FJ Cruisers of Northern California

I officialy joined the IH8MUD club

Hi Saturday I got stuck in the middle of the Black Rock Desert. I had to abandon the vehicle and walk back to the Trego hot springs with Monica to find help; luckily I was not too far, only 8 miles, and the wind was extremely strong.

The funny thing is that we were looking for our friends that got stranded, and to do so we got too close to the intermittent lake, and went 30 meters too far in the mud. The following day, after some trial and error, I unspooled my winch line, connected it to the rear of the vehicle, and pulled it off with another vehicle that was staying at a safe distance.

What an adventure. A friend took some pictures of the recovery, I will post them as soon as I get them.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Boss73 on May 3, 2010 at 8:12pm

Rule # 1 :

Never Wheel alone..

Glad you guys got out alright cuz we still need you around to make the Pizza,, LOL

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by manoweb on May 3, 2010 at 8:24pm

We were together with some friends of course, we lost them for few seconds as we later discovered they had an electric problem. But the "playa" has absolutely no reference points, I don't know if you've been there but it's more like sailing a boat than driving a car.

Yes we can't wait to make pizza for everybody. I should get people counted.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by CA Annie on May 4, 2010 at 8:07am

Welcome to the club! :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by manoweb on May 4, 2010 at 9:38am

:)

Now that I think about, I noticed that, after the recovery, my front left mud flap has been damaged and the rear left "silver" bumper thing has disappeared...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sonof40 on May 4, 2010 at 8:16am

I've been considering getting a Pull Pal because that's the one thing our group doesn't have. Glad you are better for the experience.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by manoweb on May 4, 2010 at 9:37am

Oh Yeah, absolutely. When I got stuck the images of Bill Burke's video showing how to use it. I will probably get one, but that opens the next question, I may need to get a roof rack...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sonof40 on May 4, 2010 at 9:54am

I'm still working on a design for a swing-down storage rack to fit under the rear (same area taken by the Man-A-Fre gas tank) before I buy the Pull Pal.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bz on May 4, 2010 at 10:05am

in a pinch you can bury the spare tire and strap up to that....

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by manoweb on May 4, 2010 at 10:19am

Well, of course I thought to that, but:
1) I never did it
2) the wind was so strong, the effort required would have been immense
3) as I was facing the mud, this technique required to winch at least twice to turn the car back to safe ground
4) I had no shovel and, even with one, working in that mud would have been HELL

For those reasons I felt like going back and looking for help was the best thing to do.