Monday, July 15th, 2024, at 7:40 a.m. (ET), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Pennsylvania. The requester, Declan Clugston, submitted the following information: “2 cars stuck down trail on property. We need a vehicle with a winch to remove. Tow companies wont help / I’m with the vehicle.”
David Mrak organized the request, contacted the requester, and verified the GPS location and situation before sending the request to local volunteers within a 45-mile radius.
By 8:20 a.m., the request was submitted to volunteers; no more than 10 minutes later, we had Jerry Beckett taking over the recovery.
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By 9:11 p.m., he updated our lobby, he was able to get both vehicles out using his winch and without damaging any vehicles in the process.
We later followed up with him and gathered a few photos and a quick note about the recovery.
From Jerry:
There was a two-wheel drive pickup truck that was backed down over a log. He pulled out quickly and easily.
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Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the truck the car was swamped pretty good but I put a soft shackle around the lower control arm cuz there was nowhere else to hook up to it and winched him back on to a little bit more solid ground got them turned around and hooked a toe strap up and pulled him the rest of the way out he was a good 8th mile down in the swampy area.
I spent 40 mins doing the recovery and a total of 3 hours round trip in just driving.
We are always looking to increase the presence of volunteers in areas like Pennsylvania; if you would like to receive a text message when we get a request near you, create your account here: offroadportal.org/signup (offroad recovery in Pennsylvania)
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