Stuck in snow, advice needed

Amen to having a proper shovel, but IMHO those grain scoops are just too big to dig around tires, diffs, etc. and take up too much space to carry.

I spent a lot of time looking for what I thought would be the perfect "get unstuck" vehicle shovel and came up empty...

- less than 40" overall length
- D-handle
- fiberglass shaft
- aluminum scoop-type blade (for light weight, but still tough in extreme cold)
- blade width 12" or less
- no multi-part, folders, or telescopes

I would carry one of these in addition to a garden-variety (literally) D-handle steel spade for digging (for hiding the bodies or whatever).

 

Came here to note this. Wish I was that age now. In the old days, girl just sit pissed in the cab.

 

Might be a good sign to one of them that she’s a keeper.

 

Great commentary/testimonial about the Sport!

Lots of good info on this thread too.

E
****

 

To each their own. The grain shovel moves a lot of snow quickly, which is fantastic for when you're stuck and it's 2°F out. I also had no issues digging around the tires or anything else and it being plastic meant I wasn't worried about vehicle damage like with a metal shovel. If you're talking about digging inside the wheel wells for some reason, your ice scraper works great for that. If it is beyond that you likely have other issues to worry about in general.

 

I've never tried it in snow...not much of that here....but the best damned shovel in my world is an official USFS shovel. And keep it sharpened.

Some day I'll see if it's worth snow duty.

 

My 2 cents...

I've been stuck in snow countless times over the years. I do it for fun multiple times every year whenever I get the chance.

Most of the time I get unstuck without getting out of the truck. 4wd with ATRAC is quite useful for this. The rear locker doesn't help a whole lot in most situations. If you are unloaded, a majority of your traction is on the front axle, so ATRAC can be better than the locker.

When I do need to get out of the truck, I use a combination of a good shovel and traction boards. Sometimes sand can useful as well. One nice thing about snow compared to mud is that it can be moved out of your way.

I think airing down is counter productive most of the time. A truck can't effectively float on snow like it can on sand. The way you usually get out is by digging down to the ground and then hoping you have clearance above the snow. Airing down reduces your clearance. You are probably wasting your time airing down when you could be shoveling.

OP, it sounds like you did every correctly except for perhaps underestimating how easy it is to get stuck in snow. Sounds like fun.

EDIT: one caveat... snow varies greatly depending on depth, temperature, humidity, age, whether it has been upset by a plow or driven on, and maybe some other things. Some techniques might work better or worse depending on the snow. For example, traction boards aren't as helpful in fluffy snow because they tend to get kicked out the back and then lost under the snow. They work better in dense snow. Forget about traction boards on ice. You need sand, chains, or studs for that; none of which I carry with me.

 

I agree with you 100%. You want to move large volumes of snow quickly, that is the shovel to have. After seeing your post, I went and found mine and put it in the back of the truck. Hey, you never know!

 

IMO the best general purpose shovel to carry for getting unstuck in muck, fluffy snow, hard pack, ice, and etc is a regular old long handle steel square point shovel with a sharpened leading edge. Not plastic, aluminum, coal, snow, skiers avalanche, pack, or military style entrenching shovel. Those all work okay for minor stucks and fluffy snow but when the chips are down and the real work begins you need a real shovel. Short handles are for posers and for Jeeps and SUVs that have limited room. I do carry an entrenching tool behind the back seat though. I hand it to the spectator or passenger who wants to criticize how the digging is going.

 

I don't post very often, but growing up in snow country I have a few pointers:

1) Like another poster mid-way said and my Dad's wisdom is: "Don't use chains to get yourself into trouble, use them to get you out. Further, if you use chains to get yourself into deep trouble, no one will be able to come help." I use the first part of this wisdom with a grain of salt. I've used chains to gain some advantage to get further down the road knowing the risks. We've also chained up an 80's lifted Chev all the way around to have some serious fun. I wish my Taco came with a solid front axle.
2) I'm with the guy who said get some real chains, not the cables. I carry a hefty rear set behind the rear seat. Fit and test them before getting stuck.
3) Don't drive into a valley or canyon that you cannot get out of. Obviously this takes some discretion, but if you're even a little bit intimidated I'd stop there.
4) Turn around on the uphill side of the road. Use the slope, limited slip/locker, throttle application and gravity to spin the truck. If you get stuck on the downhill side, you're working against gravity and the slippery slope.
5) Go out with some (competent off road) friends and practice before you're on your own.
6) Put those kids standing/horsing around to work. Get some weight in the bed (you can add snow, too). A couple friends standing on the bumper hopping up and down can do wonders. Remember, your rear locker axle is in the rear where there is no weight. Try adding weight, removing weight, pushing (different angles), etc.
7) Use branches, fir bows, small logs, dig down to dirt or gravel, etc. Find any material that will help get traction or lift your rig off the frame. Your traction boards were a good idea to get off the frame, but I would have used them to go backwards. See next pointer.
8) Oftentimes backing up is better than turning around.
9) Counter steering and throttle application is your friend, but be pretty sure you know what's under the snow. Stability control and throttle cutting (VSC) is not. Turn that crap off. Sometimes you just have to hammer it and steer with the throttle. Also don't be afraid of munching the brakes (briefly) to stop/slow the wheels if something undesirable is happening (like low speed sliding/downslope rotation after hammering it).
10) If your front and rear wheels end up in separate ruts, it's probably best to crab walk until you pop out.
11) Dropping through packed snow or crusty snow into powder is probably the worst. There's not much you can do besides getting it off the frame.
12) It's a chess game, think several steps ahead or back to solve the problem.
13) You will get stuck, just get efficient at getting unstuck.

Funny story, in college I was out with a roommate scrounging firewood in January in my old 4x4 Silverado Z71. We took a spur road uphill and the road narrowed more and more as we went with a steep downslope on one side. I hit a drift I couldn't punch through in the middle of a switchback. I then had my roommate hop on the bumper as I hammered the drift several more times and made it through far enough to turn around. We loaded up with firewood, turned around in the switchback, and drove down and out the same tracks.

Final pointer: The guy with the sled photo is right. However, even a well equipped snowmobile or timbersled will bury in the right conditions. I've dug plenty of sleds out, skis pointing towards the sky. Every winter experienced backcountry riders up north get stuck in a canyon or terrain that they cannot get back out of. Most of all, have fun!

I'm also with the Matt's Off Road Recovery fan group. Matt has some excellent snow and mountain recoveries. If you listen, he gives some really good pointers (like crabbing and going too far). My son and I like his channel. One of his recent videos is a guy pinned against a fence in snow in an 80's Chev (complete with a random mattress), don't be that guy.

 

Living in a very rural area with little else to do and driving from the middle 1970's we would challenge each other by finding unplowed roads with our rear wheel drive cars. Nothing like the experience being down in a valley and trying for hours to make it out on one of the four roads till the early morning hours, just picture three guys desperate to get out (have to be at work soon) standing on the rear bumper, leaning over the trunk of a Nova with aired down tires, pushing snow with the front bumper while drifting like Fast and furious ! Even when I bought my first 4wd a 1974 F100 we would still only use 4wd when absolutely necessary. One of the lessons I learned with manual hubs is turn them in before getting stuck, for when one hub is against a frozen bank you're S.O.L. In the end there is no replacement for experience and to this day I still smile when someone says, you can't make that or get out of there. Back in the day... traction boards were your floor matt's.

 

I hope not....

For her sake.

 

+1!

 

Great advice thank you! I was trying to go backwards then we decided to switch it up and roll forward slightly just so I could get more momentum to roll backwards. No way I was going to attempt turning around.

And I was actually thinking about having 1 of those guys hop in my bed if I still wasn’t having any luck. I also ordered a pair of heavy duty chains for the rear 2 weeks ago for that very reason (to help get me unstuck), but they only just arrived yesterday.

I too am a fan of Matt’s recovery, used to watch his stuff a lot, but haven’t seen many of his snow recoveries

 

That's the truck I USED to have! I miss it!! Go anywhere.

 

Maybe one of the peeps that was smart enough to stop with the others, before they got stuck - will snatch her up - not some doofus with flip/flops..
Granted he is all of 20?
I was pretty dumb back then too

Disclaimer - I love flip/flops, love em, live in em - but when it is cold, you gotta put on shoes, real shoes - boots when it is snowy/wet -
wet/cold feet = sick in a second..

 

Here you go. Enjoy!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q1DRxbuQHZw&t=13s

My thought on this one is that he should have brought a snow plow to remove the snow from that 2 mile road instead of trying to drive all those trucks over it. It’s definitely more fun to drive on unplowed roads but it’s not practical when trying to get work done. I suppose what I might be missing is that the snow will all melt the day after unlike what happens where I live.

 

During the winter of ‘79, my girlfriend and I got stuck after sliding down a snow patch while offroading on a steep forest road with my best friend’s Ford Pinto. The car ended up half off the road high centered on a icy berm. I had nothing to dig it out with except for his AM radio. It worked out great and I returned his car the next day with more than just a bit of mud on it and a radio that you couldn’t tune anymore. He asked how the date was, and I said great. We’re still friends and he never did ask what happened to the radio, even after all these years.

 

Make sure you know how to put those chains in tight and right.

get Some bungees to get them tighter