After spending the day hiking in Bankhead forest, we piled in the cruiser and headed to get something to eat. As we are leaving Wiggins Hollow down a very narrow road under a tunnel of trees, we were enjoying running through some mud holes. Time and time again as we hit the mud holes the same thing happens, the front end goes down into the ruts, levels off, and the cruiser plows through, with no problem whatsoever. As we are nearly out of the woods I look over to my right and see the perfect mud hole to end our day with. Over 60 foot long it sits there just begging to be played in! My bride suggest we should see how deep it is, not listening to her nearly proves out to be a bad mistake. We hit the hole and the frontend drops down and I wait for it to level, but it just keeps going down. Just as the front tip of the hood goes under water we come to a gentle stop. Sitting with the front of the cruiser about 2 foot lower than the backend, looking at water over the tip of the hood and over two thirds up the doors I am surprised that water isn't gushing in to the interior. I put it into reverse and we back up about 3 feet. I try going forward and again come to a gentle stop as we now realize there is a mud wall in front of us. At this point I decide to see if panicing will help, but it doesn't seem to work for me. So I try putting the cruiser into 4 wheel low and engage the front and rear lockers, knowing this is futile as there is more cruiser underwater than above water. The cruiser just shows me how little I know as we start backing up with water plowing halfway up the back glass. She starts moving backwards slowly gaining speed, I can't believe what is happening as she plows right out of the mud hole. Did I mention this is on stock michelin highway tires? Took over 3 hours to clean all the mud off of her, but i was more than happy to do it. I am now truely in awe of the Landcruisers off road ability!
