Offroading in snow, stuck - Los Alamos
 

I think the title pretty much says it all, I went out to just drive around a little because I'm sick of sitting in my apartment. I went up to a woodcutting area in the Jemez mountains behind Los Alamos, and start driving down this road I've been on before.

The snow has been melting here for a while, but anyplace there's shade there's still snow. So I drive about 50 feet off the paved road and bam! 2-4" of icy snow on the road. I figure no big deal, I'm just looking for a dry and flat spot to grill some bratwurst. Well, I drove a little too far and end up on a slight downward hill where the road is about 10-12 feet wide and you've got a nice drop on one side and a hill on the other. I stopped, but it was too late I wouldn't be able to reverse out. I think to myself: "crap, I'm not gonna be able to get back up this, forward or backward..."

So I creep down the snowy hill (which is rutted and dug up, apparently from wood cutters having one hell of a time getting back up it) and continue on for a little bit until I find an OK place to turn around, and head back. It's about 4:30pm and I don't want to try getting back up that dang hill in the dark, so I go for it trying to keep momentum as much as is possible, but I wasn't quite aggressive enough and end up spinning tires half way up. The tragedy is while trying to back back down, I didn't have enough traction and end up backing my rear right tire into a 2-3ft deep snow drift.

So my damn 4Runner's stuck in the snow (I hate these Revos). I spent an hour and a half trying to dig/wedge things under my tires, but no dice. So I had to hoof it the mile or so back to the main road, flag someone down, and get a ride to Los Alamos. Fortunately, someone will be able to save me tomorrow early morning, and where my 4Runner is stuck no one will mess with it because no one will be going back there... it's going to be 20 or lower tonight after all...

I'll make sure and take pics tomorrow morning, SteveO and his giant 4Runner of fury are coming to save the day at 5:30am :bigok: His 120ft winch line, plus his 30ft strap, plus my 30ft strap ought to be enough to reach my car without having to drive his down the hill.

One way or another lesson learned, I'm not going offroading on anything except dry dirt until these tires get replaced with something more substantial. :bang:

what happened to the second gen did you sell it? that sucks i love my new truck. hmmm front and rear lockers:D

I've still got the '92 because I'm lazy and haven't sold it yet. Probably in the next few weeks I'll put it out on the "lemon lot" here in Los Alamos and see if anyone bites. Hoping for a little over $5k with the two sets of tires. I'll post it here too just in case of course...

Yeah, as for the '98 the problem isn't the lack of a front locker (have the rear electric), it's the worn Revos that just don't grab snow at all. All they do is make a nice flat ice sheet where they spin. I need MTR's in a bad way...

If by some odd circumstance SteveO cannot extract it, let me know and I will help. I just bought some tire chains for my 35's and I have a winch as well.

Worst case scenario I know I can get some other guys with capable rigs together as well.

Good luck...

Good deal! :bigok: The sub-freezing temps should help. I've found traction is always better when its colder. Nothings slicker than snow or ice at 31-32 deg F.

[Looking forward to pics] :hillbill:

Erich

Thanks! The 4Runner really isn't stuck too badly, it just can't extricate itself with that one tire sitting in snow... Hopefully a winch tug will get things moving in the right direction. I'll keep it in mind if we have problems though.

Let's plan another NNM off-road trip so I stop getting myself into trouble by my lonesome :bigok:

I suggest airing down to about 10 psi. That will help a lot.

Here's 3' of snow with AT's at 10 psi (I stayed on top of about 1')

http://pics.montypics.com/albuquerqu...8_p1070161.jpg

I was cutting a nice trail for the guys behind me.

that was my first thought too... did you try airing down? even as low as single digit PSI?

As soon as I got stuck, my first thought was to air down. I aired down to 15psi (what my Stauns are set to), which gets some pretty good flex out of my sidewalls and tried again, but it wasn't enough. If we have trouble this morning I'll make sure and try to air down to sub-10 pressure.

It's a beautiful morning to extricate a 4Runner :nerd:

Well, we successfully removed the 4Runner, all it took was one little tug and I was up and out no problemo. The colder snow definitely helped, but these tires just don't do that great off-road. The snow yesterday was pretty slushy, but this morning it was solid and sharp, pretty good for traction. Still, I need some M/T's in a bad way.

Unfortunately there are no pics, my camera sat in the 4Runner all night, and it's battery was too cold to work (like I said it would, it got down to about 20 last night). Oh well :pop: Thanks for the interest, I'm done being stuck now :guitar:

Huge thanks to Steve for getting up super early and saving the day, Yotatech rocks!

it was fun. It didn't take long for me to get stuck either. Trying to turn around was a no go. So, with about 110ft of winch line out, and two 30ft straps, while I was attached to Brian's rig, I was able to pull myself out of the deep stuff. When I got straightened up, I pulled in reverse, and Brian drove forward the rest of the way to a safe spot.

Fun early in the morning, thats the way to get the day started.

Tragedy Averted :grouphug:

Indeed :D I need a good stuck every now and again to keep me humble :chairfall

Glad you got out ok!

Thanks! :bigok:

Snow runs warrant sub 10 PSI in the tires for sure.....Less if you have beadlocks. We used to run down to 2-3 PSI without B/L's in Washington.

with all the moisture, did you ever spin the wheel in the tire...

Sure, I can see that you would want to air down as much as I have in the past when duning (around 10psi for 33x10.50's, 8psi for 33x12.50's). This would be for deep snow though (over a foot) so that you can try to float on top, I was cruising in 3-6" and was just cutting through to the hard stuff, plus there were a lot of spots that were melted and instead there was 3" of mud in its place. All in all it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because the near-melting snow was incredibly slick for tires that didn't have a whole lot of tread in the first place.

I suspect that I have done that several times at the dunes while aired down to just 10 psi, because after airing back up my tires would be WAY out of balance even if they were perfect when I got there.

One of my firends had 38" swampers on 16" rims, when he aired down to 3 psi we got video of his rim physically spinning inside the tire. That can't be good for the bead...

Airing down too low makes it just way too easy to blow a bead also.

Woo Hoo :yotarock: