Chains will get you in further..and deeper stuck further back.
Know when to turn around.
Techno,
I really do not want to get into a flame war. I have said it before and I will say it again. We all have our own styles. They are based on our experiences which are always going to be different from one another. I would not like this hobby if we all did the same thing with the same lines. I appreciate and even applaud the differences in technique. What I don't appreciate are those that think their way is the only right way, all situations are black and white or the "its my way or the highway" philosophy. That just causes :ak472:.
If we are pulling it out to compare: I have 4Wheeled in Thailand, Australia, Mexico, Hawaii, many places in the lower 48 and grew up learning to go in the back 40 with trucks like a Scout II (that had a clutch with a 1/4" between being engaged and not) in the deep Ozark mountains of Missouri. My first 4X was a 63 Chevy short bed with a granny low gear. Yup, really only a 2WD. I would go out with the K5's and Bronco's and get all kinds of grief from them until they got stuck. Then, one-by-one I would inch my way out to them, hook up and bring them back in. That thing was soooo low geared I could get out, walk up to my friends house, knock on the door, walk back to the truck and stop it before it got to the curb. I learned early that good tires/gear can be better than speed and HP. Knowing when to say when is much better than a fat wallet for most of us. Sounds like the guy you are talking about had not learned these lessons. The last time I was out with Gerdo we were doing Chinamans Wall. I was in the process of setting up my rig, did not have enough recovery gear, recovery points or any spare parts. I backed off. Could I have made it, 90% probably. Was it worth it, not then. A ToyoTech 4Runner broke his CV/Diff on that same run. He was much more prepared. Fast forward: A couple of weekends back I did the Moody Quarry run in under 3Min to the top. That same trip, two 4Runners could not make it past the first hill and one grenaded both his front and rear diff :wtf
ya, not really sure what that is all about either). That same guy backed down the entire trail from that point with no power
. Gotta give him props for that one. It sounds like your guy was not prepared for much at all. So lets look at that:
Stock Truck: Check
Stock Tires: Check
No recovery gear: Check
No experience: Check
No common sense: Check (Keeping the foot on the pedal
)
Lucky to be alive: Check
For that guy to have gotten that stuck at only 5 MPH....... it was going to happen. If he kept his foot in the pedal to get that stuck, chains may have even been dangerous. Here were some of his top probabilities with chains from what you have stated: He could have gotten even more stuck, tried to climb a tree or more possibly over revved the chains past a safe point and had them coming off. That is a mistake people make when they lack experience. Could chains have helped, I was not there, maybe with guidance. It does not sound like he was getting much. BTW: You guys had to know there was snow coming. All of those guys in the pics are wearing High Grade Inclimate Weather gear. It could not have been that big of a surprise
.
Again, not wanting to get into a flame war here. It sounds like you have been doing this for years, you know what works for you and you have a style that meets your needs but your way is not the only way. Neither is mine but it works for me and some others. I like to keep reserves and be able to bring more and more to bare until I either meet the challenge or backoff and come back better prepared. Pushing too hard just gets things broke or people hurt/killed. I really liked watching Gerdo pick his lines (not pushing) and even learned a few things from him. That same day on China Wall, Gerdo just went up like it was nothing, smooth as butter. All of those that made it that day picked the same line. I think we both try to just keep a steady momentum through obstacles and use the least amount of force that gets you through. But that is (at least) how I do it.
Evan is learning his own style. He will gain knowledge from forums like this where he can get many opinions (and they have been good), from time on the trail and even paying too much for a "not gonna do that again" moment. We all have. I just hope he is safe long enough to gain the experience we have.
Lets stop the :redbrick: and understand there is more than one way to run a challenge:thumb3: Evan will have to decide how he wants to run his.
