I might be "grown up", but it could be argued I'm not that "mature" sometimes...... y'know, my inner boy comes out and I can't help but enjoy a good time, and relay the story later. And even moreso when it involves doing a good deed/helping a fellow redneck out/southern hospitality, whatever ya wanna call it, and still even moreso when I get to brag on my truck a little, lol y'all just hang on, I'm getting to it....

So, story goes: Tuesday evening, my son's football practice got cancelled due to lightning, which usually comes with rain, that of course they would've played through, but the lightning is the big thing, so we all load up to head home. My wife met me at practice in her truck, I usually go straight to the park from work. She's on the road ahead of me, I round a sharp curve and she's pulled over across the road from an old 7.3 F550 stakebody setup for welding, laying deeeeeeep down in the ditch on the other side. She's motioning for me to pull over and try to help this guy out, his nose was still just barely enough onto the street that someone coming around the other curve coulda gotten into him, and as a born in the south country boy, we just love to get involved in these opportunities to help. Let's see if some pics show up:



So that'd be where he lost control, crossed the center line, and slid down into the ditch. Of all things, his shifter broke as he was leaving the sharp curve behind that photo (it'll be pictured later) and the resulting sudden missed gear change coupled with the wet roads, is what I think slid him out.

Here's where he came to a stop



In the background is that sharp curve mentioned earlier.

It was deep too, lol



I was concerned about the wet roads being an issue, and boy were they.... I had never used 4Lo in my truck before, but figured now was as good a time as any. I manually locked in the front hubs, but not knowing I still needed to pull the 4wd **** out to lock the rear diff (thought it did that automatically in 4Lo- not so) I selected 1st gear and, using a chain he initially had tied off to his front bumper, I just proceeded to spin a bit, I couldn't get anything done using it.



It must've been glorious, I was smoking the tires and bouncing everywhere trying to get this pig up outta that ditch, but my wife and her friends were too busy working traffic safety to get any vids

So I gave up on that chain and pulled a 4"x20' strap out of the back of my truck and shackled off for some "snatching" action. This was even more fun

His truck was dead in the water, the incline was so steep, and I guess he was low enough on diesel, that he couldn't get his truck to start, so I was doing all the work myself. But damn my truck didn't mind.

I got him moving down the ditch finally, couldn't get all the way out right at first, so a school speed limit sign was flattened in the process, oops, sorry, lol



Which caused me to check up, trying not to take it out, but unfortunately there was no other way, so back to smoking and snatching I went and finally pulled him all the way up onto terra firma, just as the local LEO arrived to scold the poor guy a bit about making all this fuss. His battery or batteries were so low I ended up pull-starting him once we got back on the asphalt, and the ole 7.3 finally clattered to life without a fuss. He actually struck up an arc using the equipment on the back to repair his broken shifter, lol! and was able to drive on home, as far as I know. The ole boy was over the moon, just couldn't thank me enough, and was blown away at the pulling power that SD showed. The only "casualty" woulda been my hitch pin, as it new resembles a wet noodle, and I had to maul it a bit to get it out of my receiver.

But I was happy to help, threw my strap back in the bed and headed on my way. I took all these pics yesterday morning after the roads had dried up, unfortunately no "live action" pics or vids

So anyway, lesson learned: 4Lo DOES disable the advanceTrac, but does NOT automatically lock the rear diff. Maybe if I'd locked in the rear diff, it wouldn't have been so difficult, but it might also have not been as much fun

Hope y'all enjoyed my little yarn

 

Good job and thanks for sharing the story

 

That is a great story! I haven't done anything quite as impressive with my 2011, but the 2006 was known to hitch up to a few dump trucks and anything else that found itself stuck in my presence. I yanked a dump truck up over a small embankment with my truck on the pavement. It was a not so fun rubber burning, hopping experience that resulted in a leaking rear pinion seal, but the truck went another 40,000 miles without anymore issue from the rear after I replaced the seal. It may have just been a coincidence.

 

Great Story!

 

Way to be a Hero for a person in need.

 

Great write up! Felt like I could have been standing there watching.