Lessons learned yesterday.

Man, it's a sad feeling when your winch doesn't work. Last wheeling trip I high centered, pulled winch, and nothing. Winch didn't work. Had someone else pull me free, and I took the winch out when I got home. Turns out one of the pins in the remote socket got corroded and snapped off, leaving me with 4 pins instead of 5. Luckily it was a cheap and easy fix to get a new plug. Used the opportunity to wire in cab winch controls so that specific scenario can't happen again.

 

I have never had it happen to me ( knock on wood) but I have seen it happen to others. The most memorable time happened to the first truck in line so he was blocking the trial and needed to go forward. We had to use a couple snatch blocks from my truck to pull him forward.

The guy tested his winch the day before the trip.

 

Same, I think I broke the pin off when plugging in the remote to get unstuck. Oh well, shit happens and now dilectric grease is my friend to try and prevent it from happening again. And man I love me some snatch blocks. Easily one of the most used pieces of recovery gear on my truck.

 

This ^^^^^^

 

Good point about getting your gear out and checking it. With hi-lift Jack it's important to lube the pins or it won't function properly. I always keep a can of lube in my trucks for this purpose.

 

definite broverlander points on the traction boards, only way to get higher points is mounting them vertically on the rear so they are in easy view of pedestrians.

You can generally tell if they know how to use the equipment they've strapped to their racks by how shiny it is.

It's amazing how useful the OEM bottle jack can be. All you need is a "foot" to put it on, and that could just be a 2x6 or a piece of 3/4" plywood if that's what you had.

Hopefully the 4Runner owner has gone out and gotten some D-rings, and a useful length of recovery strap (30'). I always find int entertaining when I see a broverlander with a sweet hi-lift, but no sliders or bumpers to lift from. The wheel straps are nice, but not always appropriate to use.

Hopefully the Raptor owner stops being a priss with his heavy duty off-road edition truck. Surprised he got it dirty, lol

I've gone out wheeling with new people, friends of friends kind of thing. I basically assume I'm the expert until I'm proven otherwise. I'm by no means a professional, but I've been around long enough and in a previous life was an outdoor (climbing/biking/hiking) guide, and I've been driving off-road, while not continuously, for the better part of the last 2 decades, so I at least have a rough idea of what I'm doing, and I like to think I'm not a complete idiot.

I've at least never had that bad of an experience, but there was a time where we were swapping leads on this forest road, and I let this one guy lead. He was admittedly a faster driver than I was, or at least drove faster than I was willing to drive with my son in the truck. Well, he failed to stop at a Y and kept going in the wrong direction for several minutes and put himself several miles of course. Of course we only had GMRS coms so the range sucked. But he was in an open top jeep so it's not like he could hear anyway. He eventually backtracked after realizing no one was behind him. 1/2 later we were back on the trail, with me in the lead again. At least he knew he F'd up. But I guess it was partially my fault for not making it clear we all stop at splits (even though that's what I had been doing all day!).

Anyway, hopefully these guys learned a valuable lesson. We are all noobs at some point. Back when I started driving the noobs where the ones with old stock trucks with no equipment (winch, hi-lift etc). Now we have the noobs who have all (or most) of the gear, but have no idea how to use it, which is just as bad as not having it - worse actually, especially for things like a hi-lift which can be deadly if mishandled.

 

62 years old and started 4 wheeling when I was 16....18 4wds over that 46 years. So I've seen a lot. A lot done right and even more done wrong. Generally, I'll mind my own business unless I see someone about to do something less than safe....Then I get involved.

People tend to believe they're smarter than they actually are most of the time. We're all guilty of that once in a while... And people tend to believe just because they BOUGHT cool stuff that they know how to USE it. Not always the case.

 

I go out and have fun. Best thing I found, never get wrapped up in someone's particular driving habits or care for their vehicle.

Prepare yourself for the worse and you may not always be the godsend you think you are.

If I do a planned trip with a group, I usually have a get together prior where we all have a few beers and have an easy going conversation to plan. Bottom line is to have fun.

Relax when someone else is not up to your standards. Smile and have a good time.

 

So im not mistaken, i still had fun. However, i would have had a lot more fun had we been able to do 2 additional hours of exploring, versus 2 hours of digging.

I know im not the greatest driver, but i am better than this particular driver at snow driving (benefits of growing up in PA vs growing up in san francisco) and it was frustrating that he would take my advice.

 

Idk how people can stand offroading on anything more than 15ish psi. If I wanted my teeth jarred out I'd have bought wagon wheels.


My experience with maxitracs has been the same as stated here. They're for the gram!

 

At Arches NP I was talking to a ranger about some trail conditions where I wanted to venture, and I asked how often people get stuck out there (sandy gulch sections). Not often, but she said the Rangers got a Raptor to go out and deal with stuff like that, and it just got stuck all the time and was basically useless.

 

So...... I went out to look at a vehicle to purchase. The owner wanted to show me what it could do. Just sit right back and let me you a tale, about a 3 hour tour.

We didn't get 1/4 mile away and we were buried in a swamp. Got a tractor stuck, used a mule (Vietnam ere ammo carrier) to pull out the tractor. What amazed me was the differences in how the owner and I worked on a stuck vehicle. It was literally 3 hours to get unstuck, another hour to get it set on the trailer and head back home.

I laughed, he was pissed; I was pissed, he laughed. I'm back home from a 3 hr drive. Had a good day and made a great friend.

 

Glad everyone got out safe; always take away the experience for the next adventure and learn from mistakes made so not to repeat them again; which is exactly what you did OP’er.

My experience with recovery boards has been that they work very well in sand and pretty good in mud. No experience with snow but just like with mud, the more slippery the board becomes, the more difficult it is to gain traction. Airing down if not already done helps a ton too when using those things.

 

I have seen bad things happen to good people while offroad, the only way to gain experience is to get out there and do it. 4 wheel'in can be an expensive activity even in the hands of experienced drivers.... Rule of thumb, if your afraid to break or scratch your truck then stay on the blacktop and always put newbies in the middle of the group so you have experience in front and behind them.

 

When someone tells you that airing down below 30 psi is bad, walk away and don’t wheel with that person anymore.

Also why was the base plate needed to use the hi lift? Was it because the ground was too soft due to the snow?