Monday, February 9th, 2026, at 9:29 a.m. (PT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Oregon. The requester, Douglas Riehl, submitted the following information: “U-Haul truck – 26 footer. Stuck in the mud. Residential property. Maybe not the best resource to utilize because this would ant off road but I was searching online and your site popped up / I’m with the vehicle”
Our administrator, Al Fontan, contacted the requester and verified the contact information provided, GPS location, and current situation before sending the request to local volunteers. In this particular recovery, we contacted volunteers within a 20-mile radius.
In this specific instance, since the incident occurred near our administrator’s residence, and it involved a delicate situation where a family required assistance on private property using a commercial vehicle, our administrator decided to personally handle the recovery process.
After arriving and talking to the requester, it was decided the use of a kinetic rope, specifically a Yankum rope was the best way to handle the current situation. We asked the driver to sit in the vehicle and position our recovery vehicle behind the truck pulling backwards. It took 3 tugs for us to get the truck free and back into the firm driveway.
The recovery process was remarkably efficient, taking only 20 minutes in total without any incidents. Once again, the Yankum kinetic rope demonstrated its effectiveness, even when pulling a vehicle significantly heavier than the recovery vehicle. The key factor in this success was the kinetic energy generated by the lighter vehicle. In this case we use a Yankum Red 7/8 Python Kinetic rope, you can get yours by following this link.
If you would like to receive a text message when we get an offroad recovery request near you, create your account here: offroadportal.org/signup