Got to do Jeep stuff last weekend, learned valuable lessons

Foxhound67

Fix it till it's broken
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2022
Messages
226
Location
Utah
So I was finally able to take my Jeep off road in some Utah/Colorado/New Mexico snow.....and got stuck. I learned a lot from that experience.
1. I need lockers, spinning one wheel an axle sucked.
2. Thank the lord I had recovery gear with me. My winch, traction boards, and shovel were all used to get me out (took ~7 hours).
3. It's a lot of fun, even when stuff goes wrong.
With all that said, I ordered some additional recovery gear to fill the gaps in my kit, and a lunchbox is going up front when I get back from my work trip next week. Also my power steering pump gave up on the 13 hour drive back, don't think it liked the constant high RPMs from climbing over the rockies. And overdrive is useless. Gears needed. Heres some pics though!
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Look at the mess I got myself in. Buried it up to the frame. Snow was about 18 inches deep or more in places, some was hard enough to walk/drive on, aka how I got in here, other spots was pure powder, aka how I got in this mess. Driving along happy as could be, then SINK.
IMG_20230217_103123_03~2.jpg


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Tires don't look like they're aired down?
Not to mention you might need a more aggressive tread to play in the deep stuff.

Facts. I wasn't intending to go anywhere this deep. Snow only appeared to be maybe 8-10 inches at most before I sunk.
The biggest lesson that should be learned from something like that is to never wheel alone.

Also yes. I was meeting a friend nearby before continuing on together, he showed up eventually.
He wasn't wheeling, he was overlanding. ;)
Didn't you see the tent?

To misquote Brick from Anchorman: I love tent.
 
The biggest lesson that should be learned from something like that is to never wheel alone.

Agree with this. Especially in snow. Also agree that those tires don't look like the best choice for snow.

At least it looks like you had a tent up top. Sounds like you came close to sleeping in it. You'll never forget your first trip though.
 
Agree with this. Especially in snow. Also agree that those tires don't look like the best choice for snow.

At least it looks like you had a tent up top. Sounds like you came close to sleeping in it. You'll never forget your first trip though.

I was planning to sleep in it before I spent all night shoveling lol. The tires do okay-ish in snow, but 100% are not meant for anything that deep. When the time comes to step up to 33s or 35s (31x10.5x15 now) I'll be getting a better tire than what the PO put on. This trip wasn't dedicated to any kind of offroad adventure, was going to Taos for snowboarding, then I hit 10,000' elevation and Colorado had other ideas lol. I did have a blast though!
 
Oh, and for anyone else who's new like me reads this and hears the phrase "lockers before lights" and thinks to themself "but lights look so cool!" Look at my front bumper. Sweet, sweet lights. Know what they did? Allowed me to see how screwed I was without lockers. Don't be like me. Do it right.
 
Oh, and for anyone else who's new like me reads this and hears the phrase "lockers before lights" and thinks to themself "but lights look so cool!" Look at my front bumper. Sweet, sweet lights. Know what they did? Allowed me to see how screwed I was without lockers. Don't be like me. Do it right.

I've got front and rears, still get stuck in Colorado snow. Winch and a buddy tend to be best solutions. As people said, airing down is key. It gives you a bigger foot print kind of like a snow shoe. Buried myself deeper than that recently. Luckily my girlfriend has strong shovel muscles and knows when to hold the "I told you so" lol
 
I had to drive for 6 hours in 32"+ of unplowed snow (my job) a few years back. Stop and go driving all the way. Aired down MT tires and lockers helped me make it through. I got stuck many times but got out within a few minutes without any help or additional equipment. This was at 1am with no other people or cars around. It was fun until it wasn't.
 
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The biggest lesson that should be learned from something like that is to never wheel alone.

I get your concern for wheeling alone, but if properly equipped and know what you are getting yourself into, I wouldn’t use the term “never”.

To me that mindset is a little extreme, shit happens all the time, I would rather do what I enjoy then hide from all possible forms of danger.

There are far worse things people do alone, just driving to the grocery store alone you could die.

Wheeling alone, shit can break. You might have to sleep overnight… but at least someone staring at their phone won’t plow into at 60mph.

My 2 cents, just know the consequences….
 
Going offroad to get to that remote mine you're working at, to get to your cabin, to get to the transmission tower you're working on, etc. is fine for when you're alone. Something like those is just something that has to be done.

But in my strongest possible personal opinion, going offroad strictly for fun... especially when the temperature conditions are literally freezing as above... is just not a smart decision to do on your own. Fall off something and break your leg or otherwise get seriously injured and it becomes an emergency situation you may just not survive. And in remote offroad areas, cell phone coverage is hit or miss. Where I wheel I seldom have any cell coverage. Which is just one big reason I won't wheel alone. If I got seriously hurt, and shit does happens, and my cellphone was inoperative, I'd be in a world of hurt.

Which is why I will still always recommend never wheeling alone no matter what anyone else's opinion might be. At least if there's no real purpose to the need to go offroad other than fun or to test something out.
 
It’s happened more than once… and she’s still around. It’s not the perfect person, it’s the perfect person that can put up with your shit

I’m on the fourth that thought that they could put up with my shit… The last three took a while to figure out they couldn’t, and the current one is starting to figure it out now… 😂