Pathfinder saves the day!
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:47 pm
So a week ago I'm off in the wilds of BLM territory near Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs CA, and this chap with a big camping trailer runs out waving his arms as we come along the trail near his campsite. We pull off and ask what's up, and turns out not only has he's gotten his 1-ton GMC 4x4 (Sierra 2500?) stuck in a soft patch of sand, but then sunk his quad to the axles trying to get the truck out too. Yes! Finally a chance to play with all my recovery gear for real for the very first time...
The Quad was first and easy, used my 10'x4" recovery strap and Pathfinder in 4-Lo and pulled it right out easy as pie.
The truck however was seriously sunk with the undercarriage resting on the sand. I used my 30'x4" strap, with the 10' strap bridging through the loop and to the pair of recovery hooks on the front of the stuck truck (they put them there for a reason maybe?
. 3 attempted pulls gave no joy, and then a couple yanks also barely budged the beast. We even tried using a come-along (hand winch) and it literally just pulled my Pathie down through the crust and into the sand instead of moving the big GMC at all.
We obviously weren't moving the thing without some digging, and so dig we did. Using shovels (surplus entrenching tools) and my bottle jack we lifted the GMC up just enough to put wood under the wheels and get the belly off the sand just a bit. How did we keep the bottle jack from sinking into the sand? I always carry a 2"x18" plywood disk as a base plate for the jack for just this type of soft sand situation, worked great.
So this video is the final yank that freed him, looks anti-climatic in a way, but it was at least an hour of work to get there, and he and his wife were VERY grateful for all the help from us and our mighty Pathfinder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2-sSBXXhx0
Also for fun, here's some more off-roading later that day, working our way down the Gold Crown Road into Joshua Tree NP:
http://youtu.be/cm22F1hQTEo?hd=1
And other fun things were were doing out in the desert...
http://youtu.be/LU8sEJq3jR4?hd=1
The Quad was first and easy, used my 10'x4" recovery strap and Pathfinder in 4-Lo and pulled it right out easy as pie.
The truck however was seriously sunk with the undercarriage resting on the sand. I used my 30'x4" strap, with the 10' strap bridging through the loop and to the pair of recovery hooks on the front of the stuck truck (they put them there for a reason maybe?
. 3 attempted pulls gave no joy, and then a couple yanks also barely budged the beast. We even tried using a come-along (hand winch) and it literally just pulled my Pathie down through the crust and into the sand instead of moving the big GMC at all. We obviously weren't moving the thing without some digging, and so dig we did. Using shovels (surplus entrenching tools) and my bottle jack we lifted the GMC up just enough to put wood under the wheels and get the belly off the sand just a bit. How did we keep the bottle jack from sinking into the sand? I always carry a 2"x18" plywood disk as a base plate for the jack for just this type of soft sand situation, worked great.
So this video is the final yank that freed him, looks anti-climatic in a way, but it was at least an hour of work to get there, and he and his wife were VERY grateful for all the help from us and our mighty Pathfinder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2-sSBXXhx0
Also for fun, here's some more off-roading later that day, working our way down the Gold Crown Road into Joshua Tree NP:
http://youtu.be/cm22F1hQTEo?hd=1
And other fun things were were doing out in the desert...
http://youtu.be/LU8sEJq3jR4?hd=1