F150 high centered

Friday, July 11st, 2025, at 2:18 p.m. (MT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Colorado. The requester, Roger Ebbs, submitted the following information: “On a forestry rd. 791 high centered F150. Should not be too difficult. Not with vehicle. / I’m not with the vehicle / I can help cover the cost of fuel.”

Our administrator, David Mrak, 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 70-mile radius.

From the group of contacted volunteers we had Steven Pon taking over the request and jumping into action to help. We also have folks joining the efforts from the local group of recovery volunteers in the state.

By 9:53 p.m. the request was completed, we later got an email from Steven explaining in detail what happened.

From Steve

This was definitely more than high centered and a log in the way.  He had slid off the road and efforts to pull him out were only making it worse.  I brought my F250 and a couple of tow straps, but really needed a couple of jeeps with winches.  Even with my F550 and winch, I think we would have had a hard time getting him out.  We were making an effort to secure the back from sliding further and try one more pull when a jeep from another local group showed up.  In an effort to get his truck out he had contacted multiple sources and he was confused who I was vs.  who they were.  They told us to stop what we were doing and stay away from the vehicle and he was going to go get his partner in the other Jeep and that they had all they needed to get it unstuck.

After about 6 hours and many different pull techniques, we were able to get the truck back on the road and he drove it out under its own power with only a crushed driver’s door and broken glass.

The rescue and recovery guys were very professional and knew what they were doing.  Despite all that, they were about to give up when I suggested one last pull attempt off a different tree.  This was what succeeded finally.

Essentially we had a jeep above facing downhill and a jeep below facing uphill.  Both had snatchblocks diagonally uphill and to the F150.  This way the Jeeps were being pulled uphill as was the truck.

We want to thank Steven and all other local volunteers who jumped to help in this request. You guys are awesome.

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