Stories of stupidity, or how I almost got my vehicle wrecked and myself killed.

[flintknapper]

I drive in Austin, TX (land of the 33% uninsured motorists and 6% unlicensed)......frankly, I'm more afraid of that

Hear ya! I'd rather face a 400' drop off than drive '183' in Austin any day. Glad I don't live there anymore. Grew up and went to school there, but it sure has changed.

Even in our little one dog town....poor drivers, the uninsured, unlicensed, etc....abound.

Saw this place open up for business recently. Just had to get a picture of it (No Problema)!

 

[guardcompany]

Great story, reminds me 16 years ago I got my 1st Gen Tacoma stuck on a ledge and had to leave it over night. I did some stupid stuff in both by Tacomas.

Since then I've learned what people/internet say about a trail can be completely wrong and conditions change! Also people's risk factors are different and how they treat their vehicles are different. If someone doesn't mind more risk and doesn't care as much about vehicle damage they are going to tell you the trail is a piece of cake when for a beginner it could be a nightmare. Other factor for me is I don't go with anyone that has anything like a 100 series (mostly jeeps). I need to meet some local 100 series owners and start wheeling with them.

 

[Keowee]

I stuck my older brother's CJ-7 in a bog on a power line trail. It had never been off road. Took me two days to make it shiny again.

 

[LXColorado]

It's a scary feeling when two of your wheels drop off the trail and you're looking off a cliff. I had this same thing happen to me on my way up to the upper Mt. Sherman lot. The trail is nothing but loose scree, and the driver's side tires began to slip off the trail. It's nothing but loose scree for hundreds of feet all the way to the bottom. "No biggie, you've had tires go off trail before, just go slow and turn back into the trail." WRONG. The truck violently slams down the side of the hill and nearly bottomed out, and is now a foot away from disaster. I could've made diamonds from coal at that moment. The truck was so angled I wasn't comfortable getting out on the low side, so I parked it and crawled out the passenger window. At this point, my cousin and I are standing on the trail, catching our breath at 11,000 ft. thinking, "how the HELL do we get out of this?" My first response was to lower the tire pressure as low as I dare – 15 PSI. The scariest part was lowering the PSI on the driver's side and hearing the scree move and slip beneath the tires. I wasn't sure if the scree would give and I'd be tumbling down the hill with the LX. Thankfully, the truck stayed put and the tires were now at 15 PSI. I slowly crept back to the driver's seat from the passenger window, and told my cousin to step on the sliders and lean as far off the passenger side as he could. So, here we are with tires lowered and my cousin leaning like crazy to keep more weight on the passenger wheels. I put the truck in LO and engage the CDL, then painfully put it drive. I slowly begin to creep forward while simultaneously turning the wheels toward the trail. We move forward, but not up. Forward progress is met with scree giving way to the driver side tires. We must have hit a hard spot, or the CDL eventually locked, because around 5 ft later we finally pop back up. I parked the truck on the trail and got out to breath a sigh of relief. We were both pale, sweating, panting, and shaking after the ordeal. That's the scariest situation I've been on the trail. After an unexpected life-threading situation, we proceeded to the upper lot and hiked a 14er. What a day.

I learned three things that day: Preemptive airing down is a good idea, never trust a loose scree trail, and summit beer can also be pre-hike-calm-your-nerves beer.

 

[Idaho Savage]

This thread makes me sweaty.... I've done some dumb stuff, but I've been fortunate enough to alway have felt safe, especially in the 100. Honestly the scariest moments I've had in my 100 have been on hwy80 driving to Lake Tahoe in the winter. I'm safe, but I've had to dodge a lot of Bay Area folk spinning across the highway. Pulled a few back on the road too...

Yup. I live in Idaho where people generally know how to drive in the winter. Having done the SF to Truckee drive in the winter, I can verify it is downright terrifying.

 

[ranma21]

Phew, glad you make it! I know exactly how you feel, was on black bear pass by myself in a 96 4Runner SR5 13 yrs ago. My heart was pounding real hard negotiating one of the switchback when front driver and rear passenger tires kinda of air born and loose traction. Truck starts sliding towards the 700 foot drop off, my hands were holding the steering wheel so tight. Slammed on the brake thank god it stopped after 2 feet. Then slowly inching away from the drop off. My hand were actually sweating, I was so terrify and sticking very close to the wall all the way down, I even put a dent on the rear passenger door by staying too close to the wall. And actually there were 2 wranglers rolled off that summer. Lesson learn never go out by myself without support.

 

[ted4whlz]

Yeah, during 100's in the Hills this year, my friends and I were doing Black Bear Pass (my wife and kids stayed back at camp). Most of that trail is a piece of cake, but after you summit and start to come down the pass that starts to change. We were going over a large rock right at the beginning of "the steps" and had to stop for a few minutes. The guy in front of me took this rock pretty straight on and was up on three wheels, and had his back tire sliding towards the stream on the left. So, I decided to take another line. However, after being up on this rock for 5 minutes or so, I had forgotten exactly where I was. My buddy said he could jump out and give me a spot, but I was like "nah, we'll be fine. I remember what I'm doing." Anyway, we slid right off that rock right onto my front bumper. Scared the pants off of both of my passengers, who both promptly got out of my car and let me finish the steps by myself. Good times.

I got away with only having a few scratches on the front bumper, but I taught me that patience is key and there is always time for another look at things.

PS - Black Bear is a blast, I highly recommend.

 

[REZARF]

Glad you made it out okay.

A winch wouldn't have helped much in your situation OP, didn't sound like there was much to anchor to near you. Low tire pressure, being in 4Lo before you need it, locked before you need it (when appropriate), knowing the trail, walking ahead, going with a friend, leaving a nervous wife behind... lessons learned. Glad you made it out okay.

I often tell people this is the most scared you can get at 3mph.

 

[Rigidarm]

1993 LC has been my baby for 23 years. Hunting fishing, hunting dogs, snow in Tahoe and Sierras, ice......ICE! Drove up to Thompson Falls, Mt. Hunting with my son and a buddy who lives there.. Well, we went up Clark Fork and up to a massive mountain hunting elk.. Had been a fire two years prior and mt was pretty bald. Saw a few deer but we were after elk. Buddy says go up trail that he's done it several times. Wasn't horribly steep but NARROW with no turning around. Snow was about 6". Climbed up and got to a switch back that had built up 1-2" ice. Starts sliding down and out. OUT to a 500' 60 degree steep snowy drop. Of course I couldn't do a thing but go up (top had a turn around area). Had my son and friend get out till we cleared the switch back. Made it to top, glassed some, wind and cold got though and we were getting close to dark..... didn't want to push our luck too much.. THEN THE TROUBLE STARTED!!!

Traction was fairly good with a gravel snow mix with good runoff. But got to the switchback and started sliding on the iced up area. Was in low of course and stayed off the brakes..... knew way better that to mess with touching them. We were all very nervous and my son started talking so damned much that we weren't gonna make it that I was losing concentration and yelled at him to shut up. Trust me.... it was hairy. I managed to control the ice slide about 50' back to snowy gravel but it truly could have gone the other way on that slide.

I've chained up before but didn't have em on this trip. My voice said don't go up without chains but I listened to my buddy... my fault completely. The LC has some serious weight with gear and three guys and I should have known better. Would have rolled more times than I care to think. Honestly, I still shudder when I think about it. Mountain weather can change in a hour..... ALWAYS carry chains. 4X4 with chains becomes a very different rig.

 

[SALTY METHODS]

So a few years ago I was out in the dunes (Gordons Well) riding my dirt bike and I blew up my top end. So my friend who had his quad let me take it back to camp. I ride about 15 minutes back to camp and jump in my truck (5-speed manual). Idiotically, I leave my dirtbike boots on and decide to jump in the truck (`98 T100) since my friends are sitting by my blown up dirt bike in the hot sun. So I take off and hit the sand highway and can barely feel the pedals because of my damn boots. For people that don't know or have every experienced a sand highway, most of them are super whooped out. So you have drive slow because of the constant, endless bumps. As I drive down this sand highway, I see another smoother route next to the regular path. Little do I know (and albeit I'm a little buzzed), that this route is super soft and on the edge of a huge dune. I decide to take it to make up time. As I proceed down this route, I start to slide sideways down a huge dune. I get to a point that my truck can't make it back up the road and the only option is to go down. I head down this dune and the dune is so steep that when I get to the bottom and I get out to asses how f*cked I am, my door swing violently open. I realize that I'm screwed and the only chance I have is to drop air pressure in my tires. I drop down to around 8 psi all the while my truck is sitting almost vertical on the side of dune. Unfortunately for me there's a dry canal lined with dead tooleys. I assess my situation and think that I might be able to jump down into the dry canal. As I pulled the tooleys aside, I realize that the drop is 12 feet or more and if I attempt to go into the canal I'll end up on my lid. Option denied. As I'm sitting there hot, sweaty, stressing and realizing how f*cked I am, people come up on the top of the dune I just came down. They yell to me "Are you OK!?!?" and I proceed to yell back "NO!! I'm pretty screwed right now!" They then tell me from minimum 100 feet up how their cousin was driving on the 8 freeway and saw some idiot in a bad situation. If you haven't gathered at this point, I'm the idiot. They then yell to me that they have their other cousin who has a full size dodge that can help pull me up. I tell them, "Please do!!! I'll need it." As we're waiting for the cousin in the Dodge to come my rescue, I tell the group upstairs that I'm going to do my best to get my truck pointed up hill and far enough up the dune so that a tow strap can pull me the rest of the way. So I back my truck up as much as I can, drop it into 4-Low and proceed to red line each gear till I'm in 5th. I don't let up and hammer down until I think I will get stuck. BUT, to my shock and everyone else that was standing at the top of the dune, I make it to the top without any help. Everyone was in disbelief as well as myself. I literally made it out of the most rediculous hole that most dune buggies wouldn't have. That is just one story of why I will always buy a Toyota 4X4 and why all my Toyotas have never left me stranded. EVER.