Wash = ford fail. Any tips? (Pics)

So the other day me and my lady friend went to do some light wheeling, out at Montana Mountain trail for you Arizonans. Anyways it was a walk in the park and then I hit the Queen Creek wash. I just did the rear diff breather mod so I was thinking that I was good to go I had never crossed any water before though so I got out to check it out...

It was flowing pretty good and I couldn't see the tops of any rocks so I couldn't tell how deep it was. So I decided to do the stick test or at least thats what I think your suppose to do to see how deep it is, right? Then something caught my eye about 20 yards down the wash...

Could it be???

Someone already did the F-150 test for me and failed. To say the least I didn't try the cross especially with only having one truck. I know im a weak but I didn't want to end up, washed up against the f-150. So this leads me to asking some questions. What do I want to look for before I cross? What are some test I should do? How fast is to fast for the flow of water? And how fast do you want to go when crossing? Thanks for looking and any suggestions you might have

 

LOL props to you using your head and not crossing.

 

Where was the owner of the Ford??

 

good questions and good pictures. i dont have any good answers for you though, the deepest water crossing ive ever done was about a foot deep. not very extreme

 

Haha Thats awesome. I just like to use the good ole' stick test. And then balls to the walls.

 

x2 for both comments above

 

Use your judgement! If the river is wide and you can't see the bottom, then I would stay clear. Good Judgement call on your part!!

So where was the owner of the Ford? Did they just leave it there?

 

Who knows, didn't see a soul lol but I had a strap on me. Do you think that is beyond the help of a strap and would it be dangerous to pull someone out stuck like this, going up stream?

 

^^ you could probably git r' done. Is there any way you could pull em out from the bank? Instead of pullin em' up stream.

 

i love montana mountain! such a nice trail

you know what you needed to do is to get a good running head start and just plow through that shit!

 

That was the thing, there was no access directly to the side of the wash by the truck and I might have been able to stretch a strap out, but would have defiantly been pulling against the current

 

i was just joking man i wouldnt have dont it either

 

Haha thanks, maybe next time if I can get some of you guys to go with.

 

post up in regional next time you go out, then a group could have gone and you probably couldve gotten across it with the help of others. theres a group of people always down to go trailing

 

Will do 08pretaco

 

That's classic. I always cross water slowly so it doesn't get splashed up into stuff it's not supposed to get splashed into. I don't do anything deeper than about a foot.

 

I don't think in AZ it's really a good idea to be crossing rivers unless you have a winch, friends and don't mind losing your truck.

The bottoms of washes are usually made of sand, and when you put weight on it the water just moves the sand from under your tires and you sink. Just like when you are at the beach, if you stand in the surf you feet will eventually be buried (just faster with a running river). If you do cross the river, it should be on solid rock and have a couple friends that can help in case something (like the ford) goes wrong.

Good job for using your head and not doing something that could have been really dangerous.

To bad you didn't have a winch, could have had a new Ford to play with lol.

 

x2... i did a water crossing once... had 3 other trucks just in case but still sketch...

 

Good point. Most of our mountain trail streams have granite beds. Sand with water moving over it can definitely be bad news.