Epic I Got Stuck and How I Survived Stories

[Nodonutz]

This topic was suggested in another thread, Car Breakdown Kits.... Someone also suggested to add in a lesson learned.

Though these occurred at work, it could have gotten ugly.
First - I had started a new job working for the county running a motorgrader. I had NEVER operated one before and it was pretty much OTJ training - literally. I was told, not shown, what the myriad of levers do and sent out to blade roads. A couple months later we were building up a road that had gone under water. ND had several 'wet years' and flooding was epic. My cohort was dumping dirt/gravel and I was spreading it out. Problem being, had no dozer blade on front to push the dirt, so I had to finesse it. Well, long and short of it 28K pounds of grader on soft dirt on a submerged road with a guy who hasn't a clue..... not a good combo. And the thing is the slough at that point was about 10-12 feet deep. As I started to slide sideways, I pushed the moldboard all the way and it stopped the slide. Can't really see it in the pic, but the rear tires were also sliding like the front tires.

LESSON: Don't let a noob near the controls w/o explaining to him WTF to do. Don't assume he knows the basics. Works on most things that can get someone hurt.

View attachment 35439

 

[Nodonutz]

Story #2 -
Moved from ND from CA. Not used to 'severe' weather conditions. One Friday morning my co-worker took me to Jamestown (50 miles away) to pick up my grader which was in the shop, AGAIN. The NWS was broadcasting that a severe winter storm was rolling in from the west and for folks to get home. We were in South Central ND and the skies were sunny and bright. I figured had enough time to get the grader and get home, about 2.5hrs driving a slow-a$$ grader. I stopped at the shop, briefly and was met by the Commissioner, "Hey can you clear a couple miles of road before you head home?" Clouds were coming, but all was OK. "Sure, boss." And off I went. As I was finishing up, I heard on the radio that Bismarck was essentially shut down due to a blizzard of epic proportions. Bismarck is 100 miles away, and reports of stranded vehicles on I-94, major E-W highway were coming in. I heard on our statewide radio the Highway Patrol was breaking out snowmobiles to check on people, and ambulances that had been called out were ordered back to their stations! FBI clue it was a bad one and heading my way.


As I start heading home (I kept my grader in my barn - nice commute) snowflakes started to fly... I was counting the miles down. Only problem was I was heading right into the storm. Each mile and each minute the snow and wind got worse. 4 miles from home, I was confident I'd get home. However, the switch flipped and total white out. Could barely see the front of my grader. I made a call home and told my wife what was up, and I was going to be late... then my phone beeped at me - low battery. I tried to let the Sheriff know I was stuck in the middle of the highway via the radio. He said stay put, but there wasn't going to be any help coming due to storm.

Every so often there was a break in the blowing snow and I could see the telephone poles and wires. I'd inch forward until they disappeared. Took me 2.5hrs to go a mile or so. It was getting dark, not good. Then I saw a mailbox! My neighbors rental house, so the next one would be theirs, I was close. I was able to call them and explained what was up. They said c'mon in. Took me 20 minutes to go the last 50 yards or so, and I was afraid of hitting their house. Got into the yard - waited 5 more minutes until I could see their porch light, it was that bad. Got inside and was thankful.
The kicker was - I had left my 'emergency kit' at home. I was 'only' going to pick up the grader and get home before the storm hit... So I only had my regular work clothes and boots on, no extra supplies....
In the morning I opened the door to my grader - the cab had a foot of snow inside. It was old and the door seals were shot. If I had been stuck in that snowglobe, it would have been ugly.

LESSON: Put a kit together and CARRY THE DARN THING!!! And listen to the weather guessers, they are right once in a while. Oh, and make sure your cell phone is charged up, and carry a spare charger - throw one in your emergency kit as well.
North Dakota continues to dig; estimated 800 stranded on roadways

 

[Brandon]

Used GPS in a delivery box truck (26'). Guy I was working with swore this thing was great and would take us where we needed to be. It said turn right down a country road so I did. Soon we found out it was not right afterall and we needed to turn around. Found a nice area to turn around where the road only had a ditch on one side. Pulled forward in what must have been a utility parking spot (gravel area) and started to back to make the turn. I applied the brakes when the rear dual on the one side got near the edge so we wouldn't slide in. Sure enough the road gave way to the truck and we slid into the 2-3' deep ditch. Between the frame and the lift gate, the rear wheels were not able to get us going and we had blocked the county road completely.

Not the greatest of stories

 

[Blackhawk2001]

I alluded to this story upthread and I'm not really sure if I've told it here, but in 1977 I was stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington, flying an OH-58 helicopter. We had two training areas; a relatively small one on the military reservation, and a really large one across the Cascades at Yakima, Washington. At that time, we had a few aircraft and the Troop Commander in Yakima. About 1430 I was told to take an OH-58 across the mountains to the Commander, pick up his helicopter (which was due and inspection) and come right back. Good weather, about 1:20 each way (the shortcut through the mountains) and a 30 minute turnaround, and I'd be home just a little late for dinner. Since I lived on Post, I didn't have much with me; my flight suit, survival vest (no jacket - it was summer) and I just happened to have $.26 in my pocket. Got across the mountains, the commander was ticked off that we didn't give him an aircraft with more time on it, and told me to spend the night; I could take the aircraft back in the morning.

So there I was, out in the desert. No sleeping bag (no JACKET!) and it gets cold at night. No money to stay in the BOQ or eat. Borrowed a blanket from one of the Cobra pilots, slept (sort of) in the back seat of my helicopter until morning. Not much fun, but, no sweat, my Platoon Leader was supposed to let my wife know where I'd gone; if I didn't make it back she wouldn't worry too much.

Next day dawned, and the weather had changed for the worse. I preflighted my aircraft and tried to start it - wouldn't start. We happened to have an auxiliary power generator out in the field, so we managed to get the aircraft started, but I wasn't going to be able to shut it down again. Brought a crewchief back with me to the airfield so I could file a flight plan. Realized I was going to have to take the long way home (about a two-hour flight through a lower pass further north), so I refueled, without shutting down, and headed for the mouth of the pass. Just about the time I was getting to the pass, visibility got down to about 1/4 mile and the cloud bottoms were about halfway down the surrounding peaks - no sweat, I could follow the highway. Then I noticed my oil pressure dropping. Ended up making an emergency landing on the median between a highway off-ramp and the highway. Went to the gas station at the top of the ramp. Used my last quarter to try to call my unit and tell them what happened. Ft. Lewis wouldn't accept a collect call. Fortunately, I was able to call my wife - collect - and she contacted my unit, but I got to spend another night in my helicopter, in the rain, WITHOUT a jacket OR a blanket this time. In the morning, someone came out and fixed the helicopter and I flew it back, getting home just about 46 hours after I left.

After that point, I never again left to go across the mountains without a pack containing at least my sleeping bag and some food. It wasn't much later that I started seriously thinking about mountain survival issues, and I've tried to never go anywhere without thinking about what happens if I don't get to my destination.

 

[Nodonutz]

That's a STORY!!! Thank you for your service.

 

[Nodonutz]

My best buddy, TK (RIP) was in the SeaBees. He relayed a story that he was in Australia back in '89, I think, for the 'Kangaroo 2 Games'. It was a military exercise to test the Australian Defensive capabilities. He was told to go someplace with his D9 Cat bulldozer. He said he was bee-bopping along when he decided to take a 'shortcut' across an old dried up lakebed.... you can guess where this is going. He got a couple hundred yards out and started to sink. No prob - he got his winch cable out and wrapped it around a tree. And started backing/pulling. Ripped the tree out.... Hmmmm he thought, maybe I need to wrap it around 2 trees... nope, 3 trees.... NOPE!
About this time other military folks began to show up. He said local news was covering the games began to report on his 'situation'. Some Marines showed up to harass 'the Squid stuck in the mud', as he put it. Then a helo began to circle and landed. He said a few upset looking fellows in fancy uniforms with enough shiny brass to signal the moon, got out. His CO told him to stop the deforestation before getting them all thrown out of Aussieland. They called in a 65-ton tank puller... wouldn't budge and only sank in deeper, and started to pull the puller in as well. He said a few of the Marines were really yukking it up - he told his CO, "Hey the Marines think they're pretty tough, how about throwing a few under the tracks for traction?" Then they got the idea of putting the uprooted trees under the tracks, and viola! He said he lost a weeks pay buying drinks... but he was a local 'hero' as the Yank who was caught yanking his wood... I miss that guy.

 

[rhino]

I got my 2WD Silverado stuck in the mud in my buddy's back yard (twice). The more serious stickage of the two situations took a while to solve. The final solution involved the following combination:

1. Digging away some of the mud to put boards in front of the tires to get some traction
2. A small GM suv with a tow rope, buddy driving
3. Me pushing the truck
4. His mom driving my truck

 

[Tactically Fat]

I got my 2WD Silverado stuck in the mud in my buddy's back yard (twice). The more serious stickage of the two situations took a while to solve. The final solution involved the following combination:

1. Digging away some of the mud to put boards in front of the tires to get some traction
2. A small GM suv with a tow rope, buddy driving
3. Me pushing the truck
4. His mom driving my truck

Please tell me this involved Lovemachine...

 

[rhino]

Please tell me this involved Lovemachine...

I said "buddy," not "bullying victim."

 

[daddyusmaximus]

My worst stuck was at Ft Hood. It was 1984. We had just been issued our first M1 tanks. So here we are out playing the Russians. We had already been evaluated, and it was our turn to be the bad guy and attack another unit being evaluated. Being the Russians, we attack en masse. We line up, and come charging through the smoke. My loader (I was gunner) was sitting this one out, and we had a German observer riding in the loader seat. Of course we couldn't see through the smoke, so it was a surprise when the tank rocked and water started coming in around the mantlet and turret ring. As my legs got soaked I thought to myself that this was a pretty deep hole. Then, the unthinkable, water coming in through the commander's hatch hitting me on the back of the neck with a very strong force. We were completely under water. Traveling about 45mph through the smoke, we had skipped out into a pond and sunk the tank. My left knee slammed into the controls, I still have the scar. My TC tried to get out and was sucked back in by the rushing water. He was pretty much kicking at my head as he tried to climb out. I ended up having to wait for him to get out first. As the water came up to the top of the turret I took a deep breath, pushed my TC up and out, and climbed out behind him.

There we were, the three of us, standing on the roof of the turret, knee deep in muddy water. Then I realized, NO DRIVER! Rich wasn't out, and the gun tube was directly over the driver's hatch. I had to take a breath and go back into the turret, manually crank the tube to the right. I came up for air and went back in. By the time I came up for air the second time Rich was standing on the front slope, smiling. The rest of the unit had continued on through the smoke to make the attack so even though we were the platoon leader's tank, it took a few minutes to notice we were missing. Of course the radios were down in the tank so there was no calling for help. We just had to wait for the smoke to dissipate. At first we just stood there. then we decided to swim back to dry land. There was a MA Duece barrel and two radio antennas sticking out of the water.

We were first spotted by the medic track... but their radio was out.... no help coming. We had seen some engineers doing some trailing a while back, and I was sent out to find them... on foot. Took a long time to locate them, but I did. OK, probably less than a half hour, but it sucks walking around soaked to the bone. I got to ride back with them on one of their dozers while a second followed. By the time we got back the little water hole was surrounded by other tanks and tracks. The M88 was out on another recovery, but the dozers, working together, managed to pull the tank out. Yeah, guess who got volunteered to dive in and hook up the cables to the back of the tank...

 

[Nodonutz]

Holy Smokes! I guess that's why the NAVY doesn't have tanks. Thank you for your service.

 

[WETSU]

I've been stuck more times than I can remember, but I've pushed or pulled a lot more out than that.

When I was a brand new Jeep owner I got my Cherokee stuck in a flooded field. Got it stuck in 4x4, and there is no 6x6 to go to after that. I ended up stuffing wads of dead grass and reeds under the wheels and crawling out inch by inch.

I spent 8 hours one night sitting on a 3 mile section of Interstate 40 in Tennessee a couple winters ago. Black ice, slide offs, heavy snow and not enough plow trucks was a bad recipe for forward movement. Eventually the highway became a parking lot. I was coming from teaching a weekend survival class so I had all my stuff (BOB, sleeping bag, water, some Clif Bars, heat, light etc). I had also filled my tank AND of course purchased a 24 ounce coffee, which would come back to haunt me in an hour or so. Otherwise it was a quiet evening spent in the dark with my fellow stranded motorists. I'd **** in an empty water bottle, eat a little, listen to Christmas songs on XM, read some chapters in the ESI PSD textbook on my laptop, sleep until it was time to pull forward another 8 feet. Rinse, repeat...

 

[IndyGunworks]

My worst stuck was at Ft Hood. It was 1984. We had just been issued our first M1 tanks. So here we are out playing the Russians. We had already been evaluated, and it was our turn to be the bad guy and attack another unit being evaluated. Being the Russians, we attack en masse. We line up, and come charging through the smoke. My loader (I was gunner) was sitting this one out, and we had a German observer riding in the loader seat. Of course we couldn't see through the smoke, so it was a surprise when the tank rocked and water started coming in around the mantlet and turret ring. As my legs got soaked I thought to myself that this was a pretty deep hole. Then, the unthinkable, water coming in through the commander's hatch hitting me on the back of the neck with a very strong force. We were completely under water. Traveling about 45mph through the smoke, we had skipped out into a pond and sunk the tank. My left knee slammed into the controls, I still have the scar. My TC tried to get out and was sucked back in by the rushing water. He was pretty much kicking at my head as he tried to climb out. I ended up having to wait for him to get out first. As the water came up to the top of the turret I took a deep breath, pushed my TC up and out, and climbed out behind him.

There we were, the three of us, standing on the roof of the turret, knee deep in muddy water. Then I realized, NO DRIVER! Rich wasn't out, and the gun tube was directly over the driver's hatch. I had to take a breath and go back into the turret, manually crank the tube to the right. I came up for air and went back in. By the time I came up for air the second time Rich was standing on the front slope, smiling. The rest of the unit had continued on through the smoke to make the attack so even though we were the platoon leader's tank, it took a few minutes to notice we were missing. Of course the radios were down in the tank so there was no calling for help. We just had to wait for the smoke to dissipate. At first we just stood there. then we decided to swim back to dry land. There was a MA Duece barrel and two radio antennas sticking out of the water.

We were first spotted by the medic track... but their radio was out.... no help coming. We had seen some engineers doing some trailing a while back, and I was sent out to find them... on foot. Took a long time to locate them, but I did. OK, probably less than a half hour, but it sucks walking around soaked to the bone. I got to ride back with them on one of their dozers while a second followed. By the time we got back the little water hole was surrounded by other tanks and tracks. The M88 was out on another recovery, but the dozers, working together, managed to pull the tank out. Yeah, guess who got volunteered to dive in and hook up the cables to the back of the tank...

and THAT is why we are all issues tear away body armor now. No quickly getting out of hatch like that in full body armor that weights 40 pounds and sinks.

 

[tocaman]

February 19th 2007: The last time I didn't wear my seatbelt. Heading to work after spending the day wrenching on the 4Runner. Fresh fluids all around - oil, antifreeze, brake, tranny, rear diff. - everything. Balanced and rotated the BFG All-Terrains and wired up a set of bad-a** PIAA fog lights and an oil pressure gauge. It's good to have a FIL with a lift, 50x40ft garage/shop and 3 of every tool you'll ever need (he may have a slight compulsive acquisition problem, but that's for a different conversation).

Traveling west along 126th St. (HamCo) towards Hoosier Rd. right about the speed limit - no need to rush, I was going to work after all. Comfortably in front of me was a dark blue Tahoe. I may have been fiddling with the radio or lighting a smoke when I looked up to see the east end of that Tahoe getting real close, real quick. She was trying to turn left onto Hoosier Rd., with no turn signal, the only indication she was braking was my acute spacial awareness and 1/2 a 3rd brake light. I can attest to the anecdotes of time slowing during extreme duress, as what was probably 3-5 seconds seemed like minutes. Quick peek to the left reveals a white SUV coming my way, so I do the only thing I could - head for the ditch.

I'd like to say my awesome driving skills allowed me to thread it between the street sign and telephone pole guy wire, but I'll side with modesty and acknowledge I was very, very lucky. The landing - I'd describe it more like a flop - was surprisingly soft, as the snow slowed my progress considerably and she turned over just as we were stopping. The 'oh *****' handle did its job keeping me somewhat in the driver's area, while the change and pens in the center console weren't as fortunate. I pop out out the driver's window, probably wondering why I don't have to clean out my drawers, and miss the perfect opportunity to stand on the door, lift my arms above my head and yell "Ta-da". Fishers PD rolled up a few minutes later as I was on the phone with AAA, trying to explain to the lady I'm not necessarily blocking traffic, but the people stopping to gawk are, and it would be a good idea to expedite my extraction.

I'd like to conclude this story saying I'm still driving it, but alas, somewhere between the adrenaline dump and misplaced machismo, as soon as she was back on 4 wheels, I thought "She'll start right up...", as I reached into the driver's door and cranked the engine. WHUMP-KABANG... and nothing. I spent the next 2 months pulling heads, checking pistons, lapping valves, ordering a new camshaft... all for nothing. Get her back together and she doesn't want to run. Turned over all day, didn't want to catch. I eventually lost interest, as a new, faster, sexier love of my life had entered - a 'low mileage' '97 Volvo 850R wagon... but that story is for the "Epic Vehicular Money Pit and My Marriage Survived" thread.



-

 

[Thor]

tocaman, I had a Bronco II end up in that same position just facing the other way. It was raining pretty hard and a semi was passing me on the left when it shed a retread. The retread went under my front tire on the drivers side and yanked that little short wheel based box sideways so I was now going down the road looking at the side of the trailer. Clutch in it moved forward just enough to bump the trailer and start moving backward off the road. In short order I was trying to slow down while going down hill backwards. I remained upright until I hit a log at the bottom of the ravine and flipped on my side. Mine started right up after I got it on the sneakers again.

 

[Thor]

My worst stuck was at Ft Hood. It was 1984. We had just been issued our first M1 tanks.

You tread head!

One time we were on maneuvers at Ft Carson (Iron Tigers) when one of our new LTs thought it would be a GREAT idea to go up this ravine to get a better looksee. He threw both treads on the M60 to the inside. So, he hops down and leaves me to recover his tank while he takes mine. Many fine words were said.

It took an M88 with a it's winch played all the way out and all the recovery cables from 3 tanks to even reach where it was stuck. Then we had to break the track on both sides and winch out the tank and both tracks separately then put it all back together. Many more fine words were said.

And that's not even the top three for worst stuck...there was this time we shut down all the traffic on the Rhine with three tanks and a mobile assault bridge...there's something missing here...these stories really need a bar to lean on.

 

[K_W]

My worst stuck was at Ft Hood. It was 1984. We had just been issued our first M1 tanks.

Not many people can say they've totaled a tank...

My story...

My wife's family has a cottage on the north shore of Lake Michigan in the UP of Michigan. We have some big kid toys to play with up there like an ATV, a motorized inflatable dingy, a little hammock catamaran sail boat, and a two man sit-on kayak.

One year while we were up there for my the grand-in-laws anniversary, my father in law repaired a broken piece on the sail boat, his favorite toy, and when the wind changed to a good stiff breeze from the north straight out over the water he went out on a "test sail" planning to stick close to shore. My job was to stay at the beach with the dingy and pull him in if it broke again. He started going out further and further with each pass, so I checked the gas again (1/8 tank) fired up the dingy and skipped out over the ~1ft waves to meet him about a 1/4 mile from shore and told him "If you go out too far, and break again, I won't have enough gas to tow you back." After we talked, he headed off west and I turned back to shore.

Well the dingy refused to plane and instead labored along with it's nose in the air, splashing water allover the back-end, so I turned forward, leaned as far forward as I could and moved the gas tank to between my feet. It helped a bit, until the engine quit...

I dropped anchor, waited for it to go taught, noted my position and then ran through all the checks, plenty of gas, no kinks, kill switch in place, didn't hit bottom, spark plug attached, ect... after all the checks were done and I had tried in vain to restart the engine, the waves had reached 1.5 ft and I was no longer where I was... The anchor line was near vertical and dragging and I had been pushed back to where I had started and was heading for rocks. I ran through all checks again but could only get the motor to cough. I pulled anchor and tried paddling, but with a head wind and no oar chocks, I made negative progress... So here I am, on a leaky inflatable dingy 1/3 mile off the shore of a Great Lake in the late afternoon with a stiff headwind from the shore a dead engine and no cell phone. I pulled anchor and drifted out a little further to where I knew there would be shallower water on the shore side of the rocks, then dropped anchor and waited.

After about 15 minuets of contemplating my situation and my own mortality the family realized something was up and two of them jumped on the sit on kayak and paddled out. After what seemed like forever, they reached my dingy. After more attempts to start the motor, we decided that the two man kayak could fight the wind and we tied off the dingy to the back of the kayak. After 20+ minuets of hard paddling we reached the shore. EDIT: About that time my father-in-law returned on the sailboat.

I was the butt of all jokes the rest of the trip.

The following year I went over the dingy and found a busted o-ring in the fuel line connector I didn't see or smell because of everything being wet and the leak being downwind of me, and because of the way the connector clipped to the motor, the leaking fuel ran down behind a plastic cowl and into the water so I never saw the fuel. After replacing the connector and cutting some bad line out and re-clamping it, the motor ran like new. It must have broke when I moved the tank.

 

[Tactically Fat]

My story...

And...your father-in-law was lost, I presume?

 

[K_W]

And...your father-in-law was lost, I presume?

He sailed back in as we were coming ashore.

This is the same problem with the connector I had... but ours ran good until it didn't, then it would not prime.
[video=youtube;FGyl6fpgwHU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGyl6fpgwHU[/video]

 

[Blackhawk2001]

I narrowly missed being stuck in Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades one Thanksgiving Eve when we were traveling from Tacoma to Spokane to have Thanksgiving with friends. At the time we had a Jeep J10 4WD pickup. It had been raining heavily on the west side of the Cascades and that meant it had been snowing heavily in the passes. We were required by the highway patrol to put on tire chains (even though we were in a 4WD vehicle - and I was to become glad we had done so). At any rate, we were traveling up the pass at about 40 mph in fairly heavy traffic, when the car ahead of me suddenly nosed into the snow in the median. Of course I immediately responded with "Oh S***!", then checked my side mirror, shifted into 4WD (the most smoothly it had ever shifted) and changed into the right lane. The car behind me went into the snow behind the car that had been ahead of me. Then we drove another five hours to Spokane, having to stop about every 15 minutes to chip the ice off the windshield and wipers. We ended up with about 2 inches of ice on every protruding surface of the truck. Just about wore out a rosary, but we made it. This was after my previous adventure in Snoqualmie Pass, so we were well equipped with sleeping bags, water, & snacks - but I was glad we didn't have to use them.