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- #21
So here's the story.....
We decided to take a couple friends out to do some canyoneering. Friday morning we head up north of Tucson, I had scoped out a couple cool roads using google maps and we went exploring. Planning on camping Fri night and running a canyon Sat.
This was also going to be the inaugural trip of our new off road trailer prototype.
We found a great road to get some pics and vids and headed down to the Gila river.
Arrived at a great camp spot about 3:30. The river was really low, flowing at 28cfm. We actually made silly comments multiple times about how high that the river had run previously looking at the banks. There were stagnant pools in multiple places. The river has not run above this level in months. We hiked up and down the river a bit and then had some dinner and hung out.
About 9:30 PM we heard a weird noise, flipped on a headlamp and noticed the river rising rapidly. I jumped up and hooked up the trailer. By the time I got the trailer on (2 minutes) the water level was now surrounding the trailer tires.
I tried to help my friend get his trailer hooked up to his 4 runner and his ladder up on his tent and he did not realize the danger we were in.
At this point my wife and I jumped in the truck and attempted to cross in the same place we entered. The water level was still below the doors.
As I attempted to go up the bank, the bank eroded away from under me. I then jumped out and unhooked the trailer and tried again. no dice.
My wife jumped out the window, ran across the hood and went on to shore. I opened the door( bad idea) and jumped out to pull the winch. At this point the winch and bumper were under water. All of my recovery gear was in the drawers in the back of the truck. She wrapped the winch end (Factor 55) around a tree as best as she could and started the to run the winch with the remote.
The truck started inching forward slowly. The interior was full and coving the seats. I tried to get it in low to no avail in my current situation. We got it out to the point you see before the truck stalled and the winch instantly killed the battery and we could not re-start. So that's were it sat for 14 hours while we froze our buts off in 29 degree temps all night.
We had a SatPaq and were able to get messages in and out. First tow company told us to pound sand, second company trailered their recovery vehicle to the dirt road and discovered it was broken... Arizona 4x4 Offroad recovery arrived about 1 pm and winched us out. The truck started and idled like crap for about an hour while we pilled the 4runner and trailers out of the river. I got the LC to go into Low and we drove out. The truck stalled once. Every light on the dash was flashing. the seat heaters are on high even though they are turned off. The speakers crackle and pop even though the system was off. I pulled all the fuses in my aux block
My headlights and Rigid driving lights (wired to fogs)_ also flickered and ran even though they were turned off.
After getting to the paved road we nursed it in 4lo 20 miles south to a gas station. Upon opening the fuel door, I found it was packed full of sand. The truck would not take more than 2 gallons of gas even though it indicates 1/2 tank. I didn't even dare to try to pump anything in from my aux tank that had been under water all night. We had it towed home from there...
Take aways....
Don't ever camp in a river or wash whether there is weather forecast or not, we found out that the dam 20 miles up stream was opened to 200 cfm to provide water for farmers 30 miles from our location.
The new trailer we built and thought we lost actually floats.... Sadly, the Land Cruiser does not...
We decided to take a couple friends out to do some canyoneering. Friday morning we head up north of Tucson, I had scoped out a couple cool roads using google maps and we went exploring. Planning on camping Fri night and running a canyon Sat.
This was also going to be the inaugural trip of our new off road trailer prototype.
We found a great road to get some pics and vids and headed down to the Gila river.
Arrived at a great camp spot about 3:30. The river was really low, flowing at 28cfm. We actually made silly comments multiple times about how high that the river had run previously looking at the banks. There were stagnant pools in multiple places. The river has not run above this level in months. We hiked up and down the river a bit and then had some dinner and hung out.
About 9:30 PM we heard a weird noise, flipped on a headlamp and noticed the river rising rapidly. I jumped up and hooked up the trailer. By the time I got the trailer on (2 minutes) the water level was now surrounding the trailer tires.
I tried to help my friend get his trailer hooked up to his 4 runner and his ladder up on his tent and he did not realize the danger we were in.
At this point my wife and I jumped in the truck and attempted to cross in the same place we entered. The water level was still below the doors.
As I attempted to go up the bank, the bank eroded away from under me. I then jumped out and unhooked the trailer and tried again. no dice.
My wife jumped out the window, ran across the hood and went on to shore. I opened the door( bad idea) and jumped out to pull the winch. At this point the winch and bumper were under water. All of my recovery gear was in the drawers in the back of the truck. She wrapped the winch end (Factor 55) around a tree as best as she could and started the to run the winch with the remote.
The truck started inching forward slowly. The interior was full and coving the seats. I tried to get it in low to no avail in my current situation. We got it out to the point you see before the truck stalled and the winch instantly killed the battery and we could not re-start. So that's were it sat for 14 hours while we froze our buts off in 29 degree temps all night.
We had a SatPaq and were able to get messages in and out. First tow company told us to pound sand, second company trailered their recovery vehicle to the dirt road and discovered it was broken... Arizona 4x4 Offroad recovery arrived about 1 pm and winched us out. The truck started and idled like crap for about an hour while we pilled the 4runner and trailers out of the river. I got the LC to go into Low and we drove out. The truck stalled once. Every light on the dash was flashing. the seat heaters are on high even though they are turned off. The speakers crackle and pop even though the system was off. I pulled all the fuses in my aux block
My headlights and Rigid driving lights (wired to fogs)_ also flickered and ran even though they were turned off.
After getting to the paved road we nursed it in 4lo 20 miles south to a gas station. Upon opening the fuel door, I found it was packed full of sand. The truck would not take more than 2 gallons of gas even though it indicates 1/2 tank. I didn't even dare to try to pump anything in from my aux tank that had been under water all night. We had it towed home from there...
Take aways....
Don't ever camp in a river or wash whether there is weather forecast or not, we found out that the dam 20 miles up stream was opened to 200 cfm to provide water for farmers 30 miles from our location.
The new trailer we built and thought we lost actually floats.... Sadly, the Land Cruiser does not...
