Tuesday, May 28th, 2024, at 1:45 p.m. (CT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Texas. The requester, Mark Antill, submitted the following information: “Was out yesterday on a friend’s property and got stuck. All we had were tow straps and a 4wd Gator that was no match for my 2012 Land Rover Ranger (4WD and locking rear diff). Soupy mud/clay and buried immediately. It is on the frame and all 4 wheels spin at idle. No traction. Not sure how this works but the weather has been rainy and is expected to be even worse this week so may need to wait until next week or weekend (June 8th or 9th). Possible to meet there then? I got a lift home to Houston with friends and can use my son’s KIA for now / I’m not with the vehicle.“
Our admin, David Mrak, organized this recovery. He verified the location, contact information, and situation. With Mark, the requester, they decided to try to organize the recovery for the weekend due to heavy rains. David shared with volunteers: “Due to rain in the area. We are trying to set this recovery up for the weekend of June 8th. Is anyone available that weekend? We’re going to need a couple trucks with winches.“
From the volunteers contacted in this isolated area, we had two people helping with the request, Brad Pruitt and Zachary Parry. They both were over 2 hours away, at more than 100 miles distance. This recovery was extremely long and complicated based on their afterward report.
Zachary later shared with us:
Got to the gps coordinates and we drove back and walked out the last 200 yards to find his Range Rover buried and made a plan. We went back to get my truck and proceeded to get stuck where he was but winched my way up to dry land. Got turned around and winched him up to me. I strapped the range rove to the back of me and proceeded back into the mud where I got stuck again hooked the winch up to start pulling us through the mud together. My winch line came unspooled and that’s when the op called for more help. I got my winch despoiled and ended up breaking my strap. Brad arrived around 630 with more straps and we proceeded to winch from tree to tree, pulling some out of the ground because of how soft the ground was. We were able to go to a single line winch once the Range Rover was out of the deepest mud hole and were finally to the last curve around 1:30 am when we unstrapped and I went the rest of the way, turned around and used the snatch block to pull op to the corner to pull him the rest of the way out. We finished around 2 am and followed op to the main building.
Brad also shared this quick note:
Tips: Get more information before going. OP said he was 20’ from hard ground which was true but we had to go through 300 yards of deep mud to get to him and then winch our selves back 300 yards to get to solid ground. It was a 9-hour recovery for 2 vehicles.
Here is a short video we put together with the clips provided by our volunteers.
The volunteers recovered the vehicle. Amazing job, guys. We truly want to thank both of you for your hard work on this recovery. Ioffroad recovery in Texas)
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