Went home for Christmas family get-together at my niece's place in the country. The family is from southern Indiana and we're scattered around the Midwest. Going up the shorter way from the highway to dinner was a solid sheet of ice, so I'm thinking about going out the back way when we leave as that'd be a little less risky.
Just get in the house and my little brother calls. It turns out that he and my SIL were headed down an equally steep, ice-covered hill, only this one was curvy rather than straight and they've got their 2WD Highlander stuck.
So me and middle bro head out. Coming down the hill where little bro is stuck, I hoped to stop right past him, attach a strap, and get him out of the ditch. I let middle bro out to help hook up, but when I try to stop again in front of the Highlander on the road, I can't.
Not that I was driving faster than a crawl from the top of the hill at any point. I actually got the 80 to the point where I put it in Park -- and then it started sliding on its own in Park
OK, go down the hill, turn around and, after managing to stop in the uphill direction, hooked up to tug from the front. Well, the road was so crowned and the lip of the ditch so sharp that I couldn't get him un-highcentered even after sliding the Highlander further down enough in the ditch to get to the best spot for that to maybe happen.
OK, I go up the hill, turn around, come back down, and drive into the ditch on the opposite side of the road, turning the front wheels so any sliding downhill edges me to a more secure position. Memories of the thread here where the guy managed to roll his "rescue" vehicle downhill over past the "rescuee" when winching last summer were fresh in my head -- this held the potential for THAT on ICE!
The XRC12 did great. It was ready to go without having turned since the install and cable packing last summer. Let's just say the cable is really packed tight now
Deployed it so that it was down to the last wrap. Being that it was "prechilled," I actually didn't have to stop for cooling the motor, although we briefly stopped at a couple of points because my little brothers were still having to help push the Highlander's back end onto the road, because every thing was super slick and I probably could've pulled the Higlander up practically even with the 80 but on the opposite side of the road
But the Highlander would've still been in the ditch without the extra shoving from them;p
The whole time, we kept watch for other vehicles, which fortunately the location allowed a long enough line of sight so they had warning of our problem blocking the road.
Of course, once unstuck, the Highlander wasn't going back up that hill, so we went downhill for the longer route around to get back to Xmas dinner. Just as we're about to finish the 15 mile return trip, flashing lights appear. Someone hit a power pole right at the bottom of the very first hill, as it turned out and the main road is blocked.
We call back to dinner as we turn around and find out the power has gone out there, because of the pole getting knocked down. My niece's husband is a deputy sheriff (had the day off, though) but is also a volunteer fireman -- and they don't get days off when there's a call. The lights did come back on eventually, although dinner was by candlelight. Niece's husband never did get back before we had to leave to go home after dark, so I didn't find out whether it was someone going down that road and couldn't get stopped at the bottom where the highway is or what.
My SIL said I was her hero, my little bro gave me $100 over my protests (he's a bank VP and I'm still a grad student, so that was a welcome thing) and we all learned that safety is first in any recovery -- even when the weather is **** and it's a holiday.
Any other Xmas winch stories out there?
Just get in the house and my little brother calls. It turns out that he and my SIL were headed down an equally steep, ice-covered hill, only this one was curvy rather than straight and they've got their 2WD Highlander stuck.
So me and middle bro head out. Coming down the hill where little bro is stuck, I hoped to stop right past him, attach a strap, and get him out of the ditch. I let middle bro out to help hook up, but when I try to stop again in front of the Highlander on the road, I can't.
Not that I was driving faster than a crawl from the top of the hill at any point. I actually got the 80 to the point where I put it in Park -- and then it started sliding on its own in Park
OK, go down the hill, turn around and, after managing to stop in the uphill direction, hooked up to tug from the front. Well, the road was so crowned and the lip of the ditch so sharp that I couldn't get him un-highcentered even after sliding the Highlander further down enough in the ditch to get to the best spot for that to maybe happen.
OK, I go up the hill, turn around, come back down, and drive into the ditch on the opposite side of the road, turning the front wheels so any sliding downhill edges me to a more secure position. Memories of the thread here where the guy managed to roll his "rescue" vehicle downhill over past the "rescuee" when winching last summer were fresh in my head -- this held the potential for THAT on ICE!
The XRC12 did great. It was ready to go without having turned since the install and cable packing last summer. Let's just say the cable is really packed tight now
Deployed it so that it was down to the last wrap. Being that it was "prechilled," I actually didn't have to stop for cooling the motor, although we briefly stopped at a couple of points because my little brothers were still having to help push the Highlander's back end onto the road, because every thing was super slick and I probably could've pulled the Higlander up practically even with the 80 but on the opposite side of the roadBut the Highlander would've still been in the ditch without the extra shoving from them;p
The whole time, we kept watch for other vehicles, which fortunately the location allowed a long enough line of sight so they had warning of our problem blocking the road.
Of course, once unstuck, the Highlander wasn't going back up that hill, so we went downhill for the longer route around to get back to Xmas dinner. Just as we're about to finish the 15 mile return trip, flashing lights appear. Someone hit a power pole right at the bottom of the very first hill, as it turned out and the main road is blocked.
We call back to dinner as we turn around and find out the power has gone out there, because of the pole getting knocked down. My niece's husband is a deputy sheriff (had the day off, though) but is also a volunteer fireman -- and they don't get days off when there's a call. The lights did come back on eventually, although dinner was by candlelight. Niece's husband never did get back before we had to leave to go home after dark, so I didn't find out whether it was someone going down that road and couldn't get stopped at the bottom where the highway is or what.
My SIL said I was her hero, my little bro gave me $100 over my protests (he's a bank VP and I'm still a grad student, so that was a welcome thing
) and we all learned that safety is first in any recovery -- even when the weather is **** and it's a holiday.Any other Xmas winch stories out there?
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hooking me up with an 8274 count as a Christmas winch story?
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