i bit off a little more than i could chew with this one, and i'm not proud of it, but here we go...

so yesterday, her majesty's range rover and Japanese ally were forcefully defeated with the full force of mother nature. me and chris thought it would be a fun day to get our trucks muddy and dirty on the gravel and b level roads we were on a few days ago. sure enough, we were having a blast and making one hell of a mess with our two SUVs.

after our first run up and down a hill on the first b level road we stopped to take a look at the mess that we've made and discuss our next strategy.



this should have been where we turned around and headed back to the gravel road. the rain picked up, and got heavier and didn't show any signs of letting up, and within minutes the road became a swamp and my old all-seasons just couldn't fling the mud quickly enough and she caught one hell of a deep rut.



a lot of water is coming down the hill right for the range rover, and with her hefty two tons she's starting to sink, fast. chris's pathfinder comes to the rescue...




and he just cannot get traction, and the chain we had on board was just not long enough for him to pull me out from more stable ground. by now, my entire driver's side is submerged up past the wheels and past the floor.




we call in reinforcements, and alek springs into action with his range rover, bringing us better ropes to get me us out of the ditch and into the field. chris takes the pathfinder back up the road to meet alek. the pathfinder also finds a rut and starts to head down the ditch into the river. he stops only by getting high centered, pointed straight for the water and he is also at this point completely ****ed.

by this time alek has arrived...

he doesn't make it more than 30 feet past the stop sign before he's up to his front axle and is also stuck.

so here we are, pitch black, pouring rain and now all 3 vehicles are disabled. course not one of the 4 people that drove by offered to help or give us a lift to civilization since they were all going to the bar, so we end up strapping alek's rover with all the ropes that we had to the stop sign to try to ratchet it out by hand. after 40 minutes, two country boys turn up in their f-150 and are gracious enough to pull the vitesse back to solid(ish) ground.



the guys said they would be more than happy to come out the next morning to get the pathfinder and my rover out of the mud.

this morning, this is what we were left with:




it took us about two hours, but the guys that helped us out the night before eventually got us tugged out of the mud, relatively unscathed.




chris somehow lost his bump stop, and i only further broke my already-broken front bumper while climbing the vertical 2 foot embankment to get out of the mud. we ended up cutting across the fields to avoid getting stuck in the mud further, and eventually made it out and headed back home and to the car wash.




lesson? never again in the rain, and i need much more aggressive tires. i should have known better in the first place to get in as deep as i did, no matter how capable the range might be, it does have limits...esp in mud with ****ty all season tires.

 

M/T's and lockers and you will be pulling people out of that field blindfolded.

 

That looks fun, except for the getting stuck part, better tires would have helped alot.

 

Reminds me of the time I was running my SFC to a meeting...He was running late and I took a back road into the BSA...When I seen the size of the ruts ahead, I stopped, which was followed by a "get moving" so I did...there the Humvee sat, tires spinning, resting on the belly. He had to walk, in the rain, to his meeting and of course he was late. I did get pulled out about an hour later or so, but all in all it was fun.

 

yeah i wouldn't say it wasn't all in good fun to a certain extent but yeah better tires would have made one hell of a difference -- what i'm riding on now is just crap.

so i'll be replacing those this spring, they should do just fine for snow in the city and highway, and i'll be looking for a new bumper cover and fog lights to get its face looking proper again.

 

The tires I have now are the same. They are ok in dirt and sand, but mud is like ice

 

Hahaha what a night! Wild stuff! But it looks like you all were having a great time, that's what it's all about fellow Roverer. Aggressive tires are now on your Christmas list I bet

Great pictures, those Ford hicks know how to mud, that's for sure

Lol, I thought it was hilarious, "Here it was we're left with the next morning..." The pictures showing complete carnage, lol

 

Alek, I am glad I didn't go... Well it looks fun but..... MAYBE one of us needs to buy a rover that is a dedicated recovery rover??? lol

 

^^ funny your should say that... got a line on an 02 RR already fitted with an expedition kit plates and winches and light covers and all... im workin with the guy on pricing so we will see what happens...

 

Looks like fun! Never been off road with my disco; I have yet to test out the level b service road next to my place with it.