My first attempted rescue of another 4x4

[palmma221]

Ok guys, its time for me to tell you about my first recovery attempt for another 4x4. It happended last night on a beach near perth.

Last night it was me and my partners anniversary and we decided to go for a bit of a 4x4. We packed the car and headed off. Got there, let the tyres down and headed into the track. Now usually when we hit the beach I go to the right and head to the spot we usually stay but (and luckly) last night i decided to go left and find a new camping spot. About 300m up the beach my partner spoted another 4x4 and we decided that we would go and say hello. about another 50m my partner said, 'he looks stuck'. And when we parked next to him, I realised he wasn't just stuck, he was screwed. (He was in an nissan patrol ute 4.2L DX) (I think)

(This is the part where if I had taken pictures it would have been easier to understand how stuffed he was but i will try and explain it the best way I can.)

His 2 back tyres were up to the leaf springs, his frond left was half buried but the right front tyre was below the ground burried in a mix of sand and water. Ohh yeah, he had to get stuck near the water on a rising tide.

So I arrived, and said ok mate i will give u a snatch out. DIDNT WORK.
Ill go some rocks and do some rock building. didnt work.

Tell u what mate, ill go make some phone calls for you. Phone calls to the cops, rac, towing companies and ses. Unless his life is in danger they cant come. ok, last option is for me to try and drive it out. didnt work.

I ended up calling his wife and telling her where he was, then as me and my partner were driving up the beach we found another 4x4 and i told them what was going on, the other 4x4 was a bit bigger and ended up pulling him out. (and maybe me out because i got stuck as i was attempting to turn around lol)

Ok here ae the thing's that pisses me off.

ONE: He didnt get out and help me rock build, I was trying for over an hour

TWO: HE WAS DRUNK!!!

THREE: When me and my partner were going to find rocks she asked, 'what about tyre pressures'? I went back and found out that he was running 32psi!!!!! in his 4 tyres (ON THE BEACH!)

Four: Even though he had a phone, he didnt make any phone calls (as mentioned I had to bug him to get his wifes number so i could al least inform someone of where he was)

Five: same as number 1 HE DIDNT HLP ME.

Moral of the story, If someone is stuck and keeps drinking and doesnt want to help you help themselves, dont bother. Me and a fellow 4x4er put out pride and joys on the line to help him, I personally spent 3 and a half hours of my anniversary trying to help him, and all i got was the words, 'u did alright' from him. 32psi! Wake the F*** up!

 

[Matt76]

Yep you said it, I would help anyone as long as they are willing to help themselves.

 

[BravoBrad]

If you had told the cops he was half cut they would have been interested.

I remember helping a young bloke out a few years ago, (winch from real soft sand) and when i got him out, telling him to drop his presures to about 12psi (he was running 38) to which he ignored. 2km's up the track he overtook me, and I said to my passenger, we wil catch this bloke any minute, bogged or on his roof. sure enough i came around the corner, and the embankment we were on had given way, and he was down in the soup of water and sand again. He asked me to winch him out which I politly refused telling him, that all that would happen is the winch would drag me down to where he was, and i wasn't playing that game. I walked over, and asked him if he had dropped his presures and he said he didnt need to, so i told him he better start finding some sticks real quick, as the tide was about to start coming in. Helped him dig for a while, but when he continued to refuse to air down, i left him with it. Went for a nice drive (without getting bogged) and on my way back checked on him. still bogged, engine running in the hot sun for 90 mins. When i asked him why he didnt turn off, he said it wont (so bloody hot it was auto igniting), so i asked him if he would like me to turn it off, which he agreed telling me i wouldn't be able to do it. Well funny thing. When you stick a 4by in high 4th and drop the clutch, they tend to stall. I then asked him again to air down, told him he could even drop it to 8 pound providing he didnt go silly, but he wasnt having a bar of it. I left, and have often been temted to go back and see if the wreck is still on the beach, because he might as well just walked away from it. it wasnt comming out by itself. Did I sleep that night? Like a log

 

[kempseyken]

As Matt said , I will help someone all day if I have to , but if they don't help as well they can fark off .

 

[bullwinkle]

I had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago, just 200 metres up the gravel road I live in. I was in the work car, came across an old Mitsubishi dual cab ute with its back wheels in the table drain. 4 young blokes standing around scratching their heads. When I realised they looked like they were in strife, I backed up and asked if they needed a hand, and one young fella very gratefully said yes. So I returned home, got the Nav and went back and dragged them out. By this time I worked out that they'd come around the corner, gunned it and lost it and ended up on top of road sign. This young guy got down on his belly and wrapped the rope around the end of the chassis rail. The driver didn't get out of the car at all. As soon as the ute was out, the useless prick tried to drive off with my rope still attached. The same young fella was very thankful but not a word from the driver. He couldn't get out of there fast enough. What an arsehole.

 

[baitfish]

It doesn’t seem to matter where you go there is always some dickhead getting himself into trouble and expecting someone else to risk their car or waste hours of your own time getting them out.

Couple of weeks ago i went camping down at a local beach, after been disgusted at the mess left at every camp site. We found a reasonable site, gave it a cleanup and set up camp. Couple of hours later towards the end of the day it became clear where all the mess was coming from. A 4x4 ute with a company’s advertising plastered up the side of it and a nice set of P plates on it showed up on the beach, cab full and trays full of even more people. Daddy must have leant out his ute or some employer was very generous in allowing their work vehicle to do some beach work.

They drove up and down the beach throwing their cans and bottles out as they went and what really pissed me off started on my partner and a couple of my mates partners as they tried to go for a walk up the beach. F&*KERS!!

Any way the night dragged on and this continued, they started driving past the camps spot lighting into them and then even trying to drive between our camp and the one beside us, this all at about 3 in the morning.

Morning broke, cooked a feed and packed up camp. Just as we were getting ready to leave some old mate rocked up on a bike and asked if we could head down to the mouth of the creek where some blokes were bogged up to their axles in mud. The dude on the bike said they looked desperate to get out. Thought sure I’ll give it a go, any reason to pull out the snatch strap is always a laugh.

Got down there and it was none other than the young F*&KERS from the night before. As the bloke said, stuck deep in the mud in the middle of the mouth, cans and bottles surrounding the ute. The three of us pulled up, got out had a look and before the young f*%kers had time to walk over to us, we climbed back into the utes and left. The look on their faces made putting up with them the night before almost worth it. Karma does make me smile some days!

I'll try and put up a photo of the three navs that we had there that weekend, sorry if I'm hijacking palmma221

 

[WoodyD40]

U guys are right ... Karma will bite ya.

If i came accross someone with full tyre pressures on the beach, and they refused to listen to good advise, i'd politely tell them NO-HELP for you. You got yourself into the mess, you can get out.

oh, and i'd make sure i'll be using their equipment to get them out (if they did listen to advise), not my own. I'd rather break their snatch strap than my own.

 

[palmma221]

I did feel sorry for him but, he was an older bloke and it looked like life wasnt treating him too well. And it was a nice car haha

 

[joshman]

We had something similar but not as extreme a few weeks ago up on double island point. We were driving along and came across a campsite where 3 cars were bogged. Two short wheel base pajeros runnin oversize BFG muddies...still at road pressure! And a stupid little Holden urban all-wheel drive thingy with low profile tyres.

What had obviously happened was that the one pajero had got stuck, the second pajero had come around and hooked a snatch strap onto it and tried to pull it out... And got stuck, then the Holden thingy had come round the front and tried to snatch as well. Three cars, in a line with tight snatchies between them all.

It seems the only solution that they (the guys that were stuck) was to put the right boot to the floor and hope like hell that the car will magically dig itself out. Each car was upto the chassis rails in soft sand. They hadn't even tried to dig out, and had the nerve to tell us, who were trying to help them "nah, she'll be right mate"

They had the balls to stand by and watch while myself and my mates (girls included) dug around and under their vehicles and the wheels and everything. Hey also had the Balls to tell us that tyre pressures shouldn't matter and that dropping them to 32psi would be enough. We eventually covinced them to drop lower, but even then, they only went to 25psi, begrudgingly, with a "it shouldn't matter, nah, she'll be right, ey" Despite our continual recommendation of 15.

Eventually my mate in the cruiser snatched the stupid Holden out, and the pajero drove itself out.

Its not rocket science to do a bit of research into sand driving do's and don'ts before hitting the beach. Obvious these guys applied the mud driving rules, boot to the floor and hope like hell you make it!

 

[Dave]

Seen it on the side of the road before when it was flooding around here.

Guy had his hazzards on, on the side of the road and was stuck in mud (In a Falcon from memory).

Pulled up and asked if he wanted help to get out. He winds down the window and says yes please.
Put his window back up and continues to talk on his phone for 10 minutes.

I thought, !@#$ this. If he cant get off the phone and come and talk to me, he can get himself out. So I drove off.

 

[montana]

rule no 1 - use their recovery gear (snatch strap, shovel etc)

rule no 2 - no recovery gear - they pay for yours.

never get your strap out to help if they have one - dont wreck your gear.

 

[joshman]

rule no 1 - use their recovery gear (snatch strap, shovel etc)

rule no 2 - no recovery gear - they pay for yours.

never get your strap out to help if they have one - dont wreck your gear.

Always! If the person I'm helping to recover is a nice person and more than willing to help, then I don't mind using my stuff to help, it all comes down to their attitude.

 

[Eug]

i was always taught to use your own recovery gear if doing the recovery, can never trust how others maintain theirs which poses a safety risk.

 

[terryc]

Sounds like I should make sure all four little shovels go on any sand trips I do.