Guy M
Well-Known Member
Not directly related, but hunters often end up driving backroads in snowy/icy conditions. Thought this might be of some interest:
Got the word last night that a family had abandoned their Nissan Armada SUV on a snow covered dirt road over on Badger Mountain, about 25 miles from my place. They'd been out looking at property in it, and had descended to a place where the road was blocked. They'd planned a reasonable route, downhill all the way, but a large fallen tree across the road blocked them. When they tried to drive the SUV back up to where they'd started... It wasn't up to the task.
Ultimately the young couple walked out with their two kids. They noticed some large "dog" tracks along the way... The area is known to have wolf, coyote, mountain lion and bears... Not sure what they saw tracks of, but entirely possible it was some large, furry predator.
The parents hiked back in on Monday, carrying tire chains. They were only able to get one chain on the front, and did make some progress towards getting out, but not enough. Last night our local 4wd community learned of their predicament. This morning four people headed out in three Jeeps to get that Nissan out of there! The couple met us at the end of the pavement and hopped in our Jeeps. I aired down to 10 psi for traction.
We drove down, down, and down some more. I was getting worried about getting my own Jeep out! I would not have gone down there, in winter, except if necessary. I guess this was necessary. We reached the Nissan Armada, and I was relieved to see that it had a pair of front tow hooks from the factory! Yes! I went to work with shovel, and shoved some Max Trax boards in front of the rear tires.
My son spooled out some synthetic winch line from his 1998 Cherokee. Warn 8000 winch.
We got the second chain on the other front tire! The young lady took over driving, she did a beautiful job of "feather-footing" the accelerator. Very gentle. Nice, with minimum wheelspin.
Josh winched. She drove. We worked with shovel and the Max Trax boards. Got the Nissan up that first big hill! Vehicles re-positioned. My Wrangler took over winch chores. Deliberately drove my Jeep into the ditch adjacent to the road, and got it well stuck, in order to be able to winch up the considerably larger and heavier Nissan. I have an inexpensive but powerful Engo 10k winch. It did a wonderful job of pulling that big Nissan up! She drove, I winched, and up it came!
Time to time we added a recovery strap, or two, to lengthen our reach with the winch.
I didn't get a photo of this, was too busy driving, but also towed the Nissan for about a half-mile up a couple of less-steep hills. My Jeep was in low range, first gear with the rear diff locked.
After four hours of work, using so many tools, we got the Nissan back to pavement! Today we used:
shovel
tire chains
recovery straps
winches (2)
Max Trax boards
And even my 5-gallon fuel can! The Nissan's V8 had burned through a lot of fuel, leaving the vehicle nearly empty. My Jerry can full of gas was very welcome, allowing the powerful V8 to assist with the hill climbing. It would have been a LOT tougher if we'd had to winch and pull the Armada up those hills without it working too.
I think what impressed me the most was the cool, calm teamwork demonstrated today. The two folks with the Nissan admitted that they knew little about four-wheeling, and had made a mistake even venturing onto that road, in these conditions. However, they were quick learners, listened well, and helped us, help them. The rest of us applied decades of four-wheeling knowledge to get them out, without damaging their vehicle, or ours. I reminded everyone that we were going to talk-through every move, do it right, not injure anyone or break anything expensive.
It all worked. Four hours of pretty intense, but not rushed, work. Vehicle is out. Family is all home and well. New friends were made and old friends had another good day of four-wheeling together. I rather enjoy these "rescue" missions. Always a challenge.
Lots of lessons learned by the new folks with their Nissan. I'm glad it all worked out for them. And for us.
Regards, Guy
Got the word last night that a family had abandoned their Nissan Armada SUV on a snow covered dirt road over on Badger Mountain, about 25 miles from my place. They'd been out looking at property in it, and had descended to a place where the road was blocked. They'd planned a reasonable route, downhill all the way, but a large fallen tree across the road blocked them. When they tried to drive the SUV back up to where they'd started... It wasn't up to the task.
Ultimately the young couple walked out with their two kids. They noticed some large "dog" tracks along the way... The area is known to have wolf, coyote, mountain lion and bears... Not sure what they saw tracks of, but entirely possible it was some large, furry predator.
The parents hiked back in on Monday, carrying tire chains. They were only able to get one chain on the front, and did make some progress towards getting out, but not enough. Last night our local 4wd community learned of their predicament. This morning four people headed out in three Jeeps to get that Nissan out of there! The couple met us at the end of the pavement and hopped in our Jeeps. I aired down to 10 psi for traction.
We drove down, down, and down some more. I was getting worried about getting my own Jeep out! I would not have gone down there, in winter, except if necessary. I guess this was necessary. We reached the Nissan Armada, and I was relieved to see that it had a pair of front tow hooks from the factory! Yes! I went to work with shovel, and shoved some Max Trax boards in front of the rear tires.
My son spooled out some synthetic winch line from his 1998 Cherokee. Warn 8000 winch.
We got the second chain on the other front tire! The young lady took over driving, she did a beautiful job of "feather-footing" the accelerator. Very gentle. Nice, with minimum wheelspin.
Josh winched. She drove. We worked with shovel and the Max Trax boards. Got the Nissan up that first big hill! Vehicles re-positioned. My Wrangler took over winch chores. Deliberately drove my Jeep into the ditch adjacent to the road, and got it well stuck, in order to be able to winch up the considerably larger and heavier Nissan. I have an inexpensive but powerful Engo 10k winch. It did a wonderful job of pulling that big Nissan up! She drove, I winched, and up it came!
Time to time we added a recovery strap, or two, to lengthen our reach with the winch.
I didn't get a photo of this, was too busy driving, but also towed the Nissan for about a half-mile up a couple of less-steep hills. My Jeep was in low range, first gear with the rear diff locked.
After four hours of work, using so many tools, we got the Nissan back to pavement! Today we used:
shovel
tire chains
recovery straps
winches (2)
Max Trax boards
And even my 5-gallon fuel can! The Nissan's V8 had burned through a lot of fuel, leaving the vehicle nearly empty. My Jerry can full of gas was very welcome, allowing the powerful V8 to assist with the hill climbing. It would have been a LOT tougher if we'd had to winch and pull the Armada up those hills without it working too.
I think what impressed me the most was the cool, calm teamwork demonstrated today. The two folks with the Nissan admitted that they knew little about four-wheeling, and had made a mistake even venturing onto that road, in these conditions. However, they were quick learners, listened well, and helped us, help them. The rest of us applied decades of four-wheeling knowledge to get them out, without damaging their vehicle, or ours. I reminded everyone that we were going to talk-through every move, do it right, not injure anyone or break anything expensive.
It all worked. Four hours of pretty intense, but not rushed, work. Vehicle is out. Family is all home and well. New friends were made and old friends had another good day of four-wheeling together. I rather enjoy these "rescue" missions. Always a challenge.
Lots of lessons learned by the new folks with their Nissan.
I'm glad it all worked out for them. And for us.Regards, Guy
