Your worst "stucks" and how you got out

[RoundOut]

I thought it would be fun to start a thread where you could post some pics of your worst predicaments and describe the steps you took to recover your vehicle and the lessons learned that we can all benefit from. There are a ton of great stories out there, so let's be honest and share some great war stories!

When describing your situation, be sure to include...

• Setting, i.e. location, time of day, season of the year, ground conditions, temperature, and any other factors influencing the gravity of the predicament
• Your level of experience at the time of the incident
• Your vehicle and who you had with you, i.e. passengers/other vehicles/their drivers, their experience
• What equipment you had
• What equipment you needed and didn't have
• How you freed or repaired the vehicle
• Lessons learned

I have two funny stories, but I'll just tell one first...

We went on a day trip to General Sam's Offroad Park near Huntsville, TX. It was the last day of a three day weekend in the spring of 2006, and we didn't get their until around 1:00 p.m. Monday. The weather was pretty nice and not really a factor, except for the amount of rain that was received recently. General Sam's is a pretty muddy place and with the extra rain, even the dryer areas were pretty muddy and ALL the mud holes had lots of water on top.

My truck had the equipment it has now, 3" lift up front, 285/75R16 BFG ATs w/ about 1/2 to 2/3 of the tread left, high-lift, come-along, shovel, straps, shackles, etc. The tires were aired down to about 20 pounds from their street pressure of about 55.

We had been at General Sam's several occasions before, so we pretty much knew what to expect... lots of mud holes, many of which are too deep to pass through without tons of modifications, don't enter without other vehicles around to help get you out, etc. I was determined to avoid getting stuck this trip, since there were far fewer vehicles around to play with. We hooked up with two ATVs that were having a ton of fun. :roost: They were impressed by my Tundra's abilities to navigate some of the challenging holes, but I had a pretty good idea of what to avoid already.

We came up on a deep ditch, maybe 20-25 feet down and 75 feet across at the top. The bottom had a go-around on the left side and a mud hole on the right side. We (one of the ATV drivers) stuck the hole to see how deep it was below the surface of the water, and I decided to go for it. Down one side and splash, squish, thug. We stuck it way down and were relegated to entering and exiting from the passenger side door because of the water being almost up to the driver's side rear view mirror. I was pissed that I let the ATV riders talk me into this. :violent-smiley-031:

No amount of rocking or lower tire pressure was going to bail me out of this one. I was stuck up against a steep bank on the other side of the mud hole and my vehicle sat at least at a 25-30 degree pitch nose down, and the truck was leaning at about a 25-30 degree roll to the left, see the photo.

There were no other trucks or jeeps around, so first, we hooked up to the ATVs and they just dug deep holes with their spinning tires.

We looked into my assortment of recovery equipment and decided to pull out my come-along and my high lift jack and use them both to attach to some trees about 20 feet ahead on the right and to the d-rings on my front bumper. We dug out the tree straps, and the hand-winching equipment and started cranking. It took forever, it seemed like, a few inches on one, then a few inches on the other, inching the vehicle forward each time, climbing in and out the passenger door to keep the driver side dry. We had to adjust the length of the straps regularly, because the travel on the high-lift and come-along is pretty limited.

Finally, after about an hour and a half, we had pulled the truck up high enough to get some traction. If I had an electric winch, this would have been a 10 minute exercise, at best. Because we used yank straps to reach the trees, we had extra cranking on the come-along and the high-lift, as the yank straps are somewhat elastic. Better to have had a chain or wire rope for this job, if relegated to come-alongs and high-lift cranking.

Lessons learned:

1. Plan ahead instead of waiting until the last minute to sneak away. Always arrive at General Sam's on Friday night and camp all weekend for max enjoyment. Waiting until the last day of a three-day weekend stinks because most of the other vehicles and drivers are at least packing up, if not gone already.
2. Make sure it is a similarly sized vehicle that you travel with. ATVs cannot pull out a truck in most circumstances.
3. Measure obstacles such as water depth and mud depth yourself, or have a trusted spotter that knows your vehicles capabilities do it.
4. Winches, even hand winches, are better than come-alongs and high-lift jacks in these situations.
5. Yank straps are great for vehicle to vehicle pulls, but not for winching.
6. Mud terrain tires with deep lugs may have helped some, but I am pretty sure I'd still have been stuck in this hole.
7. If you need your white raised letters cleaned, spin your tires in thick mud under water for an extended period of time. It's amazing how white they are after rinsing off the polishing compound (read sandy mud).
8. Cleaning your white-raised letters as mentioned above will also polish (read: destroy the finish on) your powder-coated alloy rims.
9. Cleaning your white-raised letters as mentioned above will also allow small pebbles and mud to enter the vent space between the business sides of your brake rotors. Later on, when driving around town, such small rocks will come free at the worst possible time, lodging between the rotor and dust shield, causing ridiculous screeching sounds at the most embarrassing moments, let alone whatever damage that imposes on your brake rotors.
10. To remove lodged rocks and pebbles from your brake rotor, jack up the vehicle, remove the tire, and spray the rotor with water, spinning as required, until all stones and mud have fallen out. Measure the volume of stones to show off to your friends. "My rotors held all this, plus a couple cups of mud and sand, I bet yours won't hold that many after a 45 minute ride home from the off road park!" Spend another 30 minutes cleaning up the driveway from all the stones, sand and mud now laying down the driveway. This also pleases the Mrs. (which is always a good idea).

 

[Bergger]

View attachment 5497

My neighbors worst stuck! September 2004 during our annual neighborhood Labor Day camping trip. We were camping up at Leadville CO and did the Mosquito Pass trail in the morning. About 1530 hrs my neighbor and his wife decide to go back into the area alone to just drive some of the "easy" side trails. Says they will be back around dinner time. Well dinner comes and goes and they don't show up. About 1900 hrs we go looking for them and have no luck. It's getting dark and we head back into town hoping they are there getting a bite to eat. We don't find them so we notify the police they tell us to go back to camp and they go looking for them. By this time the temp is already down below freezing. So we go back to camp and proceed to divy up my neighbors beer. He always brings the good stuff and we figure he's not coming back! :ylsmoke: About 2230 the sheriff pulls up with him and his wife but no truck. After wondering where all his beer went he tells us the following story. That they went down a side trail and came across a mud hole that obviously had been crossed many times before. He could tell this by the tire tracks and the numerous winch marks on the trees. His Dodge has a 3" lift, 33" tires and a winch so he figures he can make it. Well he gets stuck immediately and ends up breaking his winch cable 3 times. After spending about 3 hours trying to get out he gives up. We find out later he was hung up on a submerged log. By this time it's getting dark and cold and they are both soaking wet. They can't start the engine and stay in the truck since the exhaust is sunk well below the mud. After walking for about 2 miles the sheriff finds them and takes them out. The next morning we were able to pull it out with 2 fullsize heavy duty trucks with tow straps. Lessons learned. Do not go wheeling by yourself. Do not get overconfident just because you have a winch. Be prepared, with necessary survival equip, to spend a night or longer out in the bush.

 

[crawler#976]

I'm not stuck, but it looks cool...

...had to drive thru a pool of water - wet tires didn't stick to the 3" wide ledge on the wall of the crack. When the rear dropped in, I got hung on the rear diff. Just backed off and took another line.

________________________

My worst "stuck" was flopping the truck on an easy local trail. I had the doors off on a nice late summer afternoon, that's as close to a open top as a Toy can get. Unfortunately when the rig landed, so did my left shoulder - causing a grade 3 seperation. After crawling out thru the passengers opening, I evaluated the situation and decided I had no choice but to roll the rig back on it's wheels. It was about 4:30 PM, and I was about 7 miles off the main road in a deep canyon with no cell or radio comms available. It took a while to set up the chains, tree saver, and strap to a Hi-Lift and come-a-long, but eventually I got the truck back on all four. The come-a-long was used to pretension the strap/chain combo since the Hi-Lift has a short range of pulling distance. The truck started fine but smoked for a bit after being on it's side for a couple hours - it took a while to get things done one handed. After stowing the gear, I turned around and headed home prior to going to the Emergency Room for treatment. That was a long afternoon and evening...I didn't get home until after 8PM after driving over 40 miles in ever increasing pain - the shock had worn off long ago.

Equipment:

30' x 3" strap
20' 5/16" grade 8 chain w/ hooks
48" High Lift
high quality 2 ton rated come-a-long
various shackles
Tree saver strap

Lessons:

1. Don't get stupid when wheeling alone...the rock I was playing on is now called "Stupid Rock" as a reminder.

2. If you're properly prepared, even in less than ideal conditions you can recover or repair your rig.

3. Even if I had not been able to get the rig on all four, I knew that eventually help would arrive. As is my normal practice, I had left detailed directions on where I was going, and how long I expected to be gone. Fortunatly, I didn't exceed my set time to make contact - when I finally made it out far enough to get cell service, it was just after 7PM. After 9pm, my wife would have initiated a search and rescue party.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Little deeper then I thought. Reference: the Middle of the head light is 40 inches off the ground.

It was one of them sucker holes. The passenger stood on the slider and stepped off onto firm ground. I had muddy watter up to the brake peddle. Had a buddies soft doors, camping gear, my camping gear in the back. I knew that as soon as the truck came up I needed to open the door to keep all the stuff in the back dry. What I didn't notice is I had leaned on the door lock. :smilies27

So by the time I go the door unlocked and open I was well out of the hole. Got it open just in time to keep our stuff dry.

Buddy pulled me out with a strap.

The people watching wished I had got it open sooner because the tidal wave that came out almost washed them away . :REExeSwimmingHL:

 

[Nullifier]

It actually took 3 jeeps to get me out. The ground was like peanut butter and since everyone was rolling on slicks they kept getting pulled in by the winch LOL!

 

[devinsixtyseven]

I have no pics, but here are two.

First time was at the Badlands. Rear axle got hung on a small but tenacious root ball, and backing up on the muddy, loam surface put the truck straddling the small downed tree. After a lot of futile efforts trying to pull the truck forward with another truck--the other truck was sitting in wet, mud filled clay tracks--we set up some rocks and a couple 2x4s and I drove over it.

Lesson learned: Use your head, not your right foot, when trying to recover a vehicle.

Need to bring: Something short to bridge with.

Second time was in deep, bottomless sand where the top was wet with rain and completely packed the tires. Using bridging ladders, we got everyone out.

Lesson learned: Don't go through deep sand/snow/whatever in a heavy truck at street pressure. Also don't go farther DOWN than you know you can go back UP (this lesson is still sinking in). Good advance planning (shovel, bridging/sand ladders) makes getting unstuck easier, as does a group of people. Use 4LO to save the tranny (not my mistake) and keep your momentum if possible (my mistake). Don't venture out on wet sand without being properly prepared.

Need to bring: More common sense, usually learned through situations like this.

-Sean

 

[michaelgroves]

Here's a bad stuck on Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni.

It promised to be a full day's work (or two) with high-lift jacks, shovels, spare-wheels, and sand-ladders, but luckily after an hour or two, we managed to get a 4WD tractor to pull us out (not without a lot of difficulty!).

 

[Clutch]

One of my worst stucks was in a 4X4, but not a truck.

I used to work for my family business building swimming pools.

One job was quite nasty, on a steep slope in greasy clay, with a very narrow entry into the back fill area, barely enough to get the skid-steer into. At first I was very cautious. Then I got more comfortable...a little too comfortable, I slid the machine into the 40" trench almost flipping into the new pool. Luckily the steel supports were strong enough to prevent that from happening.

We just hooked on two come-a-longs to the side and slowly put tension on them and let the machine walk itself out.

You should of seen the look on the owners face when when I said, here take my wallet incase I get wet.

Got the machine out...and back to work. I buried that machine two other times at that job too. That job was wet greasy mess. I had to bring out another one to pull the mine out. What should of taken a couple hours took two days.

 

[Super Doody]

MUD sucks...these threads confirms that. Glad you all you guys go out safe.:26_7_2:

 

[CLynn85]

One of my worst stucks was in a 4X4, but not a truck.

I used to work for my family business building swimming pools.

One job was quite nasty, on a steep slope in greasy clay, with a very narrow entry into the back fill area, barely enough to get the skid-steer into. At first I was very cautious. Then I got more comfortable...a little too comfortable, I slid the machine into the 40" trench almost flipping into the new pool. Luckily the steel supports were strong enough to prevent that from happening.

We just hooked on two come-a-longs to the side and slowly put tension on them and let the machine walk itself out.

You should of seen the look on the owners face when when I said, here take my wallet incase I get wet.

Got the machine out...and back to work. I buried that machine two other times at that job too. That job was wet greasy mess. I had to bring out another one to pull the mine out. What should of taken a couple hours took two days.

Had a very similar one a couple months ago, wish someone took pictures. Sunk one of the school's 4wd JCB backhoes into a wet area where a creek once ran. We walked it first and decided it'd be ok. No dice. Sunk it all the way to the axles, couldn't pull myself out with the hoe. Had to get another 4wd Deere to drag it sideways and back out. What a mess. The Ag department here wasn't too happy with me.....

 

[RoundOut]

Here's my first one, at Big Bend

This is copied directly from a post at Tundrasolutions. For some background... the "washes" are the arroyos, and we bought our new vehicles in late July 2003. See some addendums at the bottom.
-----------------------------------------------------

My first really off-road experience
My Tundra is about three weeks old and my wife's Sequoia is about two weeks old, so we want to test our new 4WDs up against Black Gap Road in Big Bend National Park and do some hiking for a vacation. On the way to Big Bend, I stopped at a hardware store in Del Rio and purchased a come-along, some tow-strap, a shovel, and a garden hose and nozzle. Little did I realize that there are no faucets to be found within 80 miles of Big Bend.

My wife and daughter came a day after I did, so my son and I couldn't wait to get to Black Gap Road. It was no challenge for my pretty stock (in terms of lift, approach and departure angles) Tundra. It was a lot of fun and my son and I tested our manhood. LOL. We came through with just a few minor paint scratches where the stiffer brush scraped along the dusty side panels.

We were hiking in the mornings and 4-wheeling in the afternoons. On Friday morning, we set out for the southwest corner of Big Bend and then to go to Terlingua for dinner. We stopped at Castalon to get refreshments and then headed for Santa Elena Canyon to hike. The road between Castalon and Santa Elena Canyon has many spots where the desert drains over the road during heavy rains. In a new 4WD, it was very difficult to pass these up as lost opportunities to get dirty, even if it was breaking the rules.

We past a couple, then a really wide one showed up. I radioed to the wife that I would check it out and then call her in if it looked OK. I figured that we would not run over any cactus or brush in a dry creekbed, so we wouldn't hurt anything. (Big mistake)

We were about 1/4 to 1/2 mile into the wash and the terrain began to soften so I figured it was time to turn around. I made the mistake of not staying on the high side, as there were about a couple inches of difference from the left down to the right. The crust on the right turned out to be only an inch or so thick, even though the top looked just like the left, all cracked and dry. Beneath the crust was a brown pudding that was as fragrant as raw sewage. A rookie four-wheeler, I buried the truck almost up to the frame before giving up. I was at about a 30 degree angle from the imaginary perpendicular line away from the right bank, facing slightly up-creek (no pun intended).

I radioed my wife who was laughing at Mr. Macho in his first new truck, stuck in the mud. She pulled up close enough to help me and stuck herself over a small berm, high-center style. Fortunately, we were close enough to use my strap and come-along to pull her off the berm. She re-aligned and came up closer to help pull me out. We cranked on the come-along and realized that we were pulling her vehicle across the cracked-mud surface instead of pulling mine out.

We then tried to hook up to a mesquite tree on the bank close to me. We decided that laying some rocks in the mud in front of the tires to support it was a good idea. We spent the next 30-45 minutes baking in 110 F (and I don't mean Fahrenheit) degree heat, looking for adequate rocks a hundred yards in each direction and lugging them back to the stuck truck's departure path. We were able to move the truck a few feet, but without being able to unhook the strap and come-along, I couldn't get after it and pull out. Instead, we were more stuck in the softer mud.

After about another half hour of digging, baking (and handling red-hot rocks), we decided we should lock the truck, drive the Sequoia to Castalon, throw ourselves at the mercy of the Park Rangers, and get a tow truck to pull me out. Fortunately, we got out in her Sequoia and made it to Castalon. About 45 minutes later, a nice Ranger gave me a ticket with a fine, radioed for a wrecker to come from Terlingua, and left. I sent the wife and kids on to Santa Elena to have fun. I figured I'd get towed out, pay the wrecker and end of story. Not so.

By now, it is about 6:07 p.m. and the Ranger drives back up. He said he was going to get a drink from the Castalon store, but they were closed now and he just sat down to chat. I thought it was just small talk. He left about 15 minutes later. I turned my radio back on and my wife was trying to reach me. She had been pulled over by a Park Ranger and Border Patrol agent and interviewed to see if we were up to more shenanigans than our hard-luck story.

Come to find out, people actually drive new vehicles to points along the Rio Grande and trade them to Mexicans for drugs. They asked my wife a bunch of questions until they realized we were just stupid new 4WD owners looking for some trouble to get into and out of.

Finally the wrecker shows up in a VERY HEAVY 4WD pickup without duallies. I thought OH NO! He is heavier than me. Then a river adventure guide with an F350 with a huge lift and giant tires shows up. The wrecker driver explains that it is $75 an hour to get me out and if he gets stuck, the other guy gets $50 an hour. The clock already started when they left Terlingua an hour ago and stops when they return.

We get into the creek bed and this wrecker driver is just putting in. I said he had better get a head of steam and make it to some of the higher rocky areas or he is going to get stuck deeper than me. I asked him, why doesn't the other guy just go in and get me, as his rig was suited for the job. We got out and walked to my truck to look, as did the other guy.

Well, they stretched out about 175 feet of wire rope and hooked me up to the Adventure guy's winch. They told me to put it in drive and steer straight for the winch. It worked. After about 40 feet of slowly surfing mud, my vehicle found solid dry mud and came up. They waved me forward and I took off to a rocky spot and let them unhook me. We all hauled ****** up-creek to the road. By this time, it is every bit of 7:30 p.m. We get to the road, and they said they would meet us in Terlingua at the ATM to get paid. They only charged me $300 for the pull. They were very honest and kind, as they could have screwed me for just about anything, after all, our trucks still didn't even have license plates yet. LOL.

I got on the road, and as soon as I got up past 25, my wheels and steering wheel were bouncing like they were square. The wrecker driver was hauling butt and I was losing ground fast. I had to get the mud off my rims. I thought they would shoot me if I tried to stiff them, but that was not my plan. I just hoped they knew that. Soon, the Adventure guy came up and I explained that I sent my wife ahead to pay them and I would stay here and try to scrape mud off my wheels.

About 9:15, I got to Tivos Mexican Restaurant and they were holding it open past 9:00. I was exhausted, embarrassed, humiliated, and felt like an idiot for doing something I know better than doing anyhow. I was breaking rules that I shouldn't have, too. What a fool I felt like, but it hopefully is a good lesson for my kids to learn to obey ALL the rules.

$400 later and a few cuts in my bumper cover, my truck is fine. I am still ashamed of my mistake, but look forward to future off-road adventures where I don't break any rules, I am better equipped, and I am with someone who knows what the heck they are doing. As for the bumper cover, my new Tough Country bumper is going to be ready later this week, so the OEM one will just be less valuable on ebay. We will look good as new (with more mods) in a few more days.

Addendums:

• Terlingua and Study Butte are small towns. When I filled up with gas in Study Butte, the clerk at the station asked if I was the one that got stuck in Big Bend? I was the laughing stock of the town.
• They really appreciate their water in that part of the country. I offered to rent a spot at the [EMPTY] RV Park for the whole night, if they would just let me rinse the remaining mud from the inside of my rims. NOPE. It took me about 5 gallons of water the next morning, one gallon at a time, rinsing the tires/rims after removing them from my truck. I had scratched the stock rims with my lame cleaning tools before leaving Big Bend.
• Biggest lessons were ones on knowing my vehicles limitations and obeying ALL RULES.

 

[fbksurferjoe]

This was the second week i owned the truck. The story goes like this. I took my truck earlier in the day to get my stock tires replaced with BFG MT. Conveniently it had been raining all week. When i got my truck back i showed one of my friends and we decided to go break the tires in. The spot we chose was a small offroad spot approx 2 minutes from my house. We had fun for a while doing donuts and going through some big mud puddles, basically just getting the truck dirty.
We then decide to drive down a creek bed that had about a foot of water in it. Harmless right? Well it was all fun and games until my front end literally dropped into quick sand, my tires never spun i didnt apply the brakes it just sank. Well luckily i was in 2wd so i switched it into 4wd and tried to back out. The back tires sank as well . After trying various digging techniques i couldnt get out. Little did i know of the potential of a tacoma 4wd with MT. My last ditch decision was to put in D and punch it as hard as i could, when i did this i sank even more at first but the Tires dug in and i came right out of the mud. I havent been stuck since.

 

[4x4freedom]

more stucks

Hello,

I've assembled a small page on my site that covers some of the "stucks" I've been involved with. You can check it out here:

http://www.4x4freedom.com/spots_of_bother.htm

One of my favorites was my first Mog Stuck. Pretty much just dove into a small section of what appeared to be just soft mud, turned out it was a small field of muskeg. The Jeeps on the trail had trouble in front of me so I knew it was going to be a tough crossing. Helmut sunk up to the axles just sitting on it. We broke the winch cable out front and had to use the rear Milemarker to get it out. Funny part was, you could hear the water under the truck as he sank, just like parking on top of a big sponge. Sometimes the weight can be bad....

Tim
www.4x4freedom.com

 

[adventureduo]

One of the worsts times i've ever had was on a trail called Wreckingball here in socal in Johnson Valley(some of the toughest trails in the country). I just had broken a Warn Full Float hub and it was raining off and on all day. Well of course as i got up on this ledge and broke the the hub it started pouring. We could hear the water running down the canyon before it even got to us. Was freaky. We all took high ground cause we didn't know how big the flash flood was going to be. Needless to say i had to put my spare hub on and removed the 2 feet of rocks/small boulders that came tumbling down onto the front axle.

I remember standing on the rock and saying "im never getting my rig back"
Guess i'll just call insurance and say it's going to be a total loss.

The hub blew to pieces and flew past my driver's window at such a high rate of speed
it sounded like a gun shot near my ear. Glad nobody was hit by the metal.

I don't know how we even made it out of that trail... but we did. I'll never ever forget this trip.
I swore i was done with rockcrawling at the end of this trip.

Broken parts that day:
-Rear tail light
-bent tie-rod
-broken hub
-dent in the side of the quarter panel
-dent underside of kaymar bumper

Guess that's what i get for leading SWB vehicles up a tight trail.

 

[RoundOut]

There was a pretty funny article in the current 4 Wheel Parts magazine (Off Road Adventure, I think it is) about a guy who was staging a photo of his rig with its nose in the lake. He figured he could just back out, NOPE. Then the flatbed wrecker pulls in position behind him at about 20 mph on the rocky bank and sinks to the axles. They had to call a second wrecker that tries to pull him out from a 90 degree angle, sliding sideways. Finally the 2nd wrecker ties off to a hard point and pulls the flatbed out from straight on, and they get the truck out with a long pull.

Funny thing is, we've all taken some pictures of where we'd like others to see our trucks... on cool summits, trails, or boulders. Some of us, even had the opportunity to get some pictures while being stuck pretty bad. Why would one stage a "stuck" scene? :snorkel: