Hi, here is my story:

On Thursday after a hard days work coming home to do even more work for my own business. I received a phone call on my cell. phone, It was one of my friends. He sounded frantic and embarassed when he mentioned that he got his Pathfinder really stuck. I thought "oh boy here we go..." But I offered my assistance and changed my quiet (payfull) evening for a night of hellish torment. I told him over the phone to meet me at my house (it was a 10 minute walk for him). So after a short moment I arrived and greeted my stuck friend.

We then drove to the trail where he has managed to get his truck stuck. It was around seven o'clock and my judgment was sort of impaired from a hell of a stressfull week. At first when I saw his truck, I thought well its not that bad. But man I was so wrong about that one. You see the trail he took had from 2 to 3 feet of mud, not just simple mud but mixed with big rocks you couldn't see and lots of saplings and bushes.

The first thing I did was "scout" the trail and to find a path and an approche plan of some sort to get to his truck. I saw the deep groves and did feel my feet sink in a foot as I got closer to his truck. I looked around and deceided I take a path next to the beaten trail. I got in my wonderfull 1997 F150 XLT 4x4 V6 with 3.08 gears and equipped with Mud tires I took my "planned" approche and made it about 50 to 70 feet but I felt my truck sink and it didn't feel to comfortable. I stopped and opened the door, what did I see? Believe it or not but my truck was being swallowed by an over-bearing mud pit that was deep enough to sink my truck up to the door sill. I thought ****, and tried to reverse. Thankfully my truck got out of it and I almost made it to "dry" land, about 3 or 4 feet to be just! But by doing this proceedure I felt those damn rocks grinding, pulling on God knows what under my truck. Almost making it is the key word, my truck just sank into the (my friends) tire groves. I didn't have much of a choice, I put it into reverse and hoped I could get closer to the land where another truck could pull me out! But 3 or 4 feet, what a **** off!

So know you have 2 complete idiots with 2 trucks deep into this redish-brown crap (mud). I started to get panicky because it was starting to get dark out. My friend and I started to walk back to my house so we can call for help (I had my cell but I didn't have any numbers!) I called my older cousin who has a 1982 3/4 ton chevy 4x4, he refused and ridiculed the thought of taking time off to help out with his truck which still had the plow on it. I then called my other cousin to see if he had any friends with 4x4 trucks but he wasn't home.

So disapointed and tired my friend, and I called a towing service but I had many doubts because he would have to climb a road block (3 feet) to get to us and not to mention the "sink" factor... Fifting minuts later the tow truck stops at my house and picks up the two "stuck" dweebs and we led him to our trucks. Of course he didn't have the resources to get us out, but was nice enough to stay along and think of some plan.

Finaly my luck started to change, we saw a car at the road block and it was some more friends of mine. I asked if they knew anyone with a 4x4, One of them said yeah, my friend has a Jimmy 4.3L 4x4. I immeadiatly lent him my cell phone to call this friend. But after many attempts, he was unreachable. And know my luck got better because the guy with the Jimmy just happened to show up! YES I said outloud and we hooked up my hitch to his tow hook with my 18,000lb rated tow strap. It was a picture book perfect pull! Finaly my truck was free.

Know my luck just got from good to really bad! As I moved my truck out of the way, it made horrible noises and at that point, expensive things were pondering my mind. It sounded really bad, so I retired my truck that night when they asked me to help free the stuck Pathfinder. Now we had a "broken" F150 a Jimmy 4x4 and a really (and I mean) really stuck Pathfinder and bits and pieces of tow ropes to connect the two trucks together. They tried 3 times but the tow line just snaped every time! No one got hurt, we all got out of the way of the 150 to 200 foot rigged line. It was now midnight and my truck was so much on mind and was driving me crazy!

At this point my "Pathfinder" friend said "******* it! I'll wait untill tomarrow and get a bulldozer to free it". I happy about that decision and thanked my friends for their help and drove my saddend freind to my house where his girlfriend came to pick him up.

Know lets see, I still had 3 hours of work to do and my truck was ******ed up! I put my truck on stands and took of a front tire. Oh boy, the disk and calliper was filled with mud and rocks up to an inch big. I took it off, to the best of my effort and took a long shower because I myself sank into the freaking mud up to my belt almost.

After my work and filled the truck with gas I went to sleep at around 2:30 in the morning and I had to get up at six to do even more work.

After that long Friday at my day-job, I noticed that my truck still made some kind of noise, it sounded (and sounds) like an old worn brake pad. So at home I took off my wheels again and tried to clean the calipers again but it didn't stop the noise. So know I'm left wondering if its a joint or something but my boots look great!?! I also spent all afternoon and night cleaning my truck, you know damn mud gets everywhere!

Oh and my friend got his Pathfinder out with a bulldozer of some type! He came to my house with his truck later in the evening.

----------------
Thanks for reading all of this, I just had to vent it out! I hope that *******ing noise is just a small rock stuck in my caliper/disk and not a joint. THIS was the worst experience with my truck and God I hope that noise isn't $$$ serious!!! Any comments?


Steve

------------------
Formerly known as 4byFord

Check out my site: eph1fifty.cjb.net My email: eph1fifty@hotmail.com
1997 F150 4x4 XLT with ORP 4.2L V6 and 5-speed manual.

 

Sounds like the time I sank my 84' F-150 in a swamp!! Playing around in a gravel pit one night with a friend about 30 miles from home, doing about 30mph and all of a sudden the truck was airborne and landed with a big splash in a swamp. Sank up to about seat level. Make a long story short, hitchhiked home, dropped my friend off with my sisters car. Thought hmmm I'll grab a winch and some chain, gotta be a tree near edge of swamp, and I'll winch it out. Drove back up there and couldn't find the damn thing(big gravel pit). Finally said screw it started heading toward the road and I got my sisters car stuck in the sand. Tried for an hour to get that out using everything you can imagine. When the sun started coming up I decided it was time to hit the road and start hitchhiking again!!!! Got a ride into nearest town, waited for tow shop to open, paid them $75 to pull car out, found truck, $150 to pull that out. Later that day I changed the oil in the truck and jump started it,ran great, lots of seaweed on the highway on the way home, never had a problem with it. That day really sucked baaaaad!!! I know where you're coming from eph1fifty!

------------------
98' F-150, Off Road, Short Box, Blue, 4.6, K&N, Auto, Captain Chairs, Dual Exhaust
Alpine CD Player, (2) 10" Rockford Fosgate Subwoofers and a big ol' Arctic Cat
sticker on the rear sliding window!!!!! Soon to be chipped!!!

 

Look at the bright side. You got a good story out of the ordeal.
One of my Muddin' buddy's, back home, dad owns a wrecker service. Use your inagination and think about how stuck you can get as couple of trucks when you "know" you have something big enough to pull it out. I remember a few times we were a little to brave (stupid).

[This message has been edited by Steve #1 (edited 04-29-2000).]

 

I got stuck in my Nissan once and had to walk 5 miles home (thank god I was so close)
Called a tow truck in the morning and he used a TRACTOR to get me out.
(A 4x4 F150 could have done the job)
He was a cool guy and only charged me $50.00.
I think EVERYONE has been stuck at one time or another

 

No good deed goes un-punished.


PS: A friend in need is a pest.



------------------
Don W
97 F150 4X4 XLT, ORP, Tow Package,
CD-Changer, K&N, B&M shift improver,
PIAA fog lights, Weld Rims 17", 265 70LT AT/S, Flowmaster 40 series 3" cat back.
f1504x4.hompeage.com

 

That's quite a story Steve. I hope you weren't in deep enough to let muddy goop into the vent on your axle, that would suck.

------------------
Red '00 Lightning,
Adopted 4/19/00,
PSP Filter,
Track time pending...

 

I just took apart my calipers and it was full of rocks etc... The little metal brackets are bent and I just found out that my pads are worn quite a bit. So this week I will install Raybestos brake pads and maybe new disks. The garage next door will charge me 36 dollars per hour for this job. I don't think mud got into the vents but it took me a lot of time to get rid of it all!

thanks you all for the info and storys

 

eph1fifty: that's quite a story!! Try looking up into your bumpers for loose rocks. Let's hope it's a rock and not something broke.

My husband was headed out of here one morning w/the CAT 18wheeler. He had a load on of 1 426 backhoe and one skid steer. When he went to turn onto the hwy, he turned to sharp and the rear of the tractor trailer didn't make the hwy. Went into the ditch (freshly redug and over 12' deep) Now if he could have gotten that backhoe off the tailer, he could have picked up the rear of the trailer and got himself out but it wasn't to be. He had to call a "big" wreaker to lift him out of the ditch. And in the mean time his cab end is sticking out blocking 2 lanes of early morning, pissed off, got to get to work, drivers!!! That's when the sherifs dept showed up. My son's school bus was also stuck in this traffic along w/most of the other busses. School even ended up having to start late that day. That was not a fun day!!

------------------
2k F250 CC SWB 4x2 6 speed Diesel XLT Super Duty, Woodland Green
Power Mirrors, 3.73 LS, Captains Chairs, ARE tonneau top, rear privacy glass
TT Pkg, Class IV hitch, sliding rear window, running boards, mud flaps
265/75/16 AS OWL tires, am/fm/cassette/cd, rechargable MagLite
Clarion APA 5240 amp, Memphis speakers:Components front, 5x7 rear, 10"sub
SuperChip, Stepshields, Ventshields on windows, rubber bed mat
rugged liner bedliner on tailgate, quick disconnect jumper cables
unaFORDable (decal on tailgate)