No traction and sliding sideways

Saturday, September 21st, 2024, at 3:21 p.m. (PT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in California. The requester, Michael Stretton, submitted the following information: “Side hilling, need a winch with some kind of redirect. Tires are deflated. No traction and sliding sideways. Toyota Tacoma 2wd. / I’m with the vehicle,”

Once the GPS coordinates and contact information were verified, we submitted the request to local volunteers within a 75-mile radius.

We don’t have many volunteers, but the few we have are truly active and willing to go the distance. One of the local volunteers, Scott Stoner, who was easily a couple hours away offer to go help: “Do you still need help? I have a bad knee but I have a rig capable of getting you out and I live at the bottom of the hill. Please quit trying to move immediately, lots of trucks 4×4 trucks have rolled here.“

The requester decided to call a local offroad recovery company rather than wait for a volunteer. Still, Scott stayed in standby all the way to the end. He stated: “Copy I will stand by. I have a vested interest in this recovery as I am local and FS keeps threatening to reroute or close this road due to resource damage and would like to prevent that if possible. Reports show Frosty is on the way and way more than capable of getting him out.“

In this case, although we didn’t have a volunteer working on the recovery, we still stayed in touch with Michael all the way to the end to make sure he was taken care of. We also want to thank Scott for offering to help. As always, folks in this area are always willing to go the extra mile, and we appreciate that.

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