I got out of this simply by being lucky, and by recalling being dumb from another time.
So today I’m out looking at land, for maybe a new BOL, this time in northeast Texas, at the very farthest edge of my travel radius ... in fact it was really too far, and I should have just rejected it out of hand. Strike 1 ... But no, I’ve come this far, let’s have a look.
Strike 2, this place was down a dirt road. Correction... a MUD road.
Strike 3 was that this place was frequented so often by hunters, the landowners on the neighboring property set aside a parking area for their trucks ... poor OPSEC.
Anyway, How the hell did I think someday that I was going to get my late model 1/2 ton 2WD pickup down this thing pulling a 16-foot TRAILER? I’d either have to install a $20k gravel road, or purchase a $30k 4WD pickup.
Another thing ... the place just seems ...swampy. Lots of good tall trees, but I seem to be going downhill to get to this acreage ... alarm bells are ringing. Strike 4 ... But I digress.
You know that nagging little voice that says ... “dude those are some really big sloppy brown puddles, with deep ruts leading into them, which were clearly made by bigger trucks with beefier tires than yours”? Yeah ... listen to THAT voice, not the one that’s says, “nah you’ll be okay, try it and turn back if it’s too much”
Well I listened to voice number two, and — brace yourself for the shock — I inexplicably got stuck. How could that possibly have happened?
Oh crap. I am in the middle of the middle of nowhere, and any minute now there will be tired, hungry, highly annoyed and possibly half-drunk hunters emerging from these woods, only to find the only path out blocked by some city-dwelling dumba$$ wannabe who decided to take his 2WD truck down a mud road. IN STREET TIRES. Street tires with slick red clay packed into the tread, tires which might as well have been bowling balls at this point.
Luckily I was able to feather the gas and spin/scoot forward about 20 feet just short of hitting the really big puddle. I started to back up and felt the kiss of death caress my cheek. Spinning tires and a gently sinking rear end. STOP! I inched forward a little , found a dry spot and backed up trying to get enough speed to shoot past the first puddle. I aimed wrong and caught the side of the road and spun again . I was using my side mirrors to back up, but this time I crept forward and tried again by turning and looking straight out the back window. Come on, come on ... OH THANK HEAVEN! I bounced and slopped back through the puddle got some better purchase and back to the front of the property, and decided to walk the 3/4 of a mile or so to the property, after parking on the side of the road.
The only smart thing I did here was not to try and drive further down the road.
Then later as I was heading back I thought, what if it HAD been SHTF? And I had lost the vehicle?!! I would been like that “game over” guy in that movie Aliens.
Lesson learned: best way to extricate yourself from mud is not to get stuck in the first place ... if it looks iffy and you don’t know for a FACT you have the gear and skill to get yourself out ... DONT DO IT. Duh.
Now I mentioned earlier about lessons learned from another time. A few moths back I got my front wheels sunk in at my current BOL (with a trailer attached ... haha!) and after three hours of muddy, sloppy, fruitless, frustrating work ... alone ... with a come-along ... in the dark ... stuffing firewood logs under the wheels ... jacking the truck up to get the trailer off ... wincing as I heard the crackling tension in the tow strap while I cranked as hard as I could on the come-along ... the light bulb popped on.
The problem wasn’t traction.
The problem was that the front wheels were sunk 6” into the ground. I was trying to pull them over a steep wall of earth at 60 degrees vertical. No amount of traction would get them out. I needed a gradual slope. And that meant simply digging out behind the tires. So I spent about 20 minutes digging out a nice gradual slope about 3 feet behind the front tires.
BOOM.
Out came the truck with two cycles of tightening the come along and feathering the gas.
As I drove home, I gamed out the scenario further ... But what if you really HAD to try, though? This was something I might need to look at for vehicle preps ... a come-along, two really good tow straps, and perhaps some TruckClaws with extensions that I saw on the web today.
Anyway that’s my story and I’m sticking to it ... just thought I’d share my dumb mistakes so others might avoid it :-)
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Barely Escaped Getting the Truck Stuck
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