Protector II
Worst stuck
- Thread starter IronPercheron
- Start date
I recently came across the #stuckcollection tag on Instagram. It's mostly being used for people stuck in the desert, but it is still very entertaining. Here is my most embarrassing stuck so far - perfectly balanced on the crest of a dune with no wheels touching the ground 
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Out of curiosity, how is overlanding in UAE? You guys are pretty much 100% desert, are there mountains or forests though?
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My Xterra in Its Natural Habitat, November 2014 - Stave Lake - Toy Run - Broke through the ice on top, then the Ice at the bottom of the Trench, had my buddy in his LR pull me out. I could have made it! (NOT)
Off-Road Ranger I
I remember reading this over at Expedition Portal, and it scaring the crap out of me, since I'm often out alone and don't have a winch.I got a pretty good stuck story ....
My dad and I were out alone in the Panamint valley , one of the driest hottest places in the US....
We came to this wash and I got out and walked it to test firmness, wetness, etc...it felt really firm underfoot...
I made my way across it and quickly broke through a hard upper layer into some soupy mud... uh oh
Front and rear lockers got me nowhere I was STUCK , and stuck good . What to do ? No other vehicles around, no natural anchors to tug off...
I remembered a technique from my rock climbing days , you can dig a U-shaped channel in the snow , and if you have enough surface area , you can safely rappel off it . So I dug a U shaped bollard around a clump of vegetation, and threw my strap down in there....
I held my breath and started winching ...
And we were free ! We only needed to pull out about 15 feet to get on firmer ground....
Dad and I cracked a cold one and breathed a sigh of relief , what a great memory lookin back on it now ....
Great story!!!!
Only done it once but I did a pretty good job of it!
Enthusiast III
Had to pull out a range rover the other day. Brand new with winter tires on, decided to (I guess) see how far up the snow bank he could get. He got all 4 wheels up there and then dug himself a hole... When I passed him, as he was playing around near a parking lot I didn't realize he was stuck until I got past, there was someone with a Hilux or similar backed up to him already. But he didn't have any decent recovery straps or had he put it in 4lo.
Drove back to see if I could help and they where so happy to see me come back... Looked around the RR, he was stuck up against a bigger snow bank on the right and couldn't turn the wheel, but not stuck up to the axles so it didn't seem too bad.
But the guy either wouldn't listen or was way too stressed out to understand what I was telling him. Told him to keep the wheels straight, stick it in reverse. But no, had to turn the wheel hard over for some reason. Stop told him to put it straight again and tried again, he must have either put it in Park or had his foot on the brake the whole time as I pulled him out with all 4 wheels locked...
As soon as we had unhooked everything he said thanks a couple of times and then high tailed it out of there
Drove back to see if I could help and they where so happy to see me come back... Looked around the RR, he was stuck up against a bigger snow bank on the right and couldn't turn the wheel, but not stuck up to the axles so it didn't seem too bad.
But the guy either wouldn't listen or was way too stressed out to understand what I was telling him. Told him to keep the wheels straight, stick it in reverse. But no, had to turn the wheel hard over for some reason. Stop told him to put it straight again and tried again, he must have either put it in Park or had his foot on the brake the whole time as I pulled him out with all 4 wheels locked...
As soon as we had unhooked everything he said thanks a couple of times and then high tailed it out of there
Noooo
-2002 Disco with heavy things bolted to it.
Benefactor
@InsertAliasHere So how long did that extraction take, and what did you do? Love the chair sitting next to the truck. This is going to take awhile......
@Disco2Guy Ha, so yeah I was dug in to my axels. Nothing to winch off for days so I started with burying a bunch of things to pull from (high-lift, wood boards, etc..) but it wasn't enough to pull from. The next day two dual sport riders came by and we brainstormed for a bit but still no results. They took our coordinates and called our location in once they hit the closest town. A few hours later, once coming to grips with the likely possibility of walking for a very long while, a sheriff came by but for some reason did not want to use the F150 4x4 he came in to pull us out. So we waited for another 2 hours or so for a HMMWV to come and yank us out. A solid 24 hours in total I'd say. Ha yeah, "this is going to take a while" was muttered for sure.
-2002 Disco with heavy things bolted to it.
-2002 Disco with heavy things bolted to it.
Benefactor
That would have been the perfect opportunity to bury the spare tire and use it as a ground anchor. Especially since you have easy access to the spare mounted on the door. Although you just don't want to dig a hole, tie the winchline around it and winch in.
For a stuck that deep you want as much winchline spooled off the drum as possible. Down to the last layer is ideal since this is where you get the full rated pulling power of the winch. You could also use a pulley block on the ground anchor and perform a self recovery, but you have to be sure you clear what stopped you in the first place since the length of the line is halved. So pull your line first and where it ends, move 3-4' towards the truck and start digging. This gives you some slack to drop the tire into the hole.
When digging the hole you want it to have a slight angle away from the truck, or an overcut, like a cliff. This helps to keep the tire from pulling straight out of the hole. Of course that can be tricky in loose sand, but that stuff looks wet and compact enough where it may have held it's shape. Dig it deep enough so the top of the tire is level, if not slightly under ground level.
Depending on what you have on hand, you need something to hold the winchline against the tire. A breaker bar through the hook, with the breaker bar right against the wheel works well. The next step is the most important part in making this trick happen. You need a channel for the winchline. It has to go from the center of the wheel back out to the surface of the ground. It's more important if you are in dirt than sand to have this channel. It's ok if the sand covers the line when you start winching, but you initially you want the line as straight as possible coming from the tire to fairlead.
Once all of that is rigged and set, fill in the hole with the terrain you just dug up. Tap it down or jump on it to pack it all in. *This is only needed if the tire doesn't hold after the first try. At this point you're ready to try winching forward. If you have a buddy, they should have been digging out the front of the tires and under the frame while you were digging the hole for the tire. You want to remove as much resistance from the vehicle as possible. It is very demoralizing to spend all that time and energy burying the tire to have it pull out in seconds and the vehicle just sits there. What do you do in that case? Dig deeper.
But if everything goes accordingly, the tire should hold still and the truck should pull itself free of the bogged situation. Then of course you get to dig the tire out and re-fill the hole again.
For a stuck that deep you want as much winchline spooled off the drum as possible. Down to the last layer is ideal since this is where you get the full rated pulling power of the winch. You could also use a pulley block on the ground anchor and perform a self recovery, but you have to be sure you clear what stopped you in the first place since the length of the line is halved. So pull your line first and where it ends, move 3-4' towards the truck and start digging. This gives you some slack to drop the tire into the hole.
When digging the hole you want it to have a slight angle away from the truck, or an overcut, like a cliff. This helps to keep the tire from pulling straight out of the hole. Of course that can be tricky in loose sand, but that stuff looks wet and compact enough where it may have held it's shape. Dig it deep enough so the top of the tire is level, if not slightly under ground level.
Depending on what you have on hand, you need something to hold the winchline against the tire. A breaker bar through the hook, with the breaker bar right against the wheel works well. The next step is the most important part in making this trick happen. You need a channel for the winchline. It has to go from the center of the wheel back out to the surface of the ground. It's more important if you are in dirt than sand to have this channel. It's ok if the sand covers the line when you start winching, but you initially you want the line as straight as possible coming from the tire to fairlead.
Once all of that is rigged and set, fill in the hole with the terrain you just dug up. Tap it down or jump on it to pack it all in. *This is only needed if the tire doesn't hold after the first try. At this point you're ready to try winching forward. If you have a buddy, they should have been digging out the front of the tires and under the frame while you were digging the hole for the tire. You want to remove as much resistance from the vehicle as possible. It is very demoralizing to spend all that time and energy burying the tire to have it pull out in seconds and the vehicle just sits there. What do you do in that case? Dig deeper.
But if everything goes accordingly, the tire should hold still and the truck should pull itself free of the bogged situation. Then of course you get to dig the tire out and re-fill the hole again.
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Traveler III
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Traveler III
i was doing well until the upper arm failed..then the traction boards and winch went pretty useless...i tried to hook it up with winch..got it to pull up wheel and was able to get it up and out.after hi lifting the rock rails up...then it fell again ..the lower ball joint had enough...it was an exciting sunday [emoji23][emoji23]lessons learned...don't go by yourself...buy jba arms!!!by far the worst and most expensive stuck in 25 years of off-roading ...ive had some others,but this takes the cake [emoji23]
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Benefactor
Aww, that's like my broken leg. You just needed crutches!!! Ok, well maybe not upfront...by far the worst and most expensive stuck in 25 years of off-roading ...ive had some others,but this takes the cake [emoji23]
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Off-Road Ranger I
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4284
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