One lucky kid.

[NM_Shooter]

I have a major arroyo behind my house that drains a large portion of the town to the west.  It is a soil arroyo, and does not have concrete until near the Rio Grande.  I was going into town tonight and just as getting in my garage from my house heard someone yelling at me.  A kid, covered in mud was standing on my neighbor's courtyard wall, asking if I had a tow strap and could pull him out of the mud.  He said he had no money for a tow truck and was worried the runoff was going to total his truck.

I drove over to check him out, and another neighbor was already there looking at the problem.  This kid had sunk the right side of the truck frame deep, and plowed it up against the side of the soil arroyo slope, a 45deg incline that was 4 feet high.  He was panicking, as a thunder storm was visible to the west, and the arroyo was known to flash.  (Don this is the Harvey-Jones channel).

We tried with the tow strap, and my F250 had no luck.  I was slipping in the sand above the arroyo and could not grip.  I went back to my garage for my winch, and hooked up for its inaugural pull.  I should have just tried that first.  I have a Superwinch EPI9k, and it did not even come close to stalling.... it slowed down just a bit but it pulled him out and up the bank just fine. 

Not even 5 minutes later the storm broke open and it started to rain.  The kid told me that he had just bought the truck today, and wanted to try 4-wheeling. 

I felt I earned the right to lecture him a bit and mentioned three things:

1)  Don't do this again, I won't pull you out.  Be smarter about using your truck.
2)  Evaluate your friends.  (There were 5 other kids there in another 4X4 that split and left him stuck alone.
3)  If you ever get the chance, help some poor slob out.

All in all it was a fun night, all things considered.  I got to try out my new winch, and lecture some strange kid.  I wish I had taken a trophy picture of the truck while stuck. 

Beats watching the TV.   

[glenn kangiser]

I've almost been there - both ends.  Great job, Frank.  the kid will always think of what you did for him and told him for likely - the rest of his life.

[MountainDon]

Arroyos can be nasty places around here this time of year.

Good that you got to 'play' with the winch. Good you were able to help him out. ... I've used my winch(es) more for other folks than myself over the years.

Driving down from the Jemez this evening there was lots of red dirt washed over highway 4 in all the usual places.


Q: does yours have the steel or the synthetic cable?

I have a story about being in a arroyo during a cloudburst/flood, but no time for it right now.   

[muldoon]

Fun in the mud beats TV any day.  Helping someone out is even better.  Playing with a new toy while doing the above is like a clean sweep. 

I took my wife fishing last year and was going to meet up with some other friends at a spot we go to a bit.  Good crappy and bass spot.  Anyway, I was coming down the dirt road and it had been raining that week so it was muddy.  Since my wife was with me and that's a rarity I decided I was not going to drive through the ruts like I normally do so she would see how careful I was.  I drove around them on the left hand side that.. that side has a slope towards the creek about 45 degree for 50 feet or so. 

Everything was fine until the ridge gave way and my truck slid right down the slope sideways.  I got to leave my wife sitting in the truck (which now perched at a 45 degree angle) while I went to find my friends for help. 

Didn't catch anything that day, but someone did take a picture of my misery and it became a fine label for a beer. 

http://www.loopy.org/800-600-emptystringer.jpg

i still like mud. 

[NM_Shooter]

I am too much of a Luddite to go with the synthetic cable... I went with the traditional steel cable as I felt more confident I could look at that and evaluate it for wear. 

The winch came with a pulley block, which I thought was pretty nice.  I picked the superwinch because it advertised less current draw than other units without sacraficing too much line speed, and becuase one of the offroad magazines named it best buy.  (or was that best-advertiser?  I can't remember  )

Anyway, my 7000lb truck made a nice anchor all by itself, and after a 45 second pull, the winch was not warm.  I'm actually glad I got to try it out on someone else, as I've been sweating the fact that this winch is  a bit "light" as recommended by the experts.  They say to pick a winch that has a capacity of 1.5X the weight of your vehicle.  I heard the winch slow down a tad last night, and judging from the groans I heard from the other truck I suspect there was a decent load on it. 

Since I am not planning on scrambling up the Rubicon and dangling my F250 by its bumper, I thought that this would do just fine.  I suspect that the main use for this winch will be to unstick me from the soup going to my property (and possibly saving some knucklehead kid from time to time too).