You know the sensation: momentum has stopped, RPM is building, and the machine isn’t going anywhere anytime soon…except to China, the way the tires are digging in. Been there? Done that? You bet your ass I have. From sinking a Honda Trail 70 up past the handlebars in what looked like a shallow puddle at the moment to the day I high-centered Angry Grandpa on the edge of a country road with the back tires hanging off over a ditch. I’ve seen “stuck”. I’ve seen a Chevy Blazer stuck on the roof of a Buick after the transfer case caught in the half-collapsed. Oddly enough, I’ve also seen that same Blazer sunk to the bumpers in a mixture of liquified mud, deep sediment and tree roots so deep that the only way to know that 38″ tires were on the hubs was to hit the throttle and get the water churning.
Getting stuck sucks. Even on the best of circumstances, it’s the moment where you have to take a breath, suck down your pride and go ask for assistance. Whether the snow has claimed yet another car or you royally misjudged how solid the ground was and now your Toyota 4Runner is doing it’s best impression of one of the Cadillac Ranch cars with it’s rear haunches high in the air, proudly showing it’s rear end for everyone to see, your day has officially started to suck. You didn’t want to be the guy whose Jeep is now perfectly mounted on top of a boulder on the trail, completely incapable of freeing itself, do you? You weren’t expecting accumulations of over five inches of snow when you decided, “aw, the hell with it, I’ll take the Camaro to work today!” But we’ve been there too, so don’t feel too bad.
Got a great stuck story? Let’s hear about it! Want to hear about the Chrysler’s adventures in the countryside? I won’t share that one, but maybe I might tell the story about that one Blazer, an old tree stump, and a nest of bald-faced hornets…
Young, dumber, and full of piss (because there were barley sodas involved) I decided to take a trip up a local pass with some friends in the middle of winter. Drinking, sledding, and a fire? count me in. knowing that this certain pass is 18 miles to the Idaho/Montana border, and the pass is only plowed to the 12 mile mark after mid November, it was going to be good. So, myself in a 92 Chevy fullsize truck, and a couple of my friends in 95+ blazers start up the pass to commence our day of fun. We get past the 12 mile mark and are driving on snowmobile trails at this point. We hit the 16 mile mark with little issues, and decided “well hell, lets go to the top!” literally half a mile from the top of the pass I watched as my truck broke through the ice/hard pack (about 6-9″ thick) and literally submarined 5+ feet under lighter, not so compacted snow. Tried to back up (durrr) buried the rear end. spent the next 6 hours digging and rigging to get it out. Thankfully we did because there have been rigs that literally sat in this area due to similar circumstances until spring. good times!
Stuck a 64 Galaxie through and behind a 6 ft snow bank on the back side
of Sebago Lake in Maine – friend went for a phone to call a wrecker
The operator said ‘ Oh,your at the bad curve by tricky pond ”
got tugged out , opened the hood and snow was packed so the stiffeners
were molded into the snow …
Dug out the front of the engine , fired it up and went skiing for the day.
God I loved that car !!!!
Christmas eve when I was 16 I had just washed my Dart and was planning on running a card down to my girlfriend’s house. They had already left for vacation but I was gonna just put it in the mailbox and go home again.
There were two ways back. One back the paved way I came in on or another down a stone lane that ran beside a farmer’s field that ended near my friend’s place who I wanted to visit anyway so I decided to go that way. Halfway down I saw a big puddle. Since the car was all clean I certainly didn’t wanna mess it up by going thru the puddle. As soon as I turned the wheel to go around it the right front slipped into a channel at the edge of the road and it instantly pulled me straight into the field all 4 wheels up to the rockers in wet soupy mud. Great!!!
After an hour of trying everything I could think of I remembered a guy in my sister’s class lived on the next street over. Of course it’s now 9:45PM and it’s Christmas eve! Luckilly he was home and was nice enough to wanna help. He had a jacked up 78 Dodge with big tires and a chain and he got me out of there in less than a minute. I was at the car wash for hours trying to get all that gunk off. At least next time I know to just run thru the little puddle!
Driving under NVGs for the first time in Hoenfels, GE I may have driven straight into a pond. I couldn’t tell because there was a layer of snow on top of the ice. My PSG was PISSED. I got it out but that was the coldest night of my entire life. Now that I’m an OCT hating life at Polk I get to laugh at the kids getting stuck.
that’s a tough one…. lifted Chevy truck on 35s sitting on its frame within 20 feet of a paved road? on private property? after being told I’d be arrested if I ever drove in that field again? thank heavens for 4×4 forklifts… the property owner’s 4×4 forklift – and didn’t get arrested when I mentioned seeing him at the local topless joint paying a pro for services…. asked him if he was in an open relationship… guessing the answer was no.
I once said to this girl…. Will you marry me?
That was about the worst I ever got stuck. Still trying to get out of that one.