Stuck & Rescue Stories
#1
09-22-2005, 09:46 AM
Stuck & Rescue Stories
Pulled out an F350
I have a 2002 F150 5.4L 4x2 Scab and I was driving around mudding with my friends in the truck and really pushing my truck, until we saw an older 87-93 F350 with a camper shell stuck on an incline (hard to explain), but it was a gravel road (traction sucked) and I drove up to him to investigate, he was stuck good, his back tires were dug in (non dually) and he was pointed up a hill, I was at the top of the hill, there was nowhere to reverse to but a canal full of water. I thought of trying to pull him out but left instead to go back to being an idiot. Came back after nearly bottoming out at the top of a hill I had to floor it up from a long straighaway and got air-time, did this twice and the scraping scared the heck out of me. Anyways, we were heading back and saw him walking to his truck with a gas can ($5 worth of gas in it), this was about 6 months ago so gas prices were cheaper. I drove up to him and he was putting gas into his truck, he told me his truck wouldn't start anymore because the gas was settled in the bottom of the gas tank or something, which made a bit of sense, so he walked to town (like 20 miles) in the DAMN HEAT and came back with that, I wish I could have came earlier for the poor old mexican, he was bummed but I offered to try to pull him out. He looked at me like, "you think you can pull me out"...I replied "I guarantee I can pull you out", cause I thought my truck was invincible with the larger 5.4 option...lol. We hooked up with a tow chain I had, I told him, "You go ahead and hook it up to whatever you feel will work because I dont' want to get blamed for anything". Besides, I had no idea where the frame was then (amazing how much I've learned in 6 months thanks to this forum and the rest of the internet). So I de-slacked the chain and began to pull (not tug, I wasn't aware of tugging because I was a chicken **** and thought something would easily break), and after a few tugs he finally got his engine started to help and I pulled him out straight out with his wheels spinning, was amazed at that pull, haven't beaten it to this day.
Friend's Dodge Ram50 4x4 and my 4x2 F150 got stuck BAD
His: 91 4x4 Dodge Ram50? 4 Banger (now has a 4x4 Jeep)
Mine: Same truck as above
We got stuck really bad, I got stuck trying to rescue him after 5 hours of hopeless digging (literally), lots of arguing and sweat, we decided to give up after the 7th hour, and slept in my nice truck :P. We called my mom who was pissed, and came out there in the middle of the night with a tow truck (who decided they'd need an extreme tow truck to get to us safely)...wtf is that. That was like $270/hr so I said f-that, I'll just figure somethin out in the mornin. Well to MY F'IN SURPRISE I wake up to a PG&E (God bless PG&E) tractor (large orange/yellow backhoe with frontloader) working on the closest road to us (we were way out in a farmers pasture), I ran out there after waking my buddy up but not getting my hopes up because we all know there are ****** out there, and I've had the misfortune to meet at least 99% of them. Anyways, I went up to them, a bunch of guys digging a hole for some reason, with the tractor parked on the other side of the street, and explained my situation to them. They asked their boss if they could help and proceeded to go around the pasture like we entered and then came to my truck first (4x2 unlike my buddies 4x4, I couldn't even make it to him, it was a last resort). He pulled me out with the chain with EASE and the chain bent the wing of my hitch, but I didn't need it anyways, it is more than sufficient for pulling me out, I've used it SOOO many times. He did the same with my buddy, easy as cake. I think the best thing a newcomer 4x4 enthusiast should know is that a truck can be given a tug without breaking as long as it's attached to the frame of both vehicles and using a strap, this will give you a good chance of not damaging anything, I have since done and seen SEVERAL VIOLENT yanks out of frustration and they work really well, but it's a decent risk, well worth it in my opinion. Yeah there are a lot of people out there telling you not to do this due to the risks, but there were times that knowing a little tug wouldn't have hurt much could have saved us big time.
By the way I missed school the next day because I was out in a field still stuck.
Oh the pleasures of finding the shortcoming's of 4x4 (man were we blind, who said 4x4's were invincible!)
I'm interested in your stories too!
I have a 2002 F150 5.4L 4x2 Scab and I was driving around mudding with my friends in the truck and really pushing my truck, until we saw an older 87-93 F350 with a camper shell stuck on an incline (hard to explain), but it was a gravel road (traction sucked) and I drove up to him to investigate, he was stuck good, his back tires were dug in (non dually) and he was pointed up a hill, I was at the top of the hill, there was nowhere to reverse to but a canal full of water. I thought of trying to pull him out but left instead to go back to being an idiot. Came back after nearly bottoming out at the top of a hill I had to floor it up from a long straighaway and got air-time, did this twice and the scraping scared the heck out of me. Anyways, we were heading back and saw him walking to his truck with a gas can ($5 worth of gas in it), this was about 6 months ago so gas prices were cheaper. I drove up to him and he was putting gas into his truck, he told me his truck wouldn't start anymore because the gas was settled in the bottom of the gas tank or something, which made a bit of sense, so he walked to town (like 20 miles) in the DAMN HEAT and came back with that, I wish I could have came earlier for the poor old mexican, he was bummed but I offered to try to pull him out. He looked at me like, "you think you can pull me out"...I replied "I guarantee I can pull you out", cause I thought my truck was invincible with the larger 5.4 option...lol. We hooked up with a tow chain I had, I told him, "You go ahead and hook it up to whatever you feel will work because I dont' want to get blamed for anything". Besides, I had no idea where the frame was then (amazing how much I've learned in 6 months thanks to this forum and the rest of the internet). So I de-slacked the chain and began to pull (not tug, I wasn't aware of tugging because I was a chicken **** and thought something would easily break), and after a few tugs he finally got his engine started to help and I pulled him out straight out with his wheels spinning, was amazed at that pull, haven't beaten it to this day.
Friend's Dodge Ram50 4x4 and my 4x2 F150 got stuck BAD
His: 91 4x4 Dodge Ram50? 4 Banger (now has a 4x4 Jeep)
Mine: Same truck as above
We got stuck really bad, I got stuck trying to rescue him after 5 hours of hopeless digging (literally), lots of arguing and sweat, we decided to give up after the 7th hour, and slept in my nice truck :P. We called my mom who was pissed, and came out there in the middle of the night with a tow truck (who decided they'd need an extreme tow truck to get to us safely)...wtf is that. That was like $270/hr so I said f-that, I'll just figure somethin out in the mornin. Well to MY F'IN SURPRISE I wake up to a PG&E (God bless PG&E) tractor (large orange/yellow backhoe with frontloader) working on the closest road to us (we were way out in a farmers pasture), I ran out there after waking my buddy up but not getting my hopes up because we all know there are ****** out there, and I've had the misfortune to meet at least 99% of them. Anyways, I went up to them, a bunch of guys digging a hole for some reason, with the tractor parked on the other side of the street, and explained my situation to them. They asked their boss if they could help and proceeded to go around the pasture like we entered and then came to my truck first (4x2 unlike my buddies 4x4, I couldn't even make it to him, it was a last resort). He pulled me out with the chain with EASE and the chain bent the wing of my hitch, but I didn't need it anyways, it is more than sufficient for pulling me out, I've used it SOOO many times. He did the same with my buddy, easy as cake. I think the best thing a newcomer 4x4 enthusiast should know is that a truck can be given a tug without breaking as long as it's attached to the frame of both vehicles and using a strap, this will give you a good chance of not damaging anything, I have since done and seen SEVERAL VIOLENT yanks out of frustration and they work really well, but it's a decent risk, well worth it in my opinion. Yeah there are a lot of people out there telling you not to do this due to the risks, but there were times that knowing a little tug wouldn't have hurt much could have saved us big time.
By the way I missed school the next day because I was out in a field still stuck.Oh the pleasures of finding the shortcoming's of 4x4 (man were we blind, who said 4x4's were invincible!)
I'm interested in your stories too!