Deuce Recovery from Palm Bay Drainage Ditch

[aboonski]

What a day! Lavarok and I assisted in the recovery of a fellow member's winch truck from a local drainage canal which proved to be anything but simple. I'll post a link to Part 2 of the three videos that I made during the process of getting the truck topside again. I think we should have lowered the air pressure to 15 psi for all of the tires which would have given the truck a lot more traction. I have heard this is what has to be done when driving in sand or mud. Lavarok had some problems with his winch - the driveshaft was turning but the drum was not. It would pay out cable but would not reel the cable in. I am thinking ring gear problems but may be wrong.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2mRxSmxt40[/media]

 

[fuzzytoaster]

I smell a story to tell..

 

[eldgenb]

cool recovery, its usually bad ju ju to pull out a vehicle in reverse but glad nothing broke, cool video.

 

[Recovry4x4]

You guys have all the fun! I would have driven the 2 hours (3 by deuce) to help if I weren't working.

 

[Bill W]

man that Fla muck ( marel?) is worse then our Ga clay

 

[clinto]

1. Wow, he was really stuck
2. Thanks for posting

 

[renovate7]

Boldly going where no Deuce has gone before?

 

[aboonski]

KENNY!!!!!!

You were nice enough to lend Greg the towing strap which we did not use in the recovery. The winch cable did all the work even though the winch quit working right when the pulling started. I would have taken my deuce but I have brake and radiator issues at present. If we would have had two winch trucks out there Greg probably would not have had to do all that digging. Now we have to find out what went wrong with Ian's winch. Could it have something to do with the angle that the cable was drawn to? Thanks to the other members who posted to this thread. This was a learning experience for all of us who had never done this before.

 

[boostedagain]

here are my pictures from yesterday, BTW Its DJ with the white gmc 6.5td

vids....

 

[wldrbob]

did you check the shear pin? and its not a good idea to pull with the truck using the winch cable and winch as your pull point . even though i have done it myself .

 

[jwaller]

my question is who in the world thought they could drive a deuce thru that?

 

[boostedagain]

What happened was, he was cruising around on xmas, had his nephews in the truck, duece got a little too close to the edge and the driver front slid off the bank a little bit, so rather then put his nephews in and kind of danger, he turned into it and thats where he ended up. Alot of the area was decently hard pack, but still found the soft part of the canal...

 

[lavarok]

What happened was, he was cruising around on xmas, had his nephews in the truck, duece got a little too close to the edge and the driver front slid off the bank a little bit, so rather then put his nephews in and kind of danger, he turned into it and thats where he ended up. Alot of the area was decently hard pack, but still found the soft part of the canal...

Welcome to SS DJ. I thought the same thing but Greg admitted he drove into the ditch on purpose thinking he could get back up and out. "If your gonna play...", as quoted by Greg!

We can laugh about it now since the the truck is out. My deuce almost slid down when the job was complete and leaving the area. The embankment started to give way.

As for my winch, I know it was not a great idea to pull the truck with the winch as a pull point. However, there were not many options at the time. The last pull we could have used a recovery strap, but before that the truck was well past the length of any strap or chain in our arsenal. Hopefully the shear pin is the only thing messed up. I was planning to move my winch to my dropside, so now it gives me a good reason to do a rebuild prior.

 

[lavarok]

Here is DJ's gallery link for better viewing of his photos.

duece and fires pictures by BoostedAgain - Photobucket

 

[AceHigh]

I love the Golden Corral in Palm Bay! Sure miss Florida though.

Thanks for sharing the experience. Good photo coverage for sure.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Wished Greg would have asked for more stuff. I have a 40' cable and another 120' of straps that can be used for towing, just not snatching. I also have snatch blocks!

 

[lavarok]

Wished Greg would have asked for more stuff. I have a 40' cable and another 120' of straps that can be used for towing, just not snatching. I also have snatch blocks!

No worries Kenny. Like I said, good reason to do a rebuild on my winch.

Like the old saying, "Alls well that ends well".

 

[aboonski]

Boostedagain, those are awesome photos! I wish they could have been videos to show the action as Greg's truck was pulled down the canal. It was great to see photos taken from the opposite side of the ditch. Lavarok will be proud!

 

[lavarok]

Here are boostedagain's videos embedded.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q41iCa8aVHI[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1OXynoJr1s[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIyWHmHkVzI[/media]

 

[A059FMJ5.56MM]

Ok great vids and pics, good story and lessons learned. So note to self get a very strong tow strapp and make it long. no longer., longer than that even.