Something to think about when out trailing

Holy shit has it been raining in SoCaL, & raining hard & often. The Once dry creeks & washes are now swollen, traveling at a high rate of speed ,potentially deadly....

Which brings us to the point of this thread, if you offroad at all, whether

it's once a year or once a week, (guilty as charged, sometimes more !!)
Guys & gals, when approaching the numerous water hazards that we'll no doubt encounter on our favorite haunts,THINGS TO CHECK BEFORE YOU CROSS: take special note as to HOW FAST the current is flowing first off, has anyone been thru a flash flood besides myself ? I'm sure some of you have, & I can tell you its one of the scariest fucking life experiences you'll ever have, A flash flood kills from the sides, not so much from what you can see coming at you but from the 40 MPH , 20" wall of slurry,rocks,treelimbs & trees, other cars & anything else that unfortunantly wound up in its path upstream,that you didn't even know was coming,, but I Digress : 2nd, how WIDE is this sucker ? Wide is not good, even if its slow & shallow, more risk of hitting a hole only because the water hazard takes physically more distance to cross. Which brings up a good question: HOW DEEP IS IT ? When you were checking it for speed, look at the turbulence of the current, if it is choppy, but the chop is stationary, this indicates shallower, more settled washout, you'd probably be ok, if the current is fast, wide & a somewhat "smoother" appearing surface. I'd look for another place to cross, or go (remember, the way in is usually the way out also) This tells me that its not only deeper than originally thought , but its still eroding the creekbed/wash, etc; & NOTHING is staying stationary in the current flow, meaning that EVERYTHING in its path is goin' for a ride, trash,trees, boulders & you & your truck if you don't use a little common sense & look for the couple of conditions I described, & of course its always best to have at least one other capable rig with you, so lets hit it hard !! Lets hit it safe too !!..

 

x2 .... while im not in so cal, last year i attempted to go thru this in my 2wd truck cause "it wasnt deep 2 weeks ago and got stuck" .... i can only imagine how bad it coulda been if lots more water or serious flow ... be safe people and travel in groups!... reposted from the "stuck" thread

 

wait doug, u mean we shouldnt pull a derek and charge ruts?

 

Sometimes the simple things are easy to forget. Thanks for the words of advice Doug, I'm sure they will prove more than helpful for the SoCal guys that are out and about during this wet weahter we are having!

 

if an oldman said it, it must be good advice. be careful out there fellas!

 

Well taken, off road with a buddy too. Don't forget the tow ropes if you are thinking of doing something not pre-calculated. TW socal thread won't always save you if you text from your phone.

 

Always use extreme caution when crossing water, you never know what could be hiding underneath the water, their could be some deep holes that were dug out by the current. Working in construction have seen dozers get stuck in water crossings because of deep holes.

 

For some odd reason Doug, I thought you were going to post pics of your truck banged up. Haha. I'm glad I was wrong. If anyone here is from the South Bay, there was this bridge I used to cross that had a ton of water going over it. It was on Hollister between Main and Palm. Oh the memories... this was back in High School. If I were to see it again, I don't know if I would do it. Stupid back then. I'd like to think I've learned a thing or two since then. Happy trailing to you all.

 

first thing i bought when i got a pickup truck was tie downs for cargo, and seeing as im 2wd (prev truck and this one) a tow strap! has served me well on many occasions!