by Regulator1175 » Sun May 27, 2012 11:50 pm
OK folks, I will do my best to recreate the situation and explain what we did and why we did it.
The hill is called Chicken Shit hill, it is about a 50 yard climb at 45-60 degrees. The trail is just as wide as the trucks wheel base and not much more room. There is a slight right turn as you near the top. The real difficulty of the hill, and the rest of the park, is that it is all very loose gravel and sand. There is no traction to be had once you lose momentum. I also did not air down, so that played a big part in this as well. In my opinion that was my first mistake.
I made a run at the hill, taking it pretty slow not really worried about needing momentum to make it to the top. I have done much steeper hill climbs then this. I was not worried in the least, nor was I concerned about leading inexperienced trucks up this hill. I failed to take in to account the ground surface and that is what got me into trouble. This was my second mistake.
About 75% of the way up the I lost traction and started spinning. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it so I started to back down to make another run at it with more speed. As I was backing down, the trail crumbled out from under my rear drivers tire and pulled the entire truck off the side of the trail. As I started to slide, knowing that I would roll the truck if I got the passenger tires over the edge, I threw it into drive and hit the gas hard. My hope was that I could dig myself into the sand enough to get the truck to stop sliding. This worked, but at that point the truck was sitting at 45 degrees on the slope.
At this point I shut everything down, got my children out of the truck, and went for a walk with AJ to see where the exit to trail was from the top of the hill. We got his truck around at strapped up to my from bumper with a static strap. He offered his snatch strap, but the way my truck was sitting I wanted a slow controlled pull, not to be just jerked out. We got into the trucks and I told Kevin (Wink) that he had control and that we were watching him. AJ started pulling and the only thing we accomplished was to pull me further up the hill, but were not able to get my truck over the crest and back onto the trail. At this point I am still 45 degrees sideways, with the nose sitting about 60 degrees in the air. I had no oil pressure and all the dash board was lit up so I shut the truck down and told everyone that we were going to have to do this with my truck dead. I didn't want to blow the engine and roll it all in the same day!
After sitting and scratching our heads for a while, the only plan I could come up with was to get my truck turned sideways where I could drop down the other side of the trail. This meant for a long distance pull, but it did not allow for much room behind the recovery truck. I was the one leading the recovery, and I did tell them to D ring the two straps together, I realize this was a huge risk and will claim this as my third mistake of the day. AJ did offer the snatch strap again, but I do not believe there was enough space behind the recovery truck to have used it.
Everyone has seen the video and knows what came next and what the end result was. I will point out that through all of this I was still talking to Kevin, and so were the recovery drivers. When you here everyone yelling in the video it was because the recovery truck did not hear Kevin's direction. I was free at that point, had turned the truck back on and knew I had traction. I yelled out out the window to get me off the tow strap and about that time the recovery truck was getting ready to make another tug. That is why everyone was yelling at him to stop.
During the entire process I had the park staff at the bottom of the hill watching me. They did ask if any of us had a winch, no one did, and said that he would have preferred if we winched out. I told him I would have preferred that as well, it just wasn't an option. You use the tools you have available right?
The end result was that we were successful and no major damage to my truck. In hind site I think if I aired down I would have made the hill, but if I was aired down during that tug I would have lost the bead on both front tires. Both of my front wheel bearings are objecting to the stress they endured though, but I replace them every 6 months anyway so that isn't a huge issue.
I do feel in the end that we did what needed to be done, there were some safety mistakes, but ultimately we got my truck out and avoided any real damage. I was even asked 15 minutes later to assist in recovering a Dodge Durango who was inches from rolling his truck. The park officials asked them to leave following the recovery.
I hope that was clear and concise enough, now fire away who has questions.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain
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