Just thought I'd share something I found amazing this weekend. Long story short, I stuck my F-150 4x2 in my front yard, which is huge, with a 16' trailer full of wood and other things for the dump. It was at the bottom of my somewhat bowl-shaped yard, left rear wheel dug in about 5 inches (I quit while I'm ahead), truck facing right, trailer facing left. It wouldn't budge. My tractor is out of service with a bad fuel pump, my F-250 4x4 is otherwise occupied, and I absolutely have to get that truck and trailer out of my yard. I have two choices, an 08 Grand Caravan or an 06 4x4 Escape. Of course I chose the Escape. I thought that if the Escape could just give the F-150 a little help I could get it out. Remember, I didn't bury it. I was skeptical that I could even get the Escape in and out of the area by itself without sticking it. I hooked up to the stuck truck/trailer combo facing roughly the same direction of the trailer which was about 30 degrees left of the heading of the truck. While my wife was walking out to help me by driving the F-150 I decided to give it a little tug and see if I could do anything without sticking the Escape. At that time, we had 11" of rain in 48 hours just two days before and my yard is very soggy; even standing in it makes footprints. I took the slack out of the chain, tugged on the F-150/trailer combo just to see if I would get something other than wheelspin, and lo and behold the whole mess started to move. The F-150 was shut off and in neutral, but nevertheless the Escape pulled the truck to the left and then in behind it and the trailer followed suit. I figured since it was moving I'd just keep it moving. 150 yards later, up about a 3 percent grade, the F-150 was sitting in the gravel driveway. The Escape never even spun a tire. This was the same soggy ground that stuck the F-150 in very short order, but the Escape pulled itself and probably an 8,000 pound dead weight out of the same area and didn't break through the grass. If I didn't see it myself I wouldn't have believed it. I have no doubt that the F-250 would have buried itself just trying to get to the location due to sheer weight -- its been stuck in the same place before.

Yes, I know this is the I6 forum, but an I6 truck IS in the story!

 

youre gonna get flamed for even suggesting that anything other than a 300 can accomplish amazing feats of engineering and excellence.

congrats

 

ya know thats not the first time i've heard of the escapes comming to the rescue. If you do a search on you tube there's an escape that hooks up to a rig stuck in the snow and the escape was able to get it rolling again. Those escapes have a decently wide tire on them for there wieght, thats proabably were most of that came from.

 

LOL. The I6 is one of the main characters. The flaming will only come from those who's fictional and mythological characterization of the I6 just had their bubble busted.

It is what it is...no more, no less.

 

I'm not surprised at all... I had a tree hung up in another tree in my yard. Hooked up the old 78 in 4WD... that damn thing wouldn't budge. My buddy hooked up his Sport Trax explorer and pulled it right down... I still hear about that all of the time...

I think power is part of the formula but you can get away with less power if you have a good suspension. I don't know one way or the other but it's a thought.

 

You could have walked the combo out with a small 4x4 tractor, large ATV, or a good mule team.

The secret here is the fully modern 4WD/AWD system of the Escape and the Sport Trax, with traction control and limited slips and larger rims and such.

A locking differential in the F150 might have given you a solid fighting chance, and two locking differentials in a 4x4 F150 would never be a problem.

Nice vehicles, those Escapes. I know several people who have them and really like them.

 

Yeah, my tractor is dead.... :-(