Last Thursday, as we were doing preliminary setup, the weather was great. Blue skies and comfortable temperatures. Friday it was cloudy with occasional showers so it was pleasant enough that I couldn’t really complain about the weather. But Saturday it rained. We had mud. It turned the farm fields and some of the dirt roads we used for movement around Boomershoot into greasy mud. That morning Barron got his pickup stuck attempting to get to Mecca and help make targets:
I was able to pull him out with my vehicle without much effort.
I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to get my vehicle, pulling a trailer with about 900 pounds of targets from Mecca to the Taj. David offered to bring his 4-wheel drive pickup with mud tires over to help if needed. I agreed and he made it past the place where Barron got stuck but then we got his pickup stuck a before we reached my vehicle. I should have tried getting out before putting him at risk. And I could have had him park in a safer place rather than guiding him to a spot that was potentially unsafe. It was really greasy.
I, with some difficulty, was able to claw my way away from Mecca and get the trailer to a safe spot, unhook it, and connect up to David’s pickup. I was unable to move him.
Brother Gary brought another 4-wheel drive pickup and couldn’t even get up the hill to get into position to perhaps help. I came up with a way using a hoist and a long tow-strap/chain/cable and a tree and Brother Doug brought the tools for that endeavor over and helped until he had to leave to meet a mechanic who came to help fix a broken tractor.
David and his pickup. Cable visible in higher resolution pictures.
Brother Doug with cable, hoist, tow strap, and tree.
I lost about 2.5 hours getting David unstuck when the original plan was that he was going to help me. Ahhh… the irony.
I was able to get the trailer to the Taj, unload it, unhook it, and get into Orofino for the dinner on time. Thanks to Barron running the Saturday High Intensity event while I was delayed!
Here is what my vehicle looked like after I made it to Orofino:
These are my coveralls and shoes (I deliberately rotated my feet outward to show the mud on the insides of my legs):
Six o’clock the next morning, in preparation for the Sunday long range event, Barb and I connected my SUV to the trailer at the Taj then loaded the trailer with over 1000 pounds of targets and slid down the greasy chute from the Taj to the Boomershoot tree line. There was some sideways sliding toward a small tree but we made it out without serious problems.
We delivered the targets to the tree line and hillside right on time at 7:00 AM when Jacob showed up to help place the targets on the stakes.
joe:
jeep, cj-5 tub at the latest. locking difs. lugged tires. and, to achor your rig w/ the winch, some cable, and a couple big bull pricks and some real hammers to drive the bull pricks into the ground.
bull prick to attach the cable to the rear of your jeep. bull prick to anchor that bull prick. and, a good winch on your front bumper to do the actual pull.
4wd without a proper differential on the transfer case can be the functional equivalent of a 2wd in slick conditions. new process makes a lot of transfer cases, some a lot better than others in difficult conditions.
or, you can just drive on the grass, and stay off the slick stuff.
john jay
p.s. but, really, why miss all the fun?
Looks like a regular North Idaho party, except that there’s no bonfire and I don’t see anyone passing a jug of Pisano. Oh, and it would typically involve a chainsaw at some stage. The hundreds of pounds of high explosives are definitely a plus though.
You need a tractor.
Yeah, but it’s only money, and this is America, where you can earn some more.
I’m with John Jay – winch and proper anchors. Heck, since this seems to be an ongoing issue, when the weather cooperates go out and pour some permanent winch anchors, 80-120 feet apart (the length of a winch cable), right up to the Taj Mahal.
\You don’t even need a permanently-mounted winch – get one of the Warn units that mounts to a receiver hitch. Those are versatile since you can put a receiver on the front of the rig as well as the conventional rear trailer hitch, to pull yourself further into the slop, or back out of it.
John is also correct in that, unless you have locking differentials, once you start spinning on mud with open differentials, even with a 4WD, you’re effectively in no-wheel-drive. A front “lunchbox” locker costs about $250 and can be installed in an afternoon.
I haven’t gotten stuck yet, except when I was trying to pull Eugene out of the mud in 2000. And I have a backup plan if I couldn’t get my vehicle in/out of Mecca and the Taj. That is the ATV with a trailer.
And usually when the weather is bad I can get a tractor on site fairly easily if I need it. This was a special situation and strictly speaking it wasn’t me/Boomershoot that had the problems.