On Sunday we had 3 vehicles all Lexus grade. LX450, LX470, GX470. Goslow and TK470 paired up and went up the Westside of the area. I went up FR357 and started driving all of the offshoot roads. 357A, 357B, 357C, 357F, 357G, 364, 358. We probably need to do a snow run on those roads. Maybe February would be the month to try it. I was driving on FR357 and saw a Chevy pickup who stepped on his brakes going downhill and slid into the water bar as it angled off the road. When I got there an ATV was trying to winch the truck back to the road, but was just dragging himself up to the truck's bumper. The truck had regular street tires on and as he tried to back out, the tires would just spin and gravity pulled him farther off the road. Just to help out people that are not used to recovering vehicles, I will go through my decision process. He was so far down the ditch that he couldn't be pulled out forward and had to come out backward. There was no way to use traction boards since his tires would not grip the boards enough to move the truck and would just slip off the boards. Using a winch to pull backwards was not an option since the nearest tree behind the truck was 300 feet away. With no trees to anchor to, my truck would not have enough grip on the road to prevent sliding downhill as I winched. I could have put chains and gotten enough grip to use the winch to move the truck, but traffic was stopped because other drivers were concerned of sliding into the truck as they went around. and I wanted to not take the time to put on chains if something else worked. Since I would have to pull uphill and the road was snow packed and slippery I would not have enough traction without chains on the tires to use a regular yellow strap. I decided to use a kinetic recovery rope since I could get my own traction to move, but not enough to pull the pickup. The pickup had a receiver hitch in the rear, but no other place to hook up. The driver said to just use the trailer chain loops on the hitch. A guy that had stopped by said he had a trailer hitch that we could to hook on the ball. I think both of those are dangerous to use for a hard pull. I elected to remove my receiver shackle from my truck, insert it into his receiver. I used the shackle point on my rear bumper on the side opposite of the truck to also help pull the pickup onto the road. I put my truck in low range and moved to tighten the kinetic rope. I then backed up about 3 feet and stopped. I had a volunteer to stand off to the side to coordinate between the two trucks and others around the area. When the coordinator verified that everyone was clear and the pickup was in low range 4X4 reverse and a light touch on the gas, only then did I move my truck forward to get some energy to stretch the kinetic rope. I was only moving a couple MPH when I got to the end of the rope. When I spun out and it got to be a static pull and my tires were just spinning, I stopped and talked to the coordinator to find out if the pickup moved or was still stuck. He said that it moved out of it's hole, so we agreed to try again. I backed up 3 feet and moved over a foot so the tires would go in a different track and not the place where I just made slick. Once again no movement until the coordinator said things were clear and everyone was ready. The pickup moved 2 feet this time. Same things as before. The third time was captured on video and the pickup was on the road but still close to the right hand ditch and could go right back in. We moved to the front of the pickup, hooked the rope to the right front hook on the bumper. The rope was hooked to the left lug on the rear bumper of the truck to help give a sideways as well as forward pull to the pickup. When the coordinator gave the word the truck moved forward and tensioned the rope, then the truck slowly moved forward and puled the truck past where he slid off and stopped only when he was in a stable location in the middle of the road. Everything was disconnected and re-stowed. The pickup driver asked how much he owed me. I said nothing, but he could give our club a donation. He said he had no cash but took my phone number and email and would contact me.
That is the way that I did this recovery. If you have any questions or comments or suggestions, please share them.
