I got a nice wakeup call at 3:30 A.M. Sunday morning from my uncle telling me he's stuck waaay out in the country. He thought he had parked on solid ground, but it rained like crazy during the night, so when he went to move his Ranger, the rear end sank in the mud. I picked up another one of my uncles, and left at dawn to get him out. Well, here's what happened.



I ended up getting stuck WAY before we even got to his Ranger! This stuck happened as soon as I turned off the paved road, onto what I thought was a dirt/gravel road. My arms are sore from digging, I completely buried the front end, I was laying frame on the ground. We jacked up the front with my Hi-Lift, and shoved boards under the tires. Worked good getting out of that stuck, but I got stuck AGAIN almost instantly. I rocked the truck out of the hole, my tranny was complaning from the abuse. Needless to say, I had a FUUUN day!

ON EDIT: After we got my truck to soild ground, we walked to his. There is NO way he's getting the truck out while it's still wet. There was at least a foot and a half of water surrounding his truck. We had trouble walking through the mud, it was like quicksand! He's a good 200' from the paved road, parked parallel with the road, and not near any trees or objects we could use as a pulling point for the Hi-Lift or other 'maunal winches'. Neighbor has a 4wd tractor, that is stranded on dry land in the middle of a flooded field. I'm thinking helicopter extraction at this point!

 

You might be able to build a plywood road and cycle the plywood back to front. They built the pyramids like this.

 

Them Egyptians had plywodd??

Nice stuck, Munkey!

Maybe 38s and a 6" lift would prevent these types of things happening in the future!

Maybe you should start a thread about which lift company makes the best lift! Not much info on that subject here...

 

Yea Monsta - but those 38's could also get you a lot farther off the paved road and a LOT more stuck depending on the mud.... Wait - yea go for it 'cause that would make for a better story to read and pictures to look at!
Hey Munkey - if the neighbor's 4x4 tractor isn't buried yet then you didn't try hard enough. And for good measure, a 963 trackloader would look good buried just up the road from that!! just giving ya a hard time.

 

Looks like a bunch of fun !!!

but just one look at the lack of grass/weeds on that ground tells me it STAYS too wet there for even WEEDS to grow !!!

Eyesight is better than any lift/winch combo :-)

now you know

 

A little over a year ago, my neighbors were moving into their house when they got a small Toyota-like 4x4 stuck. They called a friend who came over with his '97 4x4 F250HD w/PSD. This truck had a lift & 35" mud tires. Took us 4 hours, 300' of chain, and a tow truck out on the road to get that PSD out of the clay muck. Lesson: heavy engine and big tires just get you buried deeper.

Friday night, after 4 days of rain/storms, this same neighbor decided he was going to pull his heavy home-made enclosed steel trailer (that houses his big welder) into the field behind his house- yes, the same field he got stuck in last year. This time, he was using their 4x4 V10 Excursion with AT tires. I took my '97 F250HD 4x4 w/460 over and pulled the X (still hitched to the trailer) back onto decent ground. The Buckshot mud tires were VERY impressive in the sticky clay goo we have around here. Sure glad I'm not the one who has to fill in the ruts though.

 

i was driving near the local mall and i noticed a couple cars in a large patch of grass outside the saturn/caddilac dealership. Sure enough there was a brand new (still had plastic on hood) saturn 3 door coupe stuck in the mud. They must have been trying to move it out for display and they got it stuck really stuck. The rutts are still outside the dealership. I wonder what happened with that car do they clean that and sell it? i wouldnt want to buy a saturn that has gone mudding oh wait i wouldnt want to buy a saturn anyways

 

On a related but kinda off topic. Were you guys stuck because there was zero traction, or because one wheel spinning due to low traction and limited slips didn't work or no limited slip dif? Would a locker have helped? I'm just curious. I loved the detroit locker in my bronco and wonder constantly if it is worth it for me to have the detroit unit even though I rarely get even close to that kind of situation. Lets just say I'm older and wiser now with what I allow my truck to get into.

 

Munkey did you drop the air in the tires? say to about 10psi

 

The stock tires suck off road, Only put 400 on mine before I changed them.

 

Well...both, no traction & 3 wheel drive. I do have LS in the rear, but the back tires (BFG A/T on all 4) were gummed up with greasy mud. Both rear tires were spinning together though. The pictures don't show it that well, but I was on a slight downward slope, so when the fronts dug in, most of the weight of the truck was on them. If I had a front locker or LS, I'm pretty sure we coulda gotten out with rocking & lots of wheel spin to keep the tires somewhat clean. I thought about dropping the pressure, but we had a good 50+ mile drive to get back to town, didn't have any way to air up (neighbor included.)

BTW, that's not me in the picture!! That's my goofy uncle. . .I'm not that short, or *ahem* wide.

 

I agree it could have been worse with a 7.3 PSD. Those trucks are some kinda heavy.

 

Yep, seen that, been there, done that. I have seen times a light 2WD car gets around on a field, and a heavy PU truck sinks to the axles. Weight per square inch of tire contact , I guess.

 

Gosh we had a bad weekend too. we had a Larry joe taylor concert out here in the country friday night and we got like 4-6 inches of rain (depending on which farmer you talk to) and there wer at at least 100 cars stuck out there. Me and my friend went over there sunday with a john deer 4230 and pulled a few people out, not many people left though.

 

Yup, I've been on the other end of the tow strap too. Took less than a year for me to get rid of the 2WD diesel and get a lighter gas 4x4. I was tired of getting stuck every time a tire got off the driveway.

Was really concerned about the current truck since it has 235/85R16s. Figured the skinny tires might have too high weight/area and I'd sink too. Luckily, that didn't happen. Didn't even spin until the guy hit the brakes and I kept on pullin'.