pappawheely
Autonomous4X4
Something about the OBS ford, they do great in the sand!
F350 7.3 Powerstroke SCLB 4x4 ZF5 97' OBS Build w/ Lance Camper
- Thread starter straightoutaoside
- Start date
BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
So I just got back from almost three weeks in one of the most remote parts of the peninsula and had quite the adventure. I was down there chasing swell, camping and making friends along the way. I almost had a huge lapse in judgment and got my truck stuck horribly bad.
Day 1:
I had never been to this particular area before and wanted to continue heading south. We had been watching the fisherman take the road south and they had headed along the beach through very very deep sand. My rig is too heavy so we decided to look for an inland route. In Baja roads split in all directions all the time. How I usually choose which road to take when I am not sure where I am going is by following which one appears to be the most heavily traveled. We are following the road that is on a salt flat and you guys can probably guess where this is going. I made the mistake of not getting out and walking my line. I saw a wet section that was pretty short and was sure that with enough speed in 4wd that I could plow through it to the dry section on the other side. As many of you can see I got horribly stuck within 5 ft turned the truck off and starting swearing and throwing rocks for 10 minutes. My friend and I start digging and low and behold in 30 minutes Enrique the local fisherman godfather figure shows up and offers to help. His and friends all hop out and begin to help us dig the rig out. We pull out the sheets of plywood that I cut before the trip and place them behind the tires. We attach all of my tow straps together to the back of his F250 brings the lines to being taunt and then starts pulling. After an hour of this all of my tow straps are broken and he offers to get a mooring rope from his house that is a 3 hour round trip from where we are. We graciously accept his offer and continue to dig. For those of you that have never been stuck in the salt flats in Baja avoid them at all cost. The mud has horribly strong suction. When you try and take a shovel full off of the ground it holds on with all of its might. Once you free the shovel you have to hit it against a rock to get most of the mud off. The mud turned out to be about knee deep in a lot of sections so even walking around was difficult. Enrique returns with his mooring rope and G100 (Greg thank you for all of your help by the way I finally checked out your build on here and it is epic!) who was camped near us attaches himself to the front of Enrique's truck to help pull us out. At this point we have a 4wd t100 and a 4wd f250 attached and the truck won't budge and we continue to break all straps, ropes etc. Enrique informs asks us how much food and water we have and lets us know that he will be back later in the week. Greg was with some friends and he was unable to help us any further so he asks if he is to come upon a satellite phone who he should call. My friend and I are exhausted from a whole day in the hot sun and the mud and begin to grab what we can out of the camper to make a makeshift camp. Since I was planning on sleeping in the camper (which at this point it was too off camber to stand in) I didn't have a sleep bag or pad. We set up our pathetic camp and walk down to the ocean for a night time swim to clean off the mud. As I lay in my board bag that night listening to the coyotes nearby I think about how bad I ****ed up. I have endangered by good friend and potentially lost my vehicle.
Day 2:
I slept very little due to my poor accommodations and spent most of the night thinking of how to free my rig. I bought a 12 ton bottle jack before leaving on this trip and I knew that this could potentially be my ticket home. My friend and I get back into our muddy wet clothes and begin digging right as the sun comes up. Due to the amount of water in the mud surround us we build a damn around the vehicle and spend the morning removing water from below the truck with our cooking pot. At about noon we have removed all of the water from below the truck and are working on freeing the axles and tires. We are worried of the truck flopping onto its drivers side so we use the utmost caution when walking and digging on that side. We break out the bottle jack and place some plywood below the jack/ rear bumper. As we jack the truck up the mud eats more of our plywood strips. But we eventually being to make progress and the truck slowly moves a couple of inches up in the rear. Our goal is to get the truck quasi level so that we can sleep in the camper that night. After each time that the jack gets to its full height we stack rocks under the back rear corner of the bumper and slide a new sheet of wood under the jack to give it another go. We worked all day and almost got the truck level enough to sleep in. At this point we are exhausted and walk down to the ocean to rinse off in the dark. We also realize that we didn't see a single person the whole day.
Day 3:
When we wake up we are spent and sore and still in a bad situation. We get back into our mud clothes and get right back to work. At this point our hands and muscles are so sore that we can barely dig and progress is slow (my friend is a beast and at this point was pulling ahead in the digging category). We dig until about 11 and hear some motorcycles nearby. I run to waive them down and ask them if they have a chase truck/ recovery gear. The guys drive over to where we are stuck and asses the situation. They have my friend pace from the back bumper to dry ground (90') and say that they will be back in an hour with their truck and that they will have us back in two minutes. We get to work building a stone road behind the truck in hopes that when they are pulling on the rig that it will slide on top of and across the rocks. We see an AWD Astro van pull up about a half hour later and two Aussies and an Alaskan hop out (for those of you that don't know the AWD Chevy Astro Van is a bad *** overland rig. These guys drove through some gnarly sand and silt beds without breaking a sweat). They proceed to get stuck in the flats and we spend 25 minutes helping to free them. At this point the three guys from Norcal that were on the their motorcycles pull up with a Chevy 2500 quad cab long bed Turbo Diesel that is tricked out and dialed. On the first go they move the rig about 2 feet and it flops on its side on a mud berm (that was created by all of our excavation). At this point I am sure that we are going to loose my rig. After two more hours of digging we attache the two Chevy's and give it another go. I still can't believe this but they pulled the rig out. I have never been so stoked my whole life. My friend and I get to continue our surf trip and I get my rig back from the Baja salt flats. We then learn that two big west swells are lining up for the last week of our trip. I can't thank everyone enough that helped us get the rig out. I am forever in your debt and will be giving out beers and set waves for years to come.
Things that I learned:
-Always get out and walk a line if you are at all in doubt (especially when you are a long ways from help).
-Always carry two to three properly rated tow straps (dynamic and static).
-Make sure to carry proper traction devices (MaxTraxx would have been very helpful as plywood just didn't cut it in mud).
-Carry enough beer
Day 1:
I had never been to this particular area before and wanted to continue heading south. We had been watching the fisherman take the road south and they had headed along the beach through very very deep sand. My rig is too heavy so we decided to look for an inland route. In Baja roads split in all directions all the time. How I usually choose which road to take when I am not sure where I am going is by following which one appears to be the most heavily traveled. We are following the road that is on a salt flat and you guys can probably guess where this is going. I made the mistake of not getting out and walking my line. I saw a wet section that was pretty short and was sure that with enough speed in 4wd that I could plow through it to the dry section on the other side. As many of you can see I got horribly stuck within 5 ft turned the truck off and starting swearing and throwing rocks for 10 minutes. My friend and I start digging and low and behold in 30 minutes Enrique the local fisherman godfather figure shows up and offers to help. His and friends all hop out and begin to help us dig the rig out. We pull out the sheets of plywood that I cut before the trip and place them behind the tires. We attach all of my tow straps together to the back of his F250 brings the lines to being taunt and then starts pulling. After an hour of this all of my tow straps are broken and he offers to get a mooring rope from his house that is a 3 hour round trip from where we are. We graciously accept his offer and continue to dig. For those of you that have never been stuck in the salt flats in Baja avoid them at all cost. The mud has horribly strong suction. When you try and take a shovel full off of the ground it holds on with all of its might. Once you free the shovel you have to hit it against a rock to get most of the mud off. The mud turned out to be about knee deep in a lot of sections so even walking around was difficult. Enrique returns with his mooring rope and G100 (Greg thank you for all of your help by the way I finally checked out your build on here and it is epic!) who was camped near us attaches himself to the front of Enrique's truck to help pull us out. At this point we have a 4wd t100 and a 4wd f250 attached and the truck won't budge and we continue to break all straps, ropes etc. Enrique informs asks us how much food and water we have and lets us know that he will be back later in the week. Greg was with some friends and he was unable to help us any further so he asks if he is to come upon a satellite phone who he should call. My friend and I are exhausted from a whole day in the hot sun and the mud and begin to grab what we can out of the camper to make a makeshift camp. Since I was planning on sleeping in the camper (which at this point it was too off camber to stand in) I didn't have a sleep bag or pad. We set up our pathetic camp and walk down to the ocean for a night time swim to clean off the mud. As I lay in my board bag that night listening to the coyotes nearby I think about how bad I ****ed up. I have endangered by good friend and potentially lost my vehicle.
Day 2:
I slept very little due to my poor accommodations and spent most of the night thinking of how to free my rig. I bought a 12 ton bottle jack before leaving on this trip and I knew that this could potentially be my ticket home. My friend and I get back into our muddy wet clothes and begin digging right as the sun comes up. Due to the amount of water in the mud surround us we build a damn around the vehicle and spend the morning removing water from below the truck with our cooking pot. At about noon we have removed all of the water from below the truck and are working on freeing the axles and tires. We are worried of the truck flopping onto its drivers side so we use the utmost caution when walking and digging on that side. We break out the bottle jack and place some plywood below the jack/ rear bumper. As we jack the truck up the mud eats more of our plywood strips. But we eventually being to make progress and the truck slowly moves a couple of inches up in the rear. Our goal is to get the truck quasi level so that we can sleep in the camper that night. After each time that the jack gets to its full height we stack rocks under the back rear corner of the bumper and slide a new sheet of wood under the jack to give it another go. We worked all day and almost got the truck level enough to sleep in. At this point we are exhausted and walk down to the ocean to rinse off in the dark. We also realize that we didn't see a single person the whole day.
Day 3:
When we wake up we are spent and sore and still in a bad situation. We get back into our mud clothes and get right back to work. At this point our hands and muscles are so sore that we can barely dig and progress is slow (my friend is a beast and at this point was pulling ahead in the digging category). We dig until about 11 and hear some motorcycles nearby. I run to waive them down and ask them if they have a chase truck/ recovery gear. The guys drive over to where we are stuck and asses the situation. They have my friend pace from the back bumper to dry ground (90') and say that they will be back in an hour with their truck and that they will have us back in two minutes. We get to work building a stone road behind the truck in hopes that when they are pulling on the rig that it will slide on top of and across the rocks. We see an AWD Astro van pull up about a half hour later and two Aussies and an Alaskan hop out (for those of you that don't know the AWD Chevy Astro Van is a bad *** overland rig. These guys drove through some gnarly sand and silt beds without breaking a sweat). They proceed to get stuck in the flats and we spend 25 minutes helping to free them. At this point the three guys from Norcal that were on the their motorcycles pull up with a Chevy 2500 quad cab long bed Turbo Diesel that is tricked out and dialed. On the first go they move the rig about 2 feet and it flops on its side on a mud berm (that was created by all of our excavation). At this point I am sure that we are going to loose my rig. After two more hours of digging we attache the two Chevy's and give it another go. I still can't believe this but they pulled the rig out. I have never been so stoked my whole life. My friend and I get to continue our surf trip and I get my rig back from the Baja salt flats. We then learn that two big west swells are lining up for the last week of our trip. I can't thank everyone enough that helped us get the rig out. I am forever in your debt and will be giving out beers and set waves for years to come.
Things that I learned:
-Always get out and walk a line if you are at all in doubt (especially when you are a long ways from help).
-Always carry two to three properly rated tow straps (dynamic and static).
-Make sure to carry proper traction devices (MaxTraxx would have been very helpful as plywood just didn't cut it in mud).
-Carry enough beer
pappawheely
Autonomous4X4
What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Glad everything worked out!
BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
So after this last trip I decided that I was done with the huge Lance camper and sold it to a guy with a rad OBS with a utility bed. I am now on the search for a Callen and am most likely picking one up tomorrow!
This is the camper I am going to pick up tomorrow!
This is the camper I am going to pick up tomorrow!
Old trick for deep sticky mud. Use the Jack all to lift the corner of the truck before you try and dig or pull it out. If the Jack wants to sink put the base on a piece of plywood or even the spare tire and wheel.
Muskeg is horrible stuff to be stuck in. It has no bottom. Jacking to truck up before pulling is about the only way to get free.
Glad ya got the truck out.
Muskeg is horrible stuff to be stuck in. It has no bottom. Jacking to truck up before pulling is about the only way to get free.
Glad ya got the truck out.
BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
I cracked the bed of my truck in a couple of places due to the huge Lance camper bouncing around in the back down in the bush in Baja. My brother in law and I threw down a couple of half decent beads and I ground them and cleaned them up to prep for the Callen.
Just picked up the Callen camper today. It needs a little bit of love but with some elbow grease will be perfect for what I like to do. It is a steel frame so it won't rattle apart and it has aluminum roof rack and ladder so they won't rust (I live close to the beach). I will post up more pictures of it tomorrow. It weighs about 800 lbs and was a ***** to get on haha. I plan on building a bed platform with drawers underneath with enough space so I can sit up comfortably in the camper. I may go the solar panel and fridge route or maybe just a Yeti cooler. I primarily use the rig for Baja strike missions and for camping and climbing in the Sierras.
Just picked up the Callen camper today. It needs a little bit of love but with some elbow grease will be perfect for what I like to do. It is a steel frame so it won't rattle apart and it has aluminum roof rack and ladder so they won't rust (I live close to the beach). I will post up more pictures of it tomorrow. It weighs about 800 lbs and was a ***** to get on haha. I plan on building a bed platform with drawers underneath with enough space so I can sit up comfortably in the camper. I may go the solar panel and fridge route or maybe just a Yeti cooler. I primarily use the rig for Baja strike missions and for camping and climbing in the Sierras.
BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
Dumprat,
We did that. It was probably the only reason that we got out. We used a 12 ton bottle jack and then stacked rocks under the back left bumper. I like to think of it as red neck engineering haha.
I think this is a my favorite photo of the fiasco. It looks like a meteor crashed in the mud almost.
We did that. It was probably the only reason that we got out. We used a 12 ton bottle jack and then stacked rocks under the back left bumper. I like to think of it as red neck engineering haha.
I think this is a my favorite photo of the fiasco. It looks like a meteor crashed in the mud almost.
BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
Dumprat,
I like an idiot assumed that I could hi-lift off of my back bumper and didn't double check it before I left. When I got stuck I pulled out the hi-lift and the camper had too much over hang. I am working on getting recovery points around the whole vehicle. At least my back bumper will be accessible now.
I like an idiot assumed that I could hi-lift off of my back bumper and didn't double check it before I left. When I got stuck I pulled out the hi-lift and the camper had too much over hang. I am working on getting recovery points around the whole vehicle. At least my back bumper will be accessible now.
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BajaSurfRig
Well-known member
I unfortunately have to sell my baby because I am starting a new job that requires commuting and this rig is not ideal for stop and go traffic in San Diego. Here is my craigslist add:
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/cto/5567528895.html
If you are interested please let me know.
Thanks,
Matt
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/cto/5567528895.html
If you are interested please let me know.
Thanks,
Matt
underdrive
jackwagon
Well that sucks, just as soon as you got that Calen on and you gotta get rid of the whole thing, didn't get to take it out on a trip even once... So if you sell this how will you do your Baja assaults? Gonna get something smaller, like a Taco?
In a stop and go traffic I'd much rather have a 7.3 (in any version) with a stick then a small-block gas job with a slushbox (even a new one), they burn very little fuel at low engine speeds in low-load conditions. And if you absolutely must, you can always hop a curb and get outta dodge if the situation calls for it without worrying much about suspension damage (an acquaintance of ours almost got killed in her minivan while stuck in traffic with nowhere to go, by the end of the week she was daily-driving a HD 3/4-ton 4x4 truck).
Getting a 2nd vehicle isn't an option? Are you into motorcycles?
In a stop and go traffic I'd much rather have a 7.3 (in any version) with a stick then a small-block gas job with a slushbox (even a new one), they burn very little fuel at low engine speeds in low-load conditions. And if you absolutely must, you can always hop a curb and get outta dodge if the situation calls for it without worrying much about suspension damage (an acquaintance of ours almost got killed in her minivan while stuck in traffic with nowhere to go, by the end of the week she was daily-driving a HD 3/4-ton 4x4 truck).
Getting a 2nd vehicle isn't an option? Are you into motorcycles?
Why not keep the truck and buy a cheap econo box for commuting ? You probably have more invested than you will get back, and some of the dealers offer no money down and small payments on downsize cars. A friend did that, bout a Handay(sp) no money down over 5 years with a 5 year warranty that includes oil changes. Drive it till it dies.
pappawheely
Autonomous4X4
You'll regret it. Just saying.