Saturday, August 10th, 2024, at 8:14 a.m. (PT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Oregon. The requester, Geoffrey Doempke, submitted the following information: “My van is stuck in soft dirt on the side of the road. Off a well-maintained gravel road, there should be an easy pull-out with a winch or tow rope. I’m with the vehicle.”
Within 15 minutes of receiving this request, we contacted Geoffrey, verified all his information and GPS location, and gathered a few photos before submitting the request to local volunteers within a 20-mile radius.
In less than 10 minutes, we had Teunis Wyers marking himself as engaging and contacting Geoffrey to coordinate. Teunis took over the recovery, traveling 25 miles each way to help. By 11:45 a.m., he got the vehicle out and closed the request. He later sent us a few photos, a short video, and a quick note. Awesome job, Teunis!
Note from Teunis
This was a pretty basic pull. I’m not very advanced in recovering so I wanted to start with something less technical. His Sprinter went into limp mode, probably from high revving and digging himself in, so there was no power delivery to the front wheels. I don’t have a kinetic rope yet, so I just used a static recovery strap – I had to double it because there wasn’t much room with a ditch straight ahead. Pulled out in 4L with some assist from the Sprinter. They followed us into Parkdale and bought breakfast at Baseline Biscuits. Glad it worked out. I’ve attached a photo and video of the recovery, taken by my daughter, who rallied out of bed on a Saturday morning to go with me.
The driver is from southern CA and has a Raptor as his other rig – he’s looking to join up with a recovery group down there in the LA area.
If you would like to receive a text message when we get a request near you, create your account here: offroadportal.org/signup
