Posted in Safety, Defensive Driving

4WD Bogged

When you are bogged like this photo its pretty bad!

The Landcruiser is an amazing vehicle, extremely capable across a wide range of conditions, however they also have their limits, as does every 4x4. So recently we were running a 4x4 course south of Darwin and we managed to get stuck in some very soft soil. This wasn’t the only car we got stuck on this day, but that’s another story!

Basically, the reasonably well formed track had seen a lot of rain over many weeks so the ground was quite saturated. Add a weighty vehicle with its tray full of equipment and we managed to break through the compacted track surface and there we were. Trying to stay out of the eroded gullies, crossing from one side of the track to the other and being the second vehicle in the convoy meant at times we got caught in the previous wheel tracks and simply made them deeper, and then sunk. Both the front and back wheel buried and the chassis also dug into the soft ground.  Learn how to use a winch

This is quite a tricky situation to get out of, digging the wheels out wasn’t that easy so trying to get traction boards (treds/maxtrax) under the wheels didn’t really work as we couldn’t get deep enough to get them under the front of the tyres. Trying to jack the heavy vehicle up in the soft ground was not easily done and getting another vehicle close enough to do a recovery was getting harder the more we drove back and forth.

We did have a reasonable number of team members on hand, which is always helpful to brainstorm ideas with, share the “hard” tasks with and generally watch out for each other.

We did try to winch the vehicle and together with some shovel work, we didn’t really make a great deal of impact. Having a wide range of recovery equipment on hand meant that we could join a couple of snatch straps together and using this method we managed to “jolt” the stuck vehicle back onto slightly firmer ground without having to get to close.

Always make sure that you equipment is in good condition and not old and worn, your hookup points are suitable for this type of recovery, (don’t use the standard vehicle tow points, they are not rated for this) and keep the spectators well back. Good communications, ground preparation and a moderate approach are very important to ensure a successful and safe outcome.  Look at 4WD recovery course

Why not join us on one of our recovery courses where we discuss and apply a whole range of equipment to enable safe vehicle recovery. Bye for now.