Advice on Getting a Stuck Truck out of the Mud

[Scooter]

Here's a story about corduroy roads:

http://jonathan-scooter-clark.blogspot. ... f-mud.html

[salbrecher]

Very creative!

I have found chains can sometimes be used to get out of a situation like that if you put them on as soon as you start breaking through but before you muck it up or sink in. Some knobbier mud tires might help a little bit too but in really bad mud they grease up and become slicks like everything else.

[newforest]

yeah a chainsaw can be a key item to get a vehicle un-stuck...I lived this same story once upon a time in some sand, even slept in cab one night too (no tent with me). I was just determined to get-r-done on my own. in the middle of the night I woke to a wonderful sight - a whole family of little raccoons peering at me, 14 gold-shining eyes beaming back at my head-lamp.

I used the saw to cut small blocks of pine. put one block under the jack, lift tire. put block under the tire, start over with the jack, repeat until vehicle is back to level - a big key, more important with heavier vehicles, such as the diesel F250 I drive. (I am always very, very careful about ever letting the engine be lower than the rear-end in an "off-road" situation; diesel blocks are far heavier than gas engine blocks).

then when vehicle is level, lay corduroy to drive to firm ground. when I figured this all out the hard way, I eventually had to throw in the towel and walk out to a cell phone signal point and call for help - because I ran completely out of chainsaw gas, started with very little on hand.


lived this story again recently when I left a planting job to go fish the dawn on the Lake Superior shoreline. upon heading back from the beach I encountered a pair of college kids stuck in the sand. they turned out to be tourists, way, way out there from 'civilization' - and actually were foreign exchange students with little experience with a vehicle at all; they had randomly driven to a beach to watch the sunrise. their car was a totally sweet 2016 Shelby Mustang - I had hopes of freeing them quickly and getting a ride in the car, honestly.

anyhow, we somewhat lucked out in that there was a pile of bricks left by a cottage owner, right next to the road there. so we placed bricks under a jack, jacked up a wheel, placed a pair of bricks, etc. excrutiatingly slow given the plastic nature of everything on the vehicle, buried deeply, and I could not figure out how or where to hook a chain to it. as we worked on the second side, one of the old bricks shattered underneath the scissor jack, kicking the jack out at just enough angle to pop a piece of the plastic rocker panel off in such a way that we would no longer put the jack into the correct point on the frame to lift the car.

so these poor touristy kids had to throw in the towel too and call a tow truck - $200, at that location. I had little desire to return to my 100% pointless planting job I was on that week. I hate pointless work more than anything, but I wish I would have just fished all day and never run into these kids.


along the way I also tried a technique shown in the video in the link in the next post, for a slick version of a very good idea when a vehicle is stuck. it will be well worth your time to watch this video demonstration on the product page; I will be buying one of these soon.

if you have to McGuyver/rig up this idea on your own, that should be do-able. using a vehicle tow strap would work for the part that has to go through the rim of the tire - I tried it using chain but this would get stuck on the brake pad. for the "extension" piece, most work trucks might have something that could work (I tried it with a small sledge, which would have worked with a better strap). or you could probably cut a piece of wood that would work, with a chainsaw handy. I never go in the woods without a chainsaw and now I just keep one of those expensive bottles of pre-mix fuel, stabilized for 2 years at a go.

[newforest]

ahh so just then I needed a device to get a laptop unstuck. unfortunately it looks like that device will be - a new laptop

anyhow, watch this video and you will quickly grasp the concept of a simple way to get a truck unstuck



you could probably engineer something like this in a pinch, particularly if you have some tie-down straps at hand. a key point is the strap has to fit cleanly between the rim of the tire and the hub and brake assemblies at the center of the wheel.

the little aluminum claw looks pretty handy and I am thinking to buy one. I might just wait for the cheap Chinese knock-off version, should be appearing at redneck flea market cheap tool bazaars any ole day now

http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/produ ... p?mi=89761

[Scooter]

If you're ever having problems making a YouTube link work, take out the "s" from HTTPS at the start. I don't know why the board doesn't accept HTTPS vids yet. I just edit them myself when I see that someone has posted something and the tags aren't working.

I find that it's very helpful to carry a short piece of 2x6 (about 18 inches long) and a short piece of 4x4 (also about 18 inches long), and just make sure I have it in my truck all season. Always helpful when using an axle jack and the road surface is so soft that the jack just starts punching downward into the road, instead of lifting the truck. It's always possible to find large rocks or pieces of slash to do the same, but who wants to walk around 20 minutes looking for the perfect piece of nature to put under a jack? Also, these boards are square, so they're a lot more stable when the jack is sitting on them.

Here's another "stuck tractor" video that I liked: