Conference ssdevo::4wd

    re: GOJIRA::JESSOP
    
    I can go the other way, Mike.  I can tell a story about how I got stuck
    in my 4wd Toyota pickup and was pulled out by a minivan.  I provided
    the snatch strap to do it.
    
    The moral of my story would have been "Don't pull over onto the
    shoulder in strange territory in the winter.  There may be NO SHOULDER
    there!"
    
    ;-)

    Could be some of us know what we are doing (airing down our tires,
    using low gears, having the right kind of engine) and we help lots of
    folks who don't have clue. 
    
    So depending upon what it is you drive, you end up pulling lots of the
    other brands out.
    
    I'm the beach captain for the NE Multihull regetta used to qualify
    folks for the Olympic trials. And every year lots of yahoos think they
    can do anything with thier 4x4 because it has big tires and great ads
    on TV.  And Every year I pull lots of machines out of the sand along
    with my friends who drive Blazers and Explorers and Rangers etc.
    
    
    Your milage may vary...

>    The moral of my story would have been "Don't pull over onto the
>    shoulder in strange territory in the winter.  There may be NO SHOULDER
>    there!"


I was with my parents in rural New Hampshire (North Haverhill), and Dad
(luckily I was not driving) pulled over toward the 'sholder' to turn the
vw van into his driveway.  Too bad the sholder was the ditch, only filled
in w/snow :(

We got pulled out by me pushing, plus a pair of snow mobiles pulling.  Talk
about being embarassed.....

--roger

	Just gotta add to this string......

	How about my lowly little '87 Dakota pulling a Hummer off
a snowbank it was high-centered on!

    
     I never pull anything out of or off of anything. I get the cell-phone
    and call them a tow truck. Or they can wait for someone else to come
    along to volunteer. Drivetrain parts for *MY* vehicle are too expensive
    to screw around with.
    
    -john

    Back before I've ever owned a truck, I borrowed my friends Nissan 4x4
    and dared a mud bog that I knew about.  Not knowing that "there is no
    way I am going to drive through 1.5' of mud at 4 mph", I got the truck
    *very* stuck.  A friend with a Wrangler 4.0 tried to pull me out, but
    the burning clutch and broken 3/4" rope shied him away.  My friend with
    a Toyota 4x4 (40" tires and a 6" lift) finally pulled me out using his
    nylon tow strap.  I was skeptical, but he attached the 30' strap to my
    tow bar, backed his bumper to mine and TOOK OFF!  Yank!!  Nissan was
    still imbeded.  Try two...  YANK!!!  You've got to be kidding.  Try
    three... (with robust and a gear shift)  *YANK!!!*  I spent the next 2
    hours pulling ~35 lbs of mud out from the engine cavity and the top of
    the skid plate.
    
    Jason  

    re: .6
    
    So the question is: when you returned the bent and dirty 4x4, was the
    owner *still* your friend? ;^)

    
    re .7  same question here
    
    re .6
    
        The nylon jerk strap did the job, not the Nissan. Converted the
    energy in one big pulse. If you have been watching the nightly updates
    on the Paris-Dakar race on Speedvision the past couple of nights, you
    could see the same thing in action with the team Mitsubisi's. They are
    always augering in the sandwashes, but then another one shows up, hooks 
    up the jerk strap, and heave-ho 'em outta there.
    
        I remember reading an article in a motorcycle magazine many years
    ago that said "ever notice how hard it is to get your bike out of the
    mud? Is it because you are a wuss???" . Time for a test!  
    
    So they spun the wheels of a dirt bike in some muck and then 
    hooked up a scale with a come-alone attached it. The 250 lb dirt bike 
    needed over 800 lbs force to break it loose. This was from the mud's 
    suction. They also said the longer you let it sit, the worse it gets..
    
        Jerk straps are really nice. I ussually carry an 80' peice of 9/16"
     daycron (ie an old sailboat mainsheet) that doesn't have the
    elastic capabilities of a jerk strap. But it was for free and it is
    handy to have when you have lash something to your 4x4.
    
    Does it work every time?  No (see below).
    
    As for the ulimate 4x4, it really doesn't exist.
    
          Friends have funny video of us trying to pull a big heavy ocean 
    powerboat up a soft sand beach on it's trailer {ok I admit I broke the 
    outboard's lower end, but the darn $4 shear pin should have let go before 
    the $1300 drive shaft did}. 
    
           We used a full size Bronco with major mods in it, along with 
    a Typhoon, a Ranger 4x4, and a blazer with about a dozen people muscling 
    the boat at the same time. I must admit the Ranger 
    didn't help much as it was completely in the air, since it was low 
    to the ground compared to the trucks on either end of it. Once everyone
    started pulling, it became a helicopter. No single 
    make was going to yank that boat out of there without a winch and
    something to hold the trailer tongue out of the sand.
    
          But cubic inches really help, as does low end grunt. If you need
    to rev the motor, if any of the tires is not completely planted, it spins
    ever deeper into a hole. That is why I really like inline 6s and big
    v8s over small 4 cylinders and v6's which ussually are tuned for power
    at a higher rpm. 

I know one time the nylon strap didn't work.  We were out in the
woods late at night with my friends full sized Bronco.  He was
driving Way off the side of the dirt road in this swap like 
substance.  
At the end of the road the trees closed in to one lane.  We were
in real deep and still in two wheel drive.  In order to get out without 
stoppin  we had to climb over a huge brush pile.  It only made it to
the top.  
So, we walked to a friends house and got is aging pickup and a nylon strap.
We all got around the front of the bronco to help it down the pile.
The pickup went full tilt.  About when the cord was fully stretched
it popped the step n tow bumper right off.  We all had a nice view of
a bumper heading for us up about 20 feet in the air.  It landed about
5 feet from us.  
It took the local farm's two story high ford tractor to pull it out the
next day.

    ref. .9
    
    Woah!  You guys are lucky to be alive!
    
    I thought snatch straps are supposed to be attached the bumper's frame
    MOUNT and not the face bar itself, or use frame mounted hooks specifically 
    designed for pulling purposes. 
    
    Was it one of those `decorative' or rusted out Japanese step-n-tow 
    bumper setups? 
    

    
    
        During the summer I was whacked off the back of the head by a ski
    handle/tow rope, when I was trying to pull a moose size guy up on
    skies. Cripes...I thought I was gonna die!  Now a truck bumper, Yea
    right...Just stay laying right there and someone can drop a tombstone
    on whats left of your body. Why ain't the video cam ever running when
    this stuff happens. Other people in the boat with me said they woulda
    paid good money to see that again.
    
    -john

    >    The nylon jerk strap did the job, not the Nissan. Converted the
    >energy in one big pulse. If you have been watching the nightly updates
    
    I assume you meant the Toyota didn't do the job...  I agree...  Those
    big tires with a 2.6(?) 4-cylinder *didn't* make a lethal combination.
    
    My abuse to his vehicle ended up being a wash.  I had lent him my car
    (which had one of those LOUD stereos in it) and he returned it with a
    damaged speaker.  "I didn't hear it distorting.  I swear!!"
    
    I took him to see when I got the truck stuck and he couldn't believe I
    tried to traverse it.
    
    re: about the mud and the suction thing, especially over time
    
    That's got to be the case.  The time between when I got it stuck until
    I finally got it out was about 3.5 hours.  I couldn't BELIEVE the
    amount of force needed to dislodge it!  
    
    Jason

    .4 A Hummer!!! GREAT! I have heard about all the high tech goodies on
    those suckers, and hear how Nuthin stops a Hummer. And you yank one off
    a snow bank with your little truck!! Dam! The other in your face is the
    little trucks vs big truck garb. Its not how big you are, its what you
    can do with it.;) Congrads!!