Fun night last night. My little brother calls me from our family land and tells me hes stuck in 4 inches of mud with his new 2wd F150. He was towing a loaded trailer that sank, so all he did was spin a hole.

I thought "ok, 2.5 hour drive from me, but no big deal." I head out there at 11pm, get there and hes in a little rut on highway tires so he's just spinning. I go past him in 2wd to turn around in a clearing a little ways up the trail, and get turned around. I put it in 4 low, come back through my SAME TRACKS to put my back bumper facing his so i can yank him by his hitch from mine. All of a sudden the right side of the truck just drops. Axles hung, sitting on the bumpers at each end and the frame in the middle. I tried rocking it but it was no use. Even with LSD, it was a no-go. The **** was just too thick and with my side step hung up, along with the front cross-member...I wasnt going anywhere...


Anyway, after 3 hours and waiting on a wrecker with a winch, we got us and the trailer out. But what a night. All in all, I broke the plastic fairing on the bottom of the front bumper, and bent my side step brackets. But its nothing a little heat and a hammer wont fix. $225 for a tow truck to come winch me out, then I pulled little bro and the trailer out. My brother ended up paying for the tow cause he felt so bad, I was just going to put it on my insurance but whatever lol.




^R/F Tire


^I was trying to go around the trailer that is to my left, ended up slightly in the weeds.


^R/F











And the damage...could have been alot worse...



Side step brackets are bent. This is the left side (not bent):


Right side step with bent brackets:


Nothing a little heat and a hammer wont fix! The side step saved my rocker panels from certain damage. Thats what they are for! The plastic fairing will be removed in a few weeks when I install my bull bar and light bar so oh well.

 

And there is a saying that 4WD will just get you stuck farther.

 

4wd, 2wd, in this case it didnt matter. I sank instantly up to the doors. there was no warning. Just *squish* and then *drop*. I didnt even have a chance to spin wheels until I was already sunk. then, even with the diffs locked, nothing i could do. It wouldn't even move an inch.

 

Nobody has a tractor to pull him out???

 

Dang. What did you hit to make the truck sink that rapidly....quicksand? Or was it just super-soft ground from all of that rain and flooding in your part of the country in the last few days?

Glad everything worked out with the help you guys got.

 

the ground here, after saturating rains, will dry on the surface but stay wet about 4 inches down for weeks. I ran into a pocket like that. Looked normal on top...

 

Yeah....and the weight of a big full-size pickup like that also does a job pushing the tires down into the muck.

 

Leave it to the pros is the best option. That is the takeaway.

 

Eh, you don't always need to call a tow truck. Where I grew up you always just called a buddy to get you out. On the rare off chance that he got stuck too, you'd just call another buddy to come pull the both of you out.

 

If the conditions, though, are bad enough (and they seemed pretty bad where Josh was), sooner or later you'll run out of buddies.

 

Well then you're all together. Time for a tailgate party.

 

LOL True story.

My issue was, my land is 120 miles from my nearest friends with 4wd trucks.