Outer Limits 4x4 Board

very very long post if u cbf reading

im in a lot of pain...

firstly, this is a lesson to other people, it shows a lot about how stupid i can be, and what can happen when you dont use ur own common sense.. im an idiot, and i dont need to be told a lot more.. im already limping, and things coulda been a lot worse...

story starts at 7pm last nite.. when it was clear whether and went on some of my usual tracks which are for reasonaly competant 4wd's and drivers. That is, when its not pouring rain.. then its a diff kettle of fish..

my 4wd mate and i went on a treck not far from his house, generally we dont go too far from his house in the mountains without second vehicles or specific plans, since were not complete idiots, but we knew we were not too far away, and the walks not impossible, and the tracks usually arent too hard to follow.. Started to drizzle a bit and turned some of the roads into a mud patch. rather steep inclines with a ravine on one side.

and one point i got a little bit of a slide happening, got out and assessed the situation:



decided i needed to slowly creep out of this one once i got the front wheel on some rocks..

being that the gearing on the pajero isnt particularly low, and the larger tyres dont help this fact, i was trying to go fairly easy on the throttle.. and i managed to stall it..

didnt think twice since i run dual truck batteries.. but.... i spoke too soon..

somehow (this is my only theory), during the rather severe angles, something came loose and shorted the dual battery isolator perhaps fried and killed it, and both batteries some how, and the car refused to start again. just clicked.. had multimeter, and voltage was way low..

tried all the tricks in the book, from hand cranking, roll starting (too slippery muddy to work), even tried spraying flamable gas into the throttle boddy to try get the car to spark enuf to kick over (was using fly spray, had to improvise), but alas, battery no go. both truck batteries were toast (didnt see that coming!). even tried to use tyre iron to get the car back up the hill a little so i could roll start forwards.. but of course, to turn backwards, u end up just undoing the wheel nuts... ARGHHH..

decided we needed to get back to the house.. it wasnt that far so figured id just go back grab spare battery and fix it..was around 930pm now..

called friend and asked to meet at road, and come get us. went the long route but it got us there in around 8km to the road, Got to simons house and stole his 300c battery (uses a fullsize 4wd battery), tied an old seat belt around it then wrapped it in bubble wrap to make it easier to carry.



also went armed with multiple torches, water, a mobile phone and thick pants.

My mate unfortunately sustained an injury sliding and falling on his hip on a steep incline on the way back, so he had to remain home. i wish we had of set him up at the road with a UHF, but he didnt have one handy :(

Got a lift to where we emerged on the road, and walked 8km back to the car (it really didnt seem that far when i didnt have the batter!), lugging a 25kg truck battery in pouring rain up and down nasty terrain with dingo's following me. I tell u truck batteries are hard to carry up 30 degree hills with runners on :(

got to the car, fitted the battery, had to improvise and pull apart some of my amplifier wiring to bridge the gap (300c battery has terminals in wrong spot).. got car started... then it started bucketing down... i wish i'd tied the car off cos it started to slide, even with the handbrake, in gear and all diff locks engaged.. it slid backwards down towards a ravine.. i walked around behind me to sus out whether i could reverse and join back to a track, i slid down the ravine, and copped some kind of super strength vine with thorns all over it (waitawhile ive been told they are known as), some of it got my eye and destroyed my contact lens, which limited my vision *sigh*, now i knew i was in trouble) i managed to wedge the rear of the car against a tree to stop it moving further.





by now i was pretty exhausted and realised i had to leave the car..

stupidly the park i was in is never frequented by other cars, rangers or any bushwalkers (yes im an idiot, and i have no excuse besides being young and stupid).

tried my UHF (big mofo) radio, no response, mobile phone went flat due to everyone calling asking what was going on, tried to sus out using my ixus digicam battery and rewire it to power up the mobile phone, but couldnt work out what the third pin on the phones do, and wasnt sure if they run a regulator (ixus is 4.6v, motorola is 3.2v), and i didnt want to toast the phone.

had a big bottle of drink and a chocolate bar in the car, and set back on foot.

walked 15kms the wrong way, partly due to a LOT of fog, the fact i could only see out of one eye due to a torn contact lens and some thorny thing that i copped in the eye, alo part due to some of the tracks being very rocky so u dont see tyre trails that id left on the way there, and some freshly fallen trees which i hadnt assumed were so fresh that they werent there when i drove past them the first time.. in the end, i got very lost (running water and bucketing rain covered a lot of my tracks, and this process so far had taken hours, the torch was getting low), i was also getting very concerned. decided i was going back DOWN faster than i was trekking, up, indicating i was going to wind up in totally the wrong place.

keep in mind this park is a few thousand square km, so its very very easy to lose your bearings, especially when tired, sore, one eye, dying torch, stressing about animals, pouring rain and fog...

after 3 hrs, i decided to turn around, walked 15km back the other way with a dying torch, fell down a ravine, got tangled in thorn bushes and crushed my finger under a tree, broke a bit of another finger off, all the while hearing dogs following me waiting or me to keel over haha, 4 hours later (around 10hrs after the initial ordeal - by now it was getting light at least), i found a gate, which lead to a road (i was quite close for some of the journey, but the torch was failing and i couldnt see the reflectors and there was no cars to hear at that hour).

I had been doing -some- smart stuff such as leaving items as i walked, so i knew how to backtrack. Unfortunately my navigation unit decided it didnt want to work either.

got onto the main road after the sun rose, and walked 10kms to simons house, got there at around 730am,had shower, soaked in disinfectant, used about 50 bandages and patches, had a nap.

woke up, and my mate had bought me a hand recovery winch, and two heavy duty 10meter tow straps and some recovery shackles before i woke up, and rented one of our other employees for the day to help me.

im very thankful to this.

My mate george and i walked the way we KNEW to the car (the way i took the battery) and eventually found it.. it had kinda slid its way down a bit further.

what was scary, on the way back, following my foot prints in the deeper mud, i saw every one of my prints was several dingo/wild dog foot prints following me basically every where i went.. nasty!

deflated tyres to around 10psi (made a MASSIVE difference in traction, and luckily my car has twin under bonnet bushranger air compressors that i can use to reinflate, and id bought all the air tools and attachments the week prior)..

slowly but surely:





After much messing around with the hand winch (haha 1 meter of movement every 45 minutes of mucking around)we finally got it out. Got car back to solid road at around 8pm, 24hrs after the ordeal started, no panel damage, just very sore legs, arms and every a realisation im a complete idiot (so i dont need everyone flaming me, ive learned my lesson, and wont be doing it again).

finally out:




even the arb air lockers, the center diff lock and 33" mud tyres were useless in the situation. was like skating on ice, car went wherever gravity took it.

There would have been zero point getting a recovery vehicle down there as some of the tracks were way more hardcore than anyone else i know in qld with a 4wd. would have needed big fat mud tyres, twin lockers, big lift, and a winch to be of any help, else we would both have been stuck.

moral of story...

1) im stupid, and ive learned my lesson. ive never been so lost in my life, nor been persued by wild animals before!

2) i didnt realise i was fit enough to accomplish this, im in the army reserves and this was more gruelling than ANYTHING i have ever done before

3) im a complete idiot

4) im a complete idiot

5) carry a hand winch, if you dont get an electric one.. a bumper mount winch would have taken me 3 minutes to tow myself out, it wasnt even much on an incline!

6) lockers are awesome!

7) mud tyres are basically pointless once they are chockers of mud and act like slicks

8) dont attempt already difficult tracks if theres a chance of rain (this was sposed only to be a 45 min round trip in clear weather)

9) im going to carry fluro paint to use to trace my route on tree in case of emergency..

10) being fit, or at least not out of shape goes a long long way to survival if you ever put yourself in a questionable situation.

11) chocolate and fresh water - most definate!

this is all pretty much common sense when you think about it, and a lot of those points id already covered, but hey it was supposed to only be a short adventure, never thought itd happen :S


on another note...


Has anyone tried to loop a recovery strap around a front wheel, and get it to coil up like a winch? ive heard of it, and i noticed some "bolt on hub" kinda winch systems, but in an emergency can u use a long tow strap, and the fact i have an air locker to kinda use the wheel to winch me out?


i know there is no excuse for what i did, and i went against better judgement, its up there with the most irresponsible things ive ever done, and could have ended real badly, just wanted to share my experience. I think ive copped enough damage, and im wearing about 40 elastoplast strips and bandages.


thats about it.. i know im going to have a lot of people shake their head and say 'this is an irresponsible 4wder', but hey at least im willing to admit it, and just kinda trying to help people out.

im now buying two brand new truck batteries, a new isolator and a bar mount electric winch..

hope everyone else had a better night, im having to type with 2 fingers due to all my injuries

mark

Doooooooooode....

Sounds like a massive ordeal.... I won't flame ya.... just laugh that I wasn't there and can see the funny/stupid side to it.

I had a smilar "stupid" situation only 2 weeks after I had my knee reconstructed... mate of mine had never been 4wd'n before and I only had my stocko 60 with 33's on it back then.... kept say'n... "drive thru there... you'll get thru" my reply.... "nah man, this truck sinks at the sight of mud!!"

So after a bit of him say one thing, I say the opposite.... I picked the biggest deepest mud pit and he had to say it didn't he.... "Go on.... have a go...." my reply.... " if we get stuck, are you gunna use the hand winch to pull it out?? Cause I got no chance with my knee in this condition!!"
"No worries mate... let's do it!!" Sooooo with that in mind.... I DELIBERATELY bogged it up to the chassis... and it did get filthy inside from water getting in... but soooo worth it!!!! Even when I was stripin the interior out to clean it!!!

I set it all up for him and let him go at it..... after 10 mins of skull draggin it thru the slop only to pull it a mere 1.5mtrs(still about 5 to go) he said he wishes he never said that to me!!!! Pure gold to see him sluggin it out.... I have pics but not digital ones I can post up...

And to top it all off.... when the front of the car started to pop out of the mud... I got in and started edging it forward while he was winching to make it easier... you shoulda seen him do his block!!!!! "Why the F*&K didn't you do this earlier???" Me.... "cause you kept givin me shit to drive thru mud, so I thought I'd show you why I don't go near it if I don't have to!!!" him.. "F&^% U....Your nuthin but a F&^%N C&%#!!!"

I've never laughed soooo bloody hard that day..... but he had to keep do'n it till I got out.. absolute gold.

Sorry for the hijack.. but thought I'd share a dumb ass story too... just not on my behalf!!!! HAHAHA

Oh how the best intentions quickly turn to poo!

I wont flame you either...as something like this could happen to anyone at some point.

Consider it character building!

Don't beat yourself up too much! I and probably most of us have made poor judgments, we just got away with it!

Doesn't even sound like you made that badder judgment

-Stu

Cool story - often bad luck just conspires against you and things like this happen. Have had similar experiences getting stuck out in the bush at night although with more vehicles - managed to break them all.

Good to hear you made it out - you will probably look back on it and think it was pretty cool.

Why flame you, the best days can turn to faeces pretty quickly sometimes.
Glad you, your vehicle, and your mates are all ok, and sounds like you've got some pretty seriously good mates there to turn up next day all equipped to get you out.

Feels like the ordeal is never going to end ,and you just feel like laying down and sleeping.......yes i know the feeling. Don't beat yourself up over it .....it is an adventure you will talk about for years. BTW the longest i have been stuck for is 9 hours with the kids and wife in the car.

there is no reason to beat yourself up dude

i am sure most of us here have done something that in hindsite was not
the gratest idea

and in the end you have a great story to tell for years to come
and we all like to hear stories like this

just glad to hear all came good in the end mate

RITE OF PASSAGE!!!!

I have had similar happen but only a fraction of what happend to you.

After you got back with the second battery and you still couldnt get out i probably would have called it a night and slept in the car.


Jimmy


PS: A fwe weeks a go i told the mrs i was going to get milk. Anyway i went down this paddock and ended up getting a big thorn/twig stuck in my leg bad enough that i couldn't push the clutch in!! I ended up reversing up this hill using the Gq's hand throttle and pushing the clutch with my right leg. I was lucky enough to be able to rings the mrs to come and get me once i made it back to the main road.

Poor bugger,

bit of judgement, bit of luck... shit happens...

should i ask which park you were playing in?

Spock

I debogged myself in a Niva by using snatch strap around the spinning wheel (no locks).
It works, but was hell on the clutch (no gearing)

Enjoyed the story

christover

So long as you learned a lesson from the experience. Main thing is you and your truck got home safely ....eventually.

I've been stuck a couple of times (once in the middle of a river with a HUGE mofo thunderstorm threatening) in places I've taken rally cars through with no probs at other times, and helped recover a lot of people in similar circumstances. The worst "stucks" usually happen on these sort of trips...

Grouse!!! We all like to say we learn from other peoples mistakes, but we never do. Heal well.

I just wish I could walk that far :(

Sorry I didn't know to laugh or cry. Very well written. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Most of us have been there done that too some degree.

Glad your eye is OK..

Good to see youve learnt the de-air procedure. Its the 1st thing we do on slippery ground. Amazing what momentum it can give .

Bazzle

you have earned yourself some boggers mate. next time you'll just power up the hill.

but really, i would have left the car till the next day and came back in another 4wd (friends)

but i know your pain, I've been bogged for 4 days with 2 broken cv's and a broken diff lock.

You poor unlucky sod.

I've had luck using snow chains in hard and slippery conditions. But snow chains aren't something that's carried in Queensland.

no-one got hurt (seriously)

seems to me that you learnt alot, and this will be one of your great life stories when your talking to the grandkids, youl probably add a bit of stuff, like you had to fight off the wild dogs, haul the car out with your bare hands, and blow the tyres back up just with your breath!@

in the end, i got very lost (running water and bucketing rain covered a lot of my tracks, and this process so far had taken hours, the torch was getting low), i was also getting very concerned
after 3 hrs, i decided to turn around, walked 15km back the other way with a dying torch, fell down a ravine, got tangled in thorn bushes and crushed my finger under a tree, broke a bit of another finger off, all the while hearing dogs following me waiting or me to keel over haha, 4 hours later...

fcuk... that...

Vineboy wrote:Most of us have been there done that too some degree.

this is true.

I feel your pain

That was a bloody good read. What an adventure, and mate, if you were as dumb as your beeting yourself up about, you would still be out there
wandering in circles. Or dingo shit

You need to print that into a book and sell it!

Was a good read and we all do this once!

That was the best story I have read in a long time.
I wont flame you cause I felt sorry for ya.
We all learn from our fu<k ups.

Shit happens mate!

Your in one peice and still kicking.

These sorts of F*#^ ups make it all fun.

Interesting read. Good to hear no big damage to oyu or car, mind you thorn in the contact lense is a close call.
I have been in similar situations playing around with myself. Actually in my early days I used to off-road alot by myself in some good terrain. Only info others had was a rough idea of where I was going. And I still go out by myself. Including cruising around the Hi=country in Vic for 2weeks. Gets boring though.
I was lucky I found a car with a pto winch. And before I learnt about this low tyre pressure thing. I had done a couple of 800m winches (do the that with your elec winch in under 3hrs).
Also know of some stinging prickle bushes that leave you skin all tingly.

reminds me of some of my best stories, it'll be a great night to talk about in the future.

Dont feel bad about it. Like someone else said it is bound to happen to all of us at one time.

I will share with you a similar, but luckily faster ending story of mine.

A mate and I were in his Hilux hitting some local tracks one afternoon. It was a "lets check this track for next time out" type thing. Never meant to go very far or get into anything serious in just one vehicle.

Sure enough the 10 minute foray was so much fun we kept going. We get to this dry creek crossing where there was no track. Fallen trees meant that the only way through was a cross camber crossing.

I really did not think it was such a wise place to go one truck and all and said so in no uncertain terms. But at the end of the day we decided to give it a crack.

Down we go into the ravine, through the trough without any hassle, up the other side to the lip of the creek. At this point the vehicle caught sudden traction and lurched to the side. The vehicle slid backwards straight into the creekon about perpendicular to the creeks direction (Across the creek) the truck was stuck front end jamed into one bank tray jammed into the other.

I jumped out and thought fuck me dead this is not good. Being a good 15klms from the closest road and a good 30 klms home and being 6.00pm it was getting dark. No UHF reception no Mobile reception. Damn I was feeling stupid.

I was resigned to the bloody long walk back whem my mate remembered some show he saw as a kid where the guy lifted a vehicle with a long pole.

I was like what the fuck drugs are you on! That is a 2T truck and we are in deep sand. Where in gods name are we going to find a bloody pole out here. But being out of ideas myself I went and found a 30 foot tall half dead tree and proceeded to bring it down. 20 minutes later we had the thing that must have weighed a good 200Kgs down to where the 4wd was and had rolled some big ass rocks down as well. We wedged the tree under the chassis and put the boulders under it. I then climbed monkey style up the tree trunk and hung bouncing up and down off the tip. (about 10 feet clear of the ground) Sure enough with 120kgs of moderately fat bastard at 30 feet from the truck it lifted bit by bit out of the sand bank it was jammed into. Repeating this about 10 times and building the truck up bit by bit with bolders logs and rocks.

We then had the thing loose of the bank but were at a loss as to how to move it more in the direction of the creek so we could get a run at the now fresh track back out.

This time it was my turn for the somewhat crazy idea...

We tied the snatch strap to the tailshaft and the other end to a tree about 10 meters away. (Closest one we could get that was anywhere near solid which meant stretching the strap to reach the last foot or so to tie it off)

He start the truck in 2wd and winches on the snatch strap the truck sideways out.

It was more like snatching the truck sideways as it did not move an inch for about 20 revolutions of the tailshaft and then lept 5 feet sideways.

We undid the snatch and just drove it out. Somewhat still not believing that it had all worked.

By this time it was well dark and we were well rooted. We eventually found our way out and home with a handwinch on the Cristmas list.

Stupid situation to be in yes. Not so stupid ideas of my mate. Sore arms and legs for a week. Good story for life.

Like I said dont feel too bad.

Jimmy