Well tonight we had a guy come in the shop asking for help recovering his broken and stuck Jeep. He busted a ball joint while in a rut and I guess he was screwed. We dident have a ball joint in the shop, my YJ is on jack stands and the other employee drove his PT Crusier today...so we dident have much to offer the guy. about 3 hours ago I went to my buddy's house who has a prerunner ranger, I figured if we can get to a point were we can atleast see the stuck Jeep (if it was still there) it may be worth going down there and leaving a note with a number to see if we can help him tomarrow. So we take off in his Ranger...32" MT/R's, and 2wd...whatever its just a local area thats easy right? We get to the entrance wich has a small hill you have to go down, my buddy and I have gone up and down this dirt hill for the last 5 years so we dident think anything of. We crest the hill and all of a sudden the passenger side front tire of the ranger drops down and easy 4-5 ft into a HUGE rut.I looked over and said to him "This thing is 2wd, there is no way we can back out get on the gas and get some momentom.... we should be able to get out" So he hesatated and slowly let the clutch out and just let the truck roll right into the rut Sure enough, here we are stuck inside a rut so deep that is completly swollowed the side of that ranger up pasted bottom of the door window. No cell phone, no cars in sight, and a long walk home. Now we were screwed.

To not make this any longer, some guy showed up getting ready to do some night wheel'n and gave me a ride to my house. I got my Jeep, slaped it back together with a whole lot of duct tape and bailing wire so I can winch my buddy out. By the time I jump in my Jeep to leave my friend shows up to my house..I was like WTF?!?! Apprently an other friend of ours with a built 85 Yota saw him and yanked him out.

Why did all this happen? Because we were stupid enough to not follow one of the very first rules my dad tought me about 4wheel'n...Never go with a single vehical. We also failed to get out and look whats on the other side of the drop off, and we also did not bring any cell phones.

If that guy that gave me a ride home dident show up we would probably still be walking right now.

As for that other stuck Jeep...well, atleast I could say I tryed to help Now my friend is all pissed because he broke his tail light and fawked up the lower back corner of his truck bed

Oh yea, the reasion that rut was there is because we had some major rain about 2 days ago that has completly changed everything.

Hmmm, I've got several, but here's the best I can think of right now.

I was stationed in Kodiak, AK and at the time my TJ was on 30" MT's and my diffs were open. I had only lived on the islan for a few months and was doing some exploring of one of the major trails in the area. There was a story of this mud hole called the "Refridgerator Hole" so named because a whole refer was burried in it. I didn't know where this hole was at but during my exloring I came across a huge puddle in the trail. I slowly inched down into the water, figuring if the front dropped in, I could simply back out. Well the front dropped in and in good. The whole front of the Jeep sunk under water. I tried in vain to back out but that didn't work. My last ditch effort was to try and blast fowards through since the rear wheels were on dry ground still. The whole right front was now under mud and I was stuck hard.

So picutre this...It's Sunday eveing, getting cold, at least 15 miles from town on a small island in Alaska with little traffic. I'm screwed! I got lucky and found these two guys coming back from fishing who were willing to try and pull me out. Their old Ford F-150 with tow rope attached to my stock rear bumper (with no tow hooks!) was no match. A broken rope and bent bumper resulted.

They agreed to give me a ride back to my friend's house. We ended up back at my Jeep around midnight. It took seveal pulls to get it out. He started my Jeep only to see water shoot out the tailpipe! Man, I thought I was screwed! Lukily, there was no dammage to the motor and all that I suffered was a bent rear bumper and some ribbing from my friends.

Moral(s) of the story:
-Don't go out alone.
-Don't venture into an unknown puddle.
-Have tow hooks.