics of the Maxsa Escaper Buddies / Maxtrax knockoffs, go here - http://imgur.com/a/DMszB
I found that they held up very well. One board had a small crack in one of the support fins. I plan to contact them to find out if that is a warranty item, or if it's normal wear and tear. My guess is that this was the one that was placed at a weird angle under the front left tire. There was also signs of plastic stress - when it turns white under pressure. It does not look excessive though. The nubs held up very well.
I would highly recommend buying a set of those Maxsa! I've never used maxtrax before, but I can only guess that at half the price AND free 2 day Prime shipping, it's a fantastic value.
Thanks again for the help y'all!
Last edited:
verdesardog
Explorer
It seems as if hilifts scare the crap out of YOU. YOU are not everyone!
StreetsofCompton
Adventurer
Super thorough update and love the visual from the pics/vids. Glad the Maxsa's were up to the challenge!
Silmarillion
Observer
They do not appear to interlock and stack on top of each other. The cross section pics from earlier show the plastic struts that support the structure - these stop them from nestling together I believe. I think it would improve storage but perhaps hurt strength. I will post a better stack pic tomorrow.
They do have holes in the corner that you could use to put a mounting rod through. I was able to secure a stack of 4 together at hwy speeds of 70mph with 3 rubber bands and the features of the Frontrunner rack.
