Getting Stuck (and Unstuck)
Following Silver Fox‘s tales of getting stuck in the mud, reminds me again of my time doing fieldwork in the Atacama Desert and getting a jeep stuck. On the other occasion we managed to get a jeep stuck it was in one of the few rivers in the place and at about 3500m altitude when we had been visiting one of the sulphur mines in the ‘foothills’ of the Andes above the Salar de Atacama. This time we had two 4x4s and it was the other one that managed to get bogged down to the axles in the stream bed when trying to cross it.
Although we had two vehicles we had no tow rope. We did, however, have a tyre which had burst a few days earlier and replaced with a spare. We burnt this and then braided the steel reinforcing wire into a very short tow bar. It was too short, however, to join the two tow balls on the jeeps back to back as one was low down, and the other higher.
We then took the two vehicle jacks. We then jacked the back of the sunken vehicle up as far as we could, placed a large rock next to the first jack, placed the second jack on it and raised the back up further. Then two large rocks were placed next to the second jack and the process repeated. Rocks were also placed under the wheels to stop the whole lot sinking back down as everything was on softish sand.
It was quite a sandy area generally and suitable rocks had to be lugged a considerable distance, not easy at that elevation. Eventually we managed to get the tow balls level and with much heaving and spinning of wheels eventually got the jeep out. That was the only time I got queezy from altitude sickness on the whole trip, with all that exertion, despite going up to nearly 6000m in Bolivia.
Thinking of using the metal inside the tires is a really good idea. I have never thought of that before. Copper wire can work for towing, but you need lots of it since it stretches so much – and it’s rare that any happens to be lying around, except one time…
So many good stories, eh?
[...] even if at the minute it is just down the road. In my top five I would have to include the Atacama Desert of Chile, Iceland, Colorado and the Alps but at number one has to be the Spanish [...]