While an HT is a good start I highly recommend a mobile unit with 50w and a good mobile antenna. A stock HT won't get you more than a few miles in the mountains. Focus on 2 meter and you will be good to go.
My little story, nothing as bad as yours.
In August we went on a trip into the Waouru Army Training Area in New Zealand.
At about 1600 we had about 30 trucks stuck on the wrong side of a just drive able swamp. The track in was to slick to drive back out so across the swamp was the way home. After 3 hours we had winched all the trucks across the softest part of the swamp. It was dark by then and dinner was due to end at 2000. A simple 1 hour drive back was all that was required on mostly formed tracks. Some people still managed to get stuck again.
Things sometimes just happen and the difference is all about how you deal with them. Sounds like you made enough right decisions and reading through this thread you have learned some things as well.
As far as the rear locker is concerned.
The switches that tell the ECU that the diff lock has engaged are notoriously unreliable. It is possible, even likely that the locker was engaged but the switch was not passing the message to the ECU. The switch is used in many Toyota gearboxes to operate the reversing lights.
On the way home from this little adventure I stopped in Green River for gas and picked up these books at the Chevron station. After reading the sections for the areas I was in I realized I wouldn't have tackled them with this information. I already have the Central region so this was my late Christmas present to myself.
I kept thinking I should air down but I didn't know what I would do when I got back to the road, or if being aired down for the other obstacles was a good idea. My tires were already deforming on the ledges and boulders with freeway air levels. I was worried about breaking the bead on the trail or shredding a tire trying to get to a service station, so I just maintained freeway psi. I definitely need an education in this.
air down as low as you need to get through obstacle safely. Once back onto made roads, drive at a speed that is safe with the deflated tyres. driving along a road at 10mph is still better than hiking it. The key is getting back to the road first, its no help having fully inflated tires ready for that highway, when you are stuck 20miles out in the back country.
I found myself in a steep sided gully by myself and go caught by a torrential downpour. after 10 minutes of rain, the gully was slick clay everywhere. I had to air down to 5psi to get my triple locked 80 out. the drive to a service station was slow, but better then spending the night in the bush, or hiking out in the rain.
its amazing how much more traction a tire has when aired down so it bags right out.
Glad you and your family are safe. From your description this did not seem that bad of an experience actually and you seemed fairly well prepared for spending the night in the cab. I think it was smart to bed down and wait till morning. I have been in similar situations and I like to choose to build a fire, get warm, eat and bed down. Things seem to always be better in the morning.
How about 1 more lesson-don't go by yourself! Good on you though for making sound decisions once you were stuck and in a bad spot.
The wheel cocked to the right is concerning. It usually means you have twisted the steering box sector shaft, so examine the spines above the pittman arm with great attention.
Glad you and your family are safe. From your description this did not seem that bad of an experience actually and you seemed fairly well prepared for spending the night in the cab. I think it was smart to bed down and wait till morning. I have been in similar situations and I like to choose to build a fire, get warm, eat and bed down. Things seem to always be better in the morning.
I agree. It wasn't that bad. I'm an experienced winter camper and always prepare to be able to be stranded for at least 3 days without concern for health and safety. The bad parts were the dangerous sections of trail and getting far enough into trouble I wasn't sure I could get out of it safely. And yes, daylight and a camp fire offer new perspective.
Its a very good thread and thanks for sharing!...it needs to be discussed to inform and prepare others
When I first learned about airing down in the 90's I had someone tell me to chalk around one of my tires that was at freeway pressure on driveway, lets say 40psi....then air to 20psi then chalk around and then air down to 8psi and chalk as well then back up to see how big of a footprint it made at different air pressures...quite the eye opener, such a big footprint for traction at low level.
To me airing down is like having a locker (if u dont have one), like full air pressure with a locker, if this makes sense.
It seems like there is a lot of opinions on airing down. I am no expert but these are the variables I can think of that would affect airing down. The weight of a vehicle, a heavy vehicle will require more air in the tires. Size of the tire, rim, width of the rim, sidewalls are you running 2 ply or 3 to six ply. I had a rock crawler with 38" swampers with 10"x 15" bead locks and aired them down to 4 psi. Compared to a weighed down expo rig with light all terrains you might not want to go below 20 psi. Some people like beadlock wheels, but most are not dot approved. If you pop a bead, jack the tire up put a ratchet strap around the tire in the middle of the tread so that the bead seats and air it up. I have done this many times with a pos autozone cigaret lighter plug in air compressor. Also bring tire plugs in case you get a tread puncture, if you tear a side wall and are out of options you can use tie wire and tire plugs to sew it up to get you to the pavement this works better with bead locks because you can take the tire off. I always air down because I like the Cadillac ride and better traction. When I get back on the pavement I air up. If some one else has something to ad please do I am probably forgetting something.
I didn't understand the decision not to go back out right away via E-hill - you'd just seen it, driven it, knew you would make it?
On the air-down part: we always air down, but there is also some sort of compressor in the trucks. Regarding concern for driving highway with trail air pressure, I'd put that one in the 'solve one problem at a time' category, and the biggest problem obviously was to make it back to the highway. Once back on blacktop, without a means to air up, you just have to go slow.
... So I'm trying to visualize this--you left the Devil's Kitchen area headed toward Beef basin at nearly dark? To get out of there you need to climb to the top of Elk Ridge and traverse that for miles until you get to the road to Blanding. ...
Could have gone north from Beef Basin via North Cottonwood Creek road (#107) and come out on Hwy 211 by the Ranch. Then it's some 50 highway miles to Monticello. No need to drive Elk Ridge all the way towards Blanding; still, 7000+ ft elevation or so, we once encountered snow on the 107 road in May.
I do not have bead locks so I never air down below about 16 LBS. It makes the ride softer and the Toyo MTs have really thick sidewalls so I don't worry too much about popping a bead when aired down. I have an ARB compressor under the hood as well as a compressor that is part of a jumper battery so I have back up on the compressor and battery. Never leave home without it! It also allows me to air back up more quickly as I use both the ARB compressor and the jumper battery air compressor. One on the left, one on the right....and it still takes a long time.
air down as low as you need to get through obstacle safely. Once back onto made roads, drive at a speed that is safe with the deflated tyres. driving along a road at 10mph is still better than hiking it. The key is getting back to the road first, its no help having fully inflated tires ready for that highway, when you are stuck 20miles out in the back country.
I found myself in a steep sided gully by myself and go caught by a torrential downpour. after 10 minutes of rain, the gully was slick clay everywhere. I had to air down to 5psi to get my triple locked 80 out. the drive to a service station was slow, but better then spending the night in the bush, or hiking out in the rain.
its amazing how much more traction a tire has when aired down so it bags right out.
the more you air down, the greater chance of rolling a tire off the rim, or of damaging the tire, or rim.
rocky terrain, there's more chance of tire damage, or rim damage. mud, or clay, more chance of rolling the tire off, or breaking the bead.
yes, you get a heap more traction, but you have to drive accordingly. Airing down adds another level of traction, just like lockers. more traction means you can crawl stuff easier with less momentum, so you can attack stuff gently at first to look after tires, then take it from there
the added traction can also put more load on birfs etc. I have busted birfs when aired right down and steering at close to full lock
It was in consideration for my wife and one of my daughters. They know how much I love a good trail and conceded to Elephant Hill with the promise of a good hike. My wife REALLY didn't want to go back up Elephant Hill, she found it pretty terrifying. I also remembered it being much shorter than it was. My bad memory told me the back road would be easier after a few obstacles. My memory was wrong and I had never actually been all the way out that track. The route you mentioned is the one we were trying for. When we got past Bobby's hole I was pretty sure I couldn't make it back down it safely in the dark and my family couldn't do it mentally even if I could. I thought the trail would get easier around the next bend. It didn't.
At 6-8:00 pm we still weren't willing to concede spending the night. We topped the Bobby's hole road shortly after 6:00. We all individually had the thought to just stop and downs the night then go back out Elephant Hill in the morning light, but nobody voiced it and we soldiers on. As I said, a series of poor judgement and bad decisions in the moment.
If you taco a steel wheel one can beat on the rim with a hammer and pound the lip back down, but an aluminum rim will just get a chunk busted out of it and your screwed. I have aluminum rims so I'd be screwed.
MDarius, I applaud you for taking the time to do this thread.
This should be an eye opener for most that read your thread. While the sharing of your experience may or may not keep us from similar situations, we should all be able to learn much from reading your comments...and the many good comments of our fellow wheelers.
Glad you guys made it OK. I had two close calls myself this fall. One also in Moab and one up in the San Juans. First one was 110% my error and i posted about it kind of like you did. I totally screwed up on a off camber down hill turn as my front wheel dropped off a ledge. Thinking i was going to role it i gassed it to point it down hill. Stopped the role but totally over did it on the gas. Luckily no one was hurt but it had some serious embarrassment and pucker factor to it. My lack of experience and i take it as a learning moment.
A few days later was up almost 13,000 feet in the San juans coming down a pass in the snow on shelf road. I was crawling down about 1 MPH and periodically complete stop. It just got steeper and steeper until i was sliding and building speed. It started as just the slightest 2 MPH slide but then was picking up speed and turning in the direction of the edge of the shelf road. I was able to let of the brakes and get it pointed right. But we picked up speed pretty fast even in just a split second off the brakes. I new i wouldnt have traction to shed any of the speed. I had a little room for run out at the switchback turn and thick snow instead of ice mud that i was on. Got it stopped no real drama. it was allover in a second but had my really unsure about snow in steep technical spots. Not much fun.
FYI on the SPOT. It uses the globalstar satellite system that has coverage gaps depending on the time of day and latitude (the closer to the poles you are the better it works). Glad you made it out ok!
Glad you guys made it OK. I had two close calls myself this fall. One also in Moab and one up in the San Juans. First one was 110% my error and i posted about it kind of like you did. I totally screwed up on a off camber down hill turn as my front wheel dropped off a ledge. Thinking i was going to role it i gassed it to point it down hill. Stopped the role but totally over did it on the gas. Luckily no one was hurt but it had some serious embarrassment and pucker factor to it. My lack of experience and i take it as a learning moment.
A few days later was up almost 13,000 feet in the San juans coming down a pass in the snow on shelf road. I was crawling down about 1 MPH and periodically complete stop. It just got steeper and steeper until i was sliding and building speed. It started as just the slightest 2 MPH slide but then was picking up speed and turning in the direction of the edge of the shelf road. I was able to let of the brakes and get it pointed right. But we picked up speed pretty fast even in just a split second off the brakes. I new i wouldnt have traction to shed any of the speed. I had a little room for run out at the switchback turn and thick snow instead of ice mud that i was on. Got it stopped no real drama. it was allover in a second but had my really unsure about snow in steep technical spots. Not much fun.
Your second scenario is EXACTLY what I was worried about going back into Bobby's hole for the longest section and a couple other small sections. I made it up with a prayer and some serious responsiveness to what the truck was telling me as I fought our way up. I didn't know what anything beyond my headlights looked like and there was no way I was trying to go back down in the dark.
The world values wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is built on mistakes. But somehow it's bad to make mistakes. Glad we're both a little wiser for the gifts of 2016.
First off, glad you and the family made it out safe
Secondly as others have said i can really appreciate your preparedness, decision making once you realized a mistake, and your attitude and willingness to share here for others to learn from. Well written and organized thread
Like Drew said, this story will be told for years to come in the family
I learned I want an even bigger fire extingsher. My fire was caused by one of my accessory circuits. All fused but they were all the cheap wiring looms supplied by various vendors. Moving forward I will build my own. Stuff burned too far to determine exactly which one caused it. I already knew that Halotron is the way to go with an extinguisher. But I will say once my fire was out I had no mess other than the charred wires. Had I used a chemical unit that I'd wadger most carry, I would have a corrosive mess under the hood.
