Got him! Tire was absolutely destroyed

Friday, September 6th, 2024, at 1:33 p.m. (PT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Oregon. The requester, Robert L Guffey, submitted the following information: “On Kenig Rd. Off Hwy 6 3/4, on the way up, the van lost traction and spun the tread off the tires. I am pulling my camp trailer, which is crocked towards the edge, can’t straighten out, and is now stuck. No service. The gentleman who sells wood at the bottom of the road lets us use his wifi. / I’m with the vehicle“

Once we received the request, we contacted Robert to verify the GPS location and current situation before sending the request to local volunteers within a 25-mile radius.

By 2:00 p.m., we got the request out to volunteers, and by 2:58 p.m., we got Chris Brown marking himself as engaging and letting us know in our lobby that he was planning to get up there with Garrett a friend with a 4Runner and a GMC Yukon XL.

We also had Amir Khalifa, marking himself as standing by, to be a back as needed.

By 6:54 p.m., Chris closed the request, got the vehicle out, and later sent us some photos and a note.

From Chris:

Got on scene and the requestor was no longer with the vehicle. Yelled and knocked on the camper for a bit and then heard from across the canyon someone yelling. Requestor had walked to a vanlife camp that had Starlink! 

We discussed the plan with him. Air the tires down on the van so he could make it up the hill (sitting at 70psi), disconnect the trailer hold it using wheel chocks and my vehicle’s winch. Connect the secondary vehicle I brought with me (1/2 ton GMC Yukon XL with 4wd) and tow to the top of the hill. Camper weighed in around 4k or so. 

Aired the van down to 30psi in the rear tires (2wd), and it was able to drive to the top no problem. Connected the Yukon to the camper and it towed it to the top without breaking a sweat. Requestor had a second vehicle coming to tow the camper so we swapped that up top (they came from behind and couldn’t get around).

Best recommendations, have good maps! I used Caltopo for this recovery and was able to see how steep the area was before arriving and also found a secondary route around his stuck vehicle. We came down from the top so we didn’t need to worry about making it around on the exposed road. 

Overall, a nice easy recovery. Nothing too crazy, but definitely helped out the requestor!

We want to thank all those who responded, especially Chris and Garrett, who took care of this request. Thank you guys! (offroad recovery in Oregon)

If you would like to receive a text message when we get a request near you, create your account here: offroadportal.org/signup