You can never have too much Recovery Gear!

[SAR_Squid79]

Today I was out in Anza Borrego with SoCal TTORA, and we just happened to come across these 3 Ford guys out in the middle of nowhere - literally. We were on the open BLM land, not on a trail, and just happened across these guys in the open desert.

There was a late model Exploder (bone stock 4WD), a F-150 (bone stock 2WD, No recovery points), and an F350 SuperDuty CrewCab Diesel (4WD) - ALL STUCK!

The Exploder came free with some man-power (pushing/bouncing). The F150 was pretty stuck, but not too bad. The F350 was completely buried!

I have no idea what these guys would have done if we hadn't shown up. They better be thanking their luck stars tonight, because they'd still be stuck out there right now, and be trying to walk it out tomorrow.

I have a very extensive recovery kit. The recoveries today called for most of my gear. I didn't think we were going to get the big diesel out, but a double-line winch pull and some digging got him free. I had to anchor my Tacoma to 2 other trucks (a new Tacoma and a 4Runner Truggy).

All-in-all, the recovery took us about 2 1/2 hours and required the following gear (all of which I had on my rig)

• 9,000 lb SuperWinch (with Viking Synthetic Combo Line)
• Winch Line Extension (Viking synthetic)
• ARB Winch Extension Strap
• ARB Snatch Strap
• ARB Tree Saver Strap
• ProComp Snatch Strap
• Superwinch snatch block
• 9 x Shackles
• Transit Cluster
• Hi-Lift Jack
• Shovel

We executed:

• 2 x Single line winch pull
• double line winch pull
• dual-vehicle snatch
• single vehicle snatch

The only thing I needed that I didn't have was 1 more snatch block. That would have helped a lot, I think.

 

[Master-Pull]

Wow good work, I have also found that you can never carry too much recovery gear.

-Alex

 

[Antichrist]

I hope you made them do all the shovel work.

 

[soonenough]

Wow that was really nice of you guys to take that much time helping them. Maybe they'll do a better job of planning ahead next time.

One question SAR_Squid. I don't want to turn this into a recovery technique thread, but I remember reading somewhere that you don't want to anchor the back of your truck to something (another truck, a tree, etc) when you're winching because the forces involved try to stretch the frame out, which can permanently deform the frame; especially when you're winching something as heavy as a buried F-350. Your thoughts?

 

[alexrex20]

that's true that you're putting the force through the entire frame of the vehicle instead of just the bumper. but in this situation there really was no other option, it seems.

 

[ExpoMike]

Great job on the recovery and helping out. Good thing you had the recovery gear and happened along.

< if this was open travel BLM land, disregard the below >

Now I don't want to get all policital or turn this into one but had it be ME who happened across these idiots, I might have not helped them directly. IIRC, BLM land is not open to off trail driving (i.e. no cross country, non trail) unless marked (and if this was a marked open area, disregard these comments). These idiots obviously have no regard for proper trail use, which reflect on the entire off highway community, in very negative way.

I would have marked their location in my GPS, then tracked down the first Park Ranger I could find or called it in. Then the Ranger(s) could have dealt with them, most likely giving them a very large fine and some education in what they were doing wrong. This would hopefully teach them some respect to the lands we so commonly have closed because of activities like this. As it is, they got a "free pass" and learned nothing Since this was not a life or death situation, they could have waited for a Ranger to come.

Again, not to bust your chops as I feel you did a great job and you had all the right intentions to help. Just want to add a perspective that sometimes gets overlooked. I don't want to see land closed down anymore than anyone else and idiots like this are what causes it to happen.

 

[stevenmd]

Sometimes the technical aspects of a recovery totally make a trip better.

 

[Cabrito]

Good Samaritans indeed.

Lesson learned - you can't be over prepared.

Lucky for them you were passing by and helped them out.

 

[charlieaarons]

It rained a lot out there. The desert will be beautiful in a few weeks.

Charlie

 

[SAR_Squid79]

I hope you made them do all the shovel work.

Oh yes! ...We said "here are 2 shovels, you guys need to dig there, there, and there".

...I remember reading somewhere that you don't want to anchor the back of your truck to something (another truck, a tree, etc) when you're winching

...in this situation there really was no other option, it seems.

That's true. You should try to avoid this. It's better to chock your wheels. In this case, the gound was so soft that chocks would have just been squashed into the ground, and there was really nothing else we could do.

Great job on the recovery and helping out. Good thing you had the recovery gear and happened along.

< if this was open travel BLM land, disregard the below >

It was BLM. It was the open land south & west of the dump. Outside of ABDSP, and OWSVRA. My GPS shows the boudaries of the state parks. We were in no-man's land.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

That's true. You should try to avoid this. It's better to chock your wheels. In this case, the gound was so soft that chocks would have just been squashed into the ground, and there was really nothing else we could do.

I've seen this before, but it sound implausible to me?

Say, a double 9000lb pull, spread across both frame rails. Assume the frames are made from 6" deep by 3" wide C channel, 1/8" thick. Basically you've got 9000lbs pulling on each rail, with each having a cross section of 1.5 sq. in. That's about 6000 PSI of tension. Should be well, well below the elastic limit of those frames?

 

[rynosurf]

Wow that was really nice of you guys to take that much time helping them. Maybe they'll do a better job of planning ahead next time.

One question SAR_Squid. I don't want to turn this into a recovery technique thread, but I remember reading somewhere that you don't want to anchor the back of your truck to something (another truck, a tree, etc) when you're winching because the forces involved try to stretch the frame out, which can permanently deform the frame; especially when you're winching something as heavy as a buried F-350. Your thoughts?

You don't want this to happen! http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35458

Did they at least buy you lunch?

 

[SAR_Squid79]

I've seen this before, but it sound implausible to me?

Say, a double 9000lb pull, spread across both frame rails. Assume the frames are made from 6" deep by 3" wide C channel, 1/8" thick. Basically you've got 9000lbs pulling on each rail, with each having a cross section of 1.5 sq. in. That's about 6000 PSI of tension. Should be well, well below the elastic limit of those frames?

I agree with you. That was my assessment as well. I was 99% sure that we were okay. I would not have done it, if I thought there was any risk to my truck.


...however - there is TONS of force at work. It can be enough to bend a truck. This guy screwed himself by anchoring to another vehicle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqCy7ZxVdgI

 

[SAR_Squid79]

Did they at least buy you lunch?

They offered, but we wanted to continue with our day. The owner of the F350 said that if he had any cash, he would have given it to us, but all he had was a card.

I wasn't doing it for money, but at least he offered.

I really wanted to lecture them about going out and being extremely unprepared. Especially since they had ZERO recovery gear, and the one truck had no recovery points whatsoever.

But they were cool guys. They just got themselves in a bad situation, and really got in over their heads fast. ...could have happened to anybody...

If they were drunk or ************** or drunken ************** - that would be one thing, but these were nice guys. At one point I was getting really concerned that we weren't going to be able to get them unstuck. Then I don't know what we/they would have done...

 

[ExpoMike]

Okay, cool, I know the area. Glad it all worked out.