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Feb 24, 2022 10:36:39 GMT
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I've done the job now but just wondered what peoples opinions are on the best way of getting stuck vehicles off a wet grass field with soft topsoil? My wife drove our Mercedes estate up a single track tarmac lane. Saw a place to turn around but the yard had a 'No Turning' sign at the entrance so she carried on further somehow not noticing that the lane had become a bridal path. Very soft, no vehicle tracks, just grass and not very wide. There was nowhere else to turn around and the car got stuck. So I got a phone call. I brought Tootles up first of all: forum.retro-rides.org/thread/218211But he got stuck before he could even get within towing reach of the Mercedes so I had to use all of the 80hp to churn my way out of the quagmire and eventually got free leaving two big troughs in the ground where the wheels had been spinning. I got my father-in-law to come and help rescue his daughter with his hi-lux type 4x4 but that was spinning all 4 wheels. We were just at the point of trying to find a local farmer with a tractor when we got a system going and got the car free. Basically I turned off the traction control and floored it. With the 4x4 pulling and 3 long tow ropes and the Mercedes in reverse everybody got out of the mud but it was a hell of a job. So what have other people done under similar circumstances? I'd like to know for next time as I feel like we only just about got out of the mess by chance.
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slater
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,390
Club RR Member Number: 78
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Feb 24, 2022 10:53:04 GMT
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Throw somthing down to drive on. Sand boards ideally.
If its proper bogged you might have to jack the car to get them started. Inflatable Jack's are a useful item in the offroaders arsenal.
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Feb 24, 2022 10:57:44 GMT
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I got one of ours complete with trailer stuck in field yesterday - tractor pulled it no mess or fuss. In the situation you describe I would look for a farmer every time.
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Feb 24, 2022 11:07:20 GMT
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Throw somthing down to drive on. Sand boards ideally. If its proper bogged you might have to jack the car to get them started. Inflatable Jack's are a useful item in the offroaders arsenal. We were trying to think of what we had to hand but coming up short. I have a junk pile with lots of scrap wood and some other things which we thought might contain something useful and could've gone back to the house with the pickup to raid it. But was struggling to think what could actually get underneath the tyres which were 8 inches down in the mud?
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bricol
Part of things
Posts: 289
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Feb 24, 2022 11:26:35 GMT
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The first thing to do is not dig big holes with the spinning wheels and drop the bottom of the car on the ground - as soon as it starts to spin and dig - stop!
Let the tyres down - right down if needed- I've gone to 2psi on my trials car before, but 10psi might be more sensible.
And "trickle" - tick-over or not much more - try to keep the wheels from spinning - can work really well.
If that fails in trialling, its balls to the wall - foot hard down, fast - as many revs out of the driven wheels as possible - the idea being to throw mud out of the treads, while digging down to harder grip. I've been at valve bounce revs, with a snatch to second, to keep wheel speed up and maintain forward motion (- the next snatched gearchange back to first as the hill got steeper was rather less successful - I got reverse!)
Of course, refer back to point one if there isn't anything under the surface to provide grip - if you are just digging a hole and dropping the car to the ground - stop before you make the recovery job even harder.
And do what you did - find enough rope to keep the tow car on the grip.
Never found putting mats etc under the wheels helps - you just end up with middy mats thrown out as the wheels spin. Rigid sand ladder type things might work better.
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dazee
Part of things
Posts: 96
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Feb 24, 2022 11:53:51 GMT
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This got me remembering that many years ago me and a mate got into the same problem with an old Austin 16. Miles from any and not farm in sight. We got free by sticking it 1st and wound it out with the starting handle.
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Last Edit: Feb 24, 2022 11:55:28 GMT by dazee
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Feb 24, 2022 12:12:38 GMT
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They don't have a starting handle on the 2016 e-class. Must have been hard work turning the engine and drivetrain from the handle? Presumably you disabled starting as well just in case it started... or was it nowhere near starting?
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Feb 24, 2022 21:26:27 GMT
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I've managed to recover a couple with my range rover classic on all terrain tyres, worst one was a modern honda, guy had tried to drive around a flood on the verge, trouble was the flood drained through the verge so he had sunk in the bog down to the sills. I came accross the car stuck and an AA man in a Transit custom scratching his head. The Range rover in low ratio with diff lock engaged dragged it out with no fuss, I think it's decent tyres that make the difference.
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Frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death
Posts: 3,878
Club RR Member Number: 15
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Feb 24, 2022 21:51:47 GMT
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Our home field is a swamp during the winter so we occasionally get stuff stuck moving in or out of the field with the workaday Defender on road tyres so we have a process. Defcon 3 : Crank up the Trials Defender with the huge knobbly tyres If that's slipping and sliding then Defcon 2 : Fire up the 'Lil Grey Fergie. It's only a low compression 2 litre but 1st gear is usefully lowwwwwwwww. If that does not have enough grunt the we involve the big boy Defcon 1 : The Goddess lives in the swampy field so we have to stick it in low range 4WD to start with. Get it to where we want it and then deploy the 12 ton winch. You have to be careful otherwise ripping the wheels off whatever is stuck.
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Tales of the Volcano Lair hereFrankenBug - Vulcan Power hereThe Frankenhealey here
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Feb 24, 2022 22:08:59 GMT
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You seem to have it covered 🙂
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend) 1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing) 1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death
Posts: 3,878
Club RR Member Number: 15
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Feb 24, 2022 22:55:14 GMT
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You seem to have it covered 🙂 Nick Practice sadly
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Tales of the Volcano Lair hereFrankenBug - Vulcan Power hereThe Frankenhealey here
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I've been in this situation three times in the last 3 years and every time needed a tractor to tow me out. Marshy fields are just no place for anything else.
And the three vehicles I got stuck in were a Landrover Lightweight, a P38 Range Rover and a Discovery 2. All on A/T tyres.
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Daughter and I once got my Falcon out of a sticky situation by laying some sacks under the back wheels to improve traction then letting it tick over in first gear while we both got out and pushed. The LSD probably helped a bit too.
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Not really useful in a muddy field but a trick to use if you have a rear wheel drive car with a standard diff with one rear wheel off the road in sand or something so that the car cannot move as that wheel spins is to apply the handbrake about half way. This stops the bogged wheel so that the other wheel can get you out
Cheers
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Last Edit: Feb 25, 2022 8:13:39 GMT by Fred W B
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I’ve been watching Matt’s Off Road Recovery on YouTube (don’t know why). They tend to pull most things out with a Kinetic rope (think big bungee). The guy in the stuck car uses low revs, then the tow vehicle zooms off, yanking them out. It looks a bit brutal but as the rope stretches it isn’t as harsh as it looks apparently.
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Feb 25, 2022 11:40:55 GMT
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You need a kinetic rope, they're unmatched for ripping something out of a sticky situation.
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dazee
Part of things
Posts: 96
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Feb 25, 2022 12:03:18 GMT
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They don't have a starting handle on the 2016 e-class. Must have been hard work turning the engine and drivetrain from the handle? Presumably you disabled starting as well just in case it started... or was it nowhere near starting? Took two minutes to whip out the spark plugs so no compression to over come and also takes away any possibility of starting. Quite easy to do the winding out, just very slow. I can't think of any cars with starting handles these days.
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Feb 25, 2022 16:52:21 GMT
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Not really useful in a muddy field but a trick to use if you have a rear wheel drive car with a standard diff with one rear wheel off the road in sand or something so that the car cannot move as that wheel spins is to apply the handbrake about half way. This stops the bogged wheel so that the other wheel can get you out Cheers That's a good one to remember. I hope it never happens again but no harm picking up techniques just in case.
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Feb 25, 2022 16:54:09 GMT
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I’ve been watching Matt’s Off Road Recovery on YouTube (don’t know why). They tend to pull most things out with a Kinetic rope (think big bungee). The guy in the stuck car uses low revs, then the tow vehicle zooms off, yanking them out. It looks a bit brutal but as the rope stretches it isn’t as harsh as it looks apparently. One of the three tow ropes we had joined together was stretchy... but the sort of stretchy you could overcome pulling by hand rather than between two vehicles.
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Feb 25, 2022 18:37:20 GMT
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Or wait a few days for it all to dry out...
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