Well. I got another vehicle stuck in the mud the other day. This time it was my Dad's F150. I was trying to do a fancy manuever and drive it around and behind the house in the pouring rain through the mud so that I could easily unload groceries and such. Went ahead and got it stuck the same exact place I got my Subaru stuck about 2 weeks ago. Truck cockeyed, back tire deep in the mud and very close to the edge of a slippery drop off bank and a stack of firewood. I swallowed my pride and called up Neighbor Greg, Professional Hoister, again and Todd because I had a feeling it would be helpful to have the use of Todd's big Dodge truck AND Greg's hoisting gear. Jeez. Talk about feeling sheepish. Who wants to call the neighbors on a cold wet morning and get hoisted out- again?
Well true to form, the gentlemen delivered, employing a series of strageties from their diverse bags of tricks to get the job done.
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| worse than it looks here |
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| tying the trust sailor's hitch |
1. First we tried the old 300 foot heavy duty rope looped through the front of the truck and then through a caribeaner attached to a tree up on the hill and fed down below to the towing truck (Todd's old Dodge). A piece of nylon webbing was tied around the tree on the hill and the the caribeaner was secured to that. The F150 being the chunky beast it is, incidentally caused the nylon webbing to snap and the caribeaner went shooting through the air at a high speed in the direction of one standing Greg. Luckily he didn't get hit and killed, and we moved on to plan b.
2. Todd pulled out his chains and a come along. He chained the rear end of the truck to the come along, which was attached to one of the foundation posts of the deck of the house. We dug out the mud from around the stuck tire and went for it. The idea was for me to make the tires spin while Todd quickly and vigorously cranked the come along, with the intention of sliding the back tires of the truck over and across the mud to even the vehicle and allow for easy backing up and out of there. It was a process. Greg would yell "OK- Spin em!" and Todd would crank hard. Then Todd would yell, "OK stop!" and he would crank to catch up. Then we would dig the mud out a little and repeat the process. After about 5 or 6 go-rounds, the truck was un-stuck!
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| digging out the tire with a hoe |
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a man and his chains
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These guys just keep the good times coming. This process of hoisting me out (again) took a good while, and let me tell you. The conversation was good, the jokes were flowing, and yes, we found a way to talk about oysters throughout. Thanks, gentlemen, for a delighful morning of mud, ropes and chains.
3 comments:
That's country life. Getting stuck and neighbors pulling you out, both. I had my neighbor come pull my tractor out from the edge of a creek bank as it was about to slide on in to the creek. Luckily his tractor was bigger than mine and yanked me right out. It's good to have good neighbors.
Eduard
Oh, the embarrassment of having to get your truck out of the mud. It happened to me once when I was 12 and again when I was about 24. I love your account of the gallant neighbor rescue! What is better than a real man with good ol' boy engineering knowledge and a come along? Whoo gonna get me all lathered up!
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