Technical Extrications (worst stuck)

[Polarfire]

Tell your most difficult/technical vehicle rescue or worst stuck story here (pictures preferred of course).

I just helped a friend of mine get his Dodge 2500 4x4 unstuck from my yard this morning and was thinking we don't have a good thread on this topic. I'll start.

Yesterday evening a good friend of mine asked if he could borrow my 18' car hauler trailer. I said sure but I wasn't home and he would have to be careful as it might be pretty wet where the trailer was parked. He assured me he would check it before he drove down to it to make sure it was solid enough to drive on. A few hours later I get a call that he is stuck in my yard.

I arrived home just before dark to find him sitting on the frame right in front of my trailer. He said he checked the ground and thought it was frozen enough. Turns out that he made it down to the trailer with no problem but when he was backing up he wasn't lined up with the tounge very well so he pulled forward and when he tried to back up again he began spinning. It all went bad from there. Once he broke through the thin frozen layer he sunk like a rock. It didn't help that the area is the low spot on my property and all the water drains there.

After looking the situation over we decided it was probably best to wait until the morning to try to get it out. He took my Cherokee home and was back out this morning at 7:45. We didn't want to drive another vehicle down there and get it stuck too so pulling it was out. The truck was about 100 yards from the road and about 200 feet off my driveway. Secondly the trailer was directly behind the truck so it was in the way. Third, the truck has no tow points on the front. I have a Warn 8000lb winch on a receiver mount that we used but the first thing we had to do was get the trailer out of the way.

The trailer has a receiver welded to the front so I can attach the winch to pull vehicles up on the trailer with. We put the winch in the receiver and ran the cable back to a tree. We put the tounge jack on top of some 4x4's and winched the trailer backward until it was out of the way. We then put the winch in the truck's hitch and attempted to pull it backward out of the holes it had dug.

 

[Polarfire]

The biggest problem was that the axles of the truck were sunk down into the mud like two big anchors. When we tried to winch it backward the winch just bogged down and the truck didn't move an inch. We tried digging and putting 2x4's and some logs under the tires but that didn't help.

All the while I was busting my buddy's chops and posting pictures on Facebook. Turns out that was a good thing. Another friend of ours was reading the posts and turns out he wasn't too far away and had two snatch blocks. He called and soon was on his way to help!

 

[Polarfire]

Once he arrived we were able to add the snatch blocks in and create a 4:1 haul system (z-rig). Once we began winching with that it popped out. However, we needed the truck to go forward to get back to the driveway. We had to fill in the holes the best we could to prevent sliding back into them. My friend then tried to drive forward but once again only spun his tires. I then backed my Cherokee down on the lawn (we figured it was light weight and we kept it up where it was more frozen). We moved the winch to the reciever on the Cherokee (it wouldn't fit right side up because of the rear bumper). Then we used one of the snatch blocks as a change of direction off of a tree and hooked to the front axle of the truck. We were able to winch it back up to more solid ground and he was able to drive out. He now has some landscaping at my place in his future. I also think I will be finding a better place to park my trailer!

 

[Polarfire]

Here are the pics:

 

[Polarfire]

This 4:1 haul system worked awesome. The winch didn't even bog down. Two things to remember if ever doing this: 1. Make sure you have a VERY strong anchor point and tow points and 2. Make sure your tow straps are in good shape and high-rated. This system can put a lot of strain on things. We effectively had 32,000 pounds of pulling force!

 

[Polarfire]

These pictures of the ruts/mud holes do not do them justice. They are easily knee deep. The hood was up because we had the winch connected to a battery and then jumper cables from the truck's battery to the winch battery in order to keep the charge up for the winch.

 

[BRKLYNZ28]

while i was reading your pictures didnt upload... i was like it cant be that bad... lol yep looks like fun day....

 

[Polarfire]

Winch upside-down in the Cherokee's hitch:

 

[jammer1]

Somethings so wrong with this pic. No snow.. Ow how I envy you.

 

[Polarfire]

 

[gr8dain]

Yep. That truck was stuck.

 

[revho]

"Mud in the tires, you ever heard of that?" " No". " She never heard of it."

 

[jerseyjeeps]

Hey that's what I can't get over... it looks like freaking May there ... it looks like past spring time ... I'm so jealous.

(And yeah that was a stuck truck.. That first picture where it looks like not any issue surrounding the truck yet it sitting on its frame is priceless)

 

[tower210]

Wow! Just shows with those big trucks an 8K isn't enough!!!

 

[spankrjs]

On (12/11/2010) my local jeep club (South Mississippi Jeep Club) held our annual Christmas Party/Trail Ride. We held this event on private property with permission from the owner. The property is an old abandoned dirt/gravel/sand pit. There are two "lakes" on the property that were formed as the old pits filled with rain and ground water.

Everyone knows not to ride too close to edge of the "dirt cliffs" or too close to the edge of the ponds due to cave in concerns. Well, one guy got his 2004 TJ a little too close.

He was approximately 15' from the water’s edge when the passenger side tires of his jeep started sinking. At first we thought he was just stuck. We were wrong. The jeep continued to sink toward the passenger side (the side facing the lake) until it reached an approximately 70 degree angle. I thought the jeep would just flip. Wrong. The entire ground caved in (even 25' that was on the driver side, the stable ground). The guy climbed out the window, turned the key off, jumped, and had to swim to solid ground. The jeep bobbed around for a few seconds, then sank nose down. We watched as a trail of bubbles kept moving further toward the center of the lake.

We found a skiff and attempted to find the jeep. We eventually found it (rope with a shackle on the end, kept dropping it where the water was bubbling. It was in approximately 40' of water. At this point I knew we couldn't swim down to it to find the tow strap that was already attached to the rear bumper (done earlier in the day to pull someone out of some sand). I called a diver.

He showed up an hour later. Took an entire bottle of air to relocate the jeep again. It was found sitting upside down on the silty bottom. The bottom of the lake was sloped very sharply toward the center. The jeep literally slid on its roof down the underwater slope till it finally hit the deepest part of the bottom. Took the 20' strap that was already attached to the rear of the jeep plus another 20' strap just to reach above water. We then hooked a 100' piece of synthetic winch rope to this to reach app. 80' of winch cable pulled out on land.

We used (x4) 8,000lb winches, 3 jeeps side by side at water elevation, plus one winch perched atop one of the dirt cliffs. It surprisingly winched out very easy. Once it hit the shore, we used another winch to flip it on its wheels, dug a little bit, and then winched it back onto it wheels. Jeep sank at 1 pm, had it back on land at 6 pm. 5 hours underwater.

Besides a broke off rear view mirror and a slight dent in the hood, no damage, except for the obvious water in the power train issue. Should have it up and running soon. Only issue, it is an auto tranny, will probably have to pull it and disassemble it to get all the water out. Maybe a new ECM? We actually reconnected the battery, hooked this jeeps winch up to its trailer, and winched it on with its own winch that had been underwater.

Our club will never leave a jeep behind, and I think we proved this beyond the shadow of a doubt. Diver only charged us $100, very cool dude.

Pics.

 

[spankrjs]

The "good" pics. Unfortunately, no on took pics as it sank, everyone was in shock as to what had just happened.

 

[spankrjs]

And on land, finally. I think we win best "stuck" with successful recovery.

 

[spankrjs]

To clarify the pics:

The pics that show people near the winch cables were taken when the cables were at rest, they were not under load at the time the people show up in the pics

We would winch about 20-25 feet, then stop, When we we stopped the winching operations for these breaks, the cables were no longer taught under load.

We were very concerned about the shackles failing. They were only rated for 8,000lbs and we had 3-4 8,000lb winches pulling on them. But, I don't think it really would have took 4 winches, 2 would have probably worked. The submerged jeep moved very easily through the water until it hit shore

The good thing was that this was fresh water. Hopefully, after he rinses all the silt out and lets the components dry out again, maybe the electrical stuff will be OK:banana:

He said the engine oil and trans fluid came out silt free, just about 5 gallons of water inside the motor and transmission

I don't know how you can get all the water out the torque converter, though, without dropping the transmissionI kinda hope he drops the trans and gets it rebuilt. I dont think you could ever get all the water out without a complete dissasembly. One of the members knows an auto trans guy who will rebuild it for $500. Sounded like a good deal to me

If it was a manual trans it would be simple to flush it out

The engine, t-case, and axles will be easy enough to flush out, dry, then refill. Should be no issues there.

Motor should be straight forward, as long as it doesn't have silt inside. Might get lucky and just be able to drain it, change filter, turn motor over without spark plugs to shoot water out the cylinders, and be good to go He did turn the key off before it went under while it was still running, so hopefully

Will definitely flush out the brakes system, power steering system, coolant systems completely. Rear axle bearings run in diff gear oil, so should be good there. Front end uses unit bearings, probably run them till they burn up. If i was mine, i would go ahead and change the two front unit bearing assemblies<_<

It will be very interesting to see how the electrical system holds up over the next few years

 

[bobbysjeep]

Wow. Good thread idea. You guys are definatly creative in coming up with recovery solutions.

 

[firefighter736]

Wowowow at these.


With all of the firefighters on this forum I thought this was going to be about something else