A buddy of mine just got his Suzuki Sidekick on the road so he wanted to go mess around in some puddles. It's sitting on 18" rims and low pros, but he still whips it around in the woods as a beater haha. Well I hit a couple puddles but made it out ok, so things were going good. Note that the Sidekick was the only thing out there with me, so me getting stuck pretty much mean I was SOL.
Well we come up to this one little run of water. Right away I didn't have a good feeling about it. KNEW it was going to be rutted even though it didn't look that bad. I say nahh but he eggs me on, so I go for it.

I creep up to it at first to check it, then I start to get deeper so I try to gun it and get out. No luck. Sat BOTH differentials in the rut so all tires were just spinning water (well, not all since I have open differentials- pretty sure the front diff is open). Tried getting traction anyway I could, but wasn't happening. Water was about a half in below my driver side door sills, but still contacting the bottom of the cab at the door.

So after an hour or more or trying to get it out with the Sidekick and a crappy TOW strap I had, and his couple of short chains with a come-along, it started to get dark.
Long story short, an Explorer couldn't get me out, so I had to get a friend with a Chevy 1500 () and some nice mud tires to come out with his chains and YANK me out from the back.
Never gonna hear the end of HIM pulling ME out. However, after him going through some puddles before we left, his truck took a crap and had to be towed home. I feel bad about that since he came out to help me, but at least I have something to hold over him and the Chevy now . Gonna pitch in some for the tow bill though, it's only right.

Only thing that happened to the good ol' Ford is some dirt between the bead of one of my tires, so it pffts and leaks air at a certain spot. Easy fix. Gonna definitely have to check the diff. fluid though since they were under for a while.

 

And now, some pictures. Couldn't get any of the Chevy rescuing me because it was dark by then. Thank god for that... haha.

Thats a 33 almost completely under:


Water almost in:

Rear diff almost completely under:



NOTE: The paint isn't that bad, theres just a coat of old sand mud on there from every time I've been wheeling since summer time haha. Think I'll get her washed this week.

 

It sat for a while in that water. Definately change out the fluids in the diffs!

Truck looks tough but, it needs some lockers and M/T's!

Looks like you had fun and it was real commendable of you to chip in for the tow bill. Thanks for sharing.

 

looks like fun

 

Sweet!

 

Yeah, have been putting off a tranny fluid change for a while too, so might as well get to that while I'm at it.
I definitely have been thinking about a locker for at least the rear for now. Money is kinda tight at the moment though so thats gotta wait.

I do have a set of 38.5"/15wide Ground Hawg tires mounted on rims that I want to throw on for times like these when I know I'm gonna need them. Two of them have slow leaks in them though so I have to find a way to break the beads and inspect the tires internally to know if its just leaking at bead from dirt as I and the previous owner suspect. Those 38's would have definitely ran right through that hole with no problem, just really wish I could get them to hold air for longer then a couple days. They would only be temporary wheeling tires anyway since I don't want to have to re-gear for them and my gas mileage would drop like a stone (as if it isn't already bad enough haha). I had a set of 36/15wide **** cepek tires on there for a short while and they barely fit at all in the tire machine to get them on and off again, so I know the ground hawgs won't even be close to fitting, not to mention they're so damn heavy to lift haha.
At least, 35's are getting thrown on when these 33" BFG A/T KOs are gone. The sooner the better.

A cop actually showed up while the truck was dead at a stop light, or else we would have just pulled it into a parking lot to try and get it going. The cop had to call the tow truck because we weren't allowed to pull or push it vehicle to vehicle with the cop there (and the cop wasn't leaving till we were gone).
The tow bill would have been 75$ just to drive it literally 100ft into a diner parking lot, so he just had him tow it all the way home which ran out to 150$ I think he said. The last time me and him both went wheeling together I blew the sidewall out on one of my tires, so 145$ later, we are kinda even lol. But still, he really got me out of a tight spot so theres no way I'm not taking part of the tow bill. I have no doubt that if he couldn't come help me, I probably would be sleeping in the truck right now because I wouldn't want to leave it over night.

Can't wait until I can afford myself a nice new F150 FX4 (with a 8" and 37's? haha) so I can turn this one into a pure mud machine. Gotta finish school first though. I can dream anyway.

 

Get those Ground Hawgs put on! They are Mud Eating and flinging machines!! I love those tires (got a set of 40x17.5 on my ... chevy....)! Great pics and a good read! Thanks for sharing! (check out my gallery for a pic of that chevy)

 

Haha, theres a K5 (?) at school with the exact same Ground Hawgs I have (same size). They look nasty as hell mounted up on that thing. Looks like he has a fair amount more lift then I do though. Either way, if I can get them to hold air good enough to use them when I want to, I will definitely not mind the zero turning radius and massive rubbing I'll probably get with them haha.

 

well boss dont feel bad, i have two buddies that have the exact same setup as each other,05 F250 lifted on 44 tsl's and diesel programmers, the whole 20 yards, well needless to say, jake got stuck in some rutts that have been rutted out for about two years straight and was burried up to the door handles, and JP, thought he could get him out with the same type of truck, yeah right, that wound up stuck(not as bad).
we called our buddy with a brand new DOZER(3.2 hours new) and he pulled us out. wish i had pics