DRaider90
Uwharrie Off-Road Volunteering
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2007
- Location
- Weddington, NC
First off lets get this little part out the way. The following events happened on private land being wheeled on with permission. Since we don't advocate illegal wheeling on power line trails etc.
Its about 5pm and I was waiting to head out for dinner at that Chinese buffet across from the Super Wal-Mart in Indian Trail. A neighbor of mine that I hadn't met before asks me for some help (Keith). His daughter's boyfriend had busted the front left suspension on his Side by side out wheeling. He had hiked back to the neighborhood leaving the side by side out there. So I took both of them back out there with a plan of dragging him out.
Got out there no problem, still aired down from the snow storm (only aired down to 19/20psi). Isn't a tough trail really anyway, but it was going to be a bumpy ride for him getting dragged through 2 mud holes. The front tire was bent sideways at an angle like a tie rod had snapped. We hooked both ends of the strap to him and started the trip out. Got maybe a thousand feet and he yells at me to stop. I get out figuring something was wrong with the side by side.
Nope, my truck blew a bead on the rear tire. My fault really for airing it down Monday for the snow, and not keeping any eye on it. It had a slow leak, that obviously got faster to the point it couldn't hold a bead. I have wheeled at 9/10psi with these tires no problems, so only god knows what pressure the tire was at. Pulled up to flat ground and got the floor jack out. Floor jack wasn't working for what ever reason, so we had to use a bottle jack. Thanks to those guys we made a semi flat piece of a tree work, and when it didn't get the truck up far enough they dug out under my tire with a metal piece off of the side by side. Yes a shovel is now on my list of recovery gear, and a new floor jack.
We swapped my spare tire onto the truck and left the side by side to sit. I went to air up and figure out a plan B considering I no longer have a working spare. You know your having fun when your caking up TSLs with 20/32nds+ plus tread left.
Call up a friend of mine and he agrees to come help out (Alex). His girlfriend is a real trooper and tags along even. He drives up from Ft. Mill and we head back to pick up my neighbor and his daughter's boyfriend. We head out back to the side by side and hook it up to the Jeep Cherokee he has. The Jeep has 33x10.5 BFG A/Ts so it took a bit more (a lot more) skinny pedal but the racing slicks (A/Ts) did the job and put on a good mud slinging show (and sliding around).
The side by side slams through 2 mud pits and up a ditch back out to the road. By now the rough ride has taken its toll and the tire is just hanging on by almost nothing. By almost nothing I mean if you lifted the front end up the tire/wheel would LAY FLAT on the ground on its SIDE. Now we have to get the side by side about a mile and a half back using side roads since it wouldn't make it back through the trail the other way getting dragged.
So the front end has to be raised off the ground other wise dragging it on pavement almost 2 miles the tire was done for. So using a high lift jack and a 30' recovery strap we rigged up something while Alex's girlfriend and my neighbor directed what little traffic (maybe 6 cars total over 30 minutes) came by. The pictures are dark but here is what we came up with. Keep in mind you are looking at the back of a Jeep Cherokee and the front end of a Polaris with 1 head light. We had to take the spare tire off the Jeep and strap it to the back of the side by side to make room for this job.
(And yes you see metal hooks attached to that strap. It was what worked best, we did have a loop strap also. And during snow storms its amazing how useless a loop strap is. Cars don't have the best recovery points.)
Some how it worked, with the entire front end off the ground the entire trip. We made it back, and then even loaded it (still hooked up to the strap) onto the single axle trailer. Keeping in mind its now almost 10pm. 5 hours were spent total in this ordeal, including down time between plan A and plan B. And at the end of this all we have 2 new people to go wheeling with, plus a story to tell around Arrowhead campfires for years to come. Sometimes doing the right thing takes a while, but eventually it gets done.
Its about 5pm and I was waiting to head out for dinner at that Chinese buffet across from the Super Wal-Mart in Indian Trail. A neighbor of mine that I hadn't met before asks me for some help (Keith). His daughter's boyfriend had busted the front left suspension on his Side by side out wheeling. He had hiked back to the neighborhood leaving the side by side out there. So I took both of them back out there with a plan of dragging him out.
Got out there no problem, still aired down from the snow storm (only aired down to 19/20psi). Isn't a tough trail really anyway, but it was going to be a bumpy ride for him getting dragged through 2 mud holes. The front tire was bent sideways at an angle like a tie rod had snapped. We hooked both ends of the strap to him and started the trip out. Got maybe a thousand feet and he yells at me to stop. I get out figuring something was wrong with the side by side.
Nope, my truck blew a bead on the rear tire. My fault really for airing it down Monday for the snow, and not keeping any eye on it. It had a slow leak, that obviously got faster to the point it couldn't hold a bead. I have wheeled at 9/10psi with these tires no problems, so only god knows what pressure the tire was at. Pulled up to flat ground and got the floor jack out. Floor jack wasn't working for what ever reason, so we had to use a bottle jack. Thanks to those guys we made a semi flat piece of a tree work, and when it didn't get the truck up far enough they dug out under my tire with a metal piece off of the side by side. Yes a shovel is now on my list of recovery gear, and a new floor jack.
We swapped my spare tire onto the truck and left the side by side to sit. I went to air up and figure out a plan B considering I no longer have a working spare. You know your having fun when your caking up TSLs with 20/32nds+ plus tread left.
Call up a friend of mine and he agrees to come help out (Alex). His girlfriend is a real trooper and tags along even. He drives up from Ft. Mill and we head back to pick up my neighbor and his daughter's boyfriend. We head out back to the side by side and hook it up to the Jeep Cherokee he has. The Jeep has 33x10.5 BFG A/Ts so it took a bit more (a lot more) skinny pedal but the racing slicks (A/Ts) did the job and put on a good mud slinging show (and sliding around).
The side by side slams through 2 mud pits and up a ditch back out to the road. By now the rough ride has taken its toll and the tire is just hanging on by almost nothing. By almost nothing I mean if you lifted the front end up the tire/wheel would LAY FLAT on the ground on its SIDE. Now we have to get the side by side about a mile and a half back using side roads since it wouldn't make it back through the trail the other way getting dragged.
So the front end has to be raised off the ground other wise dragging it on pavement almost 2 miles the tire was done for. So using a high lift jack and a 30' recovery strap we rigged up something while Alex's girlfriend and my neighbor directed what little traffic (maybe 6 cars total over 30 minutes) came by. The pictures are dark but here is what we came up with. Keep in mind you are looking at the back of a Jeep Cherokee and the front end of a Polaris with 1 head light. We had to take the spare tire off the Jeep and strap it to the back of the side by side to make room for this job.
(And yes you see metal hooks attached to that strap. It was what worked best, we did have a loop strap also. And during snow storms its amazing how useless a loop strap is. Cars don't have the best recovery points.)
Some how it worked, with the entire front end off the ground the entire trip. We made it back, and then even loaded it (still hooked up to the strap) onto the single axle trailer. Keeping in mind its now almost 10pm. 5 hours were spent total in this ordeal, including down time between plan A and plan B. And at the end of this all we have 2 new people to go wheeling with, plus a story to tell around Arrowhead campfires for years to come. Sometimes doing the right thing takes a while, but eventually it gets done.
