Big Red Gets Stuck.... On Thursday October 22, 2009, at approximately 6:30 pm, I drove to an accident on an unpaved road off of US-146 South. When I arrived I found DPS Trooper Darwon Evans working a minor accident. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. Nobody was intoxicated, it was just an honest accident. I decided to leave and pulled Big Red over a small drive up spot over a culvert (Big Red is the name my daughter, Precious Angel, came up with when I purchased my truck from Bounds Autoplex). After I put my truck in reverse and was backing out, there was a small car behind me. Worried about hitting the car, I backed up a little more and then stopped, put it in drive and began to pull around. I cut my wheels right and THOUGHT I had enough clearance to pull right out. As I was pulling forward the truck went over the edge of the small concrete culvert into extremely soft mud. I put Big Red in reverse and was spinning my wheels. I then put it in 4 WD. The problem was, with the front end sinking down (and the tires digging into the mud), the back end was way up and the rear tires weren't getting any traction. The good folks that were at the accident scene tried to push me out, tried to stand on the rear bumper to push the back down enough to give my rear wheels traction, but nothing worked. The harder I tried, the deeper Big Red dug into the mud. I was stuck.
I was disgusted with myself for getting into this situation. I got out and was wondering what my next move should be. I wasn't even thinking about taking pictures of my predicament. Fortunately, my wife Zuni (Snookems) got out and started snapping shots with her little pocket amateur camera. Now Big Red is a 4WD, Heavy Duty, 3/4 ton, with a 5.9 Liter Cummins Diesel and has less that 70,000 miles. The Cummins Diesel is legendary in the world of heavy duty diesel pickups....
....Alas, even the baddest of the bad trucks get stuck. I've seen it on ESPN and YouTube where these huge trucks with giant mud tires get stuck. FORTUNATELY, Ken from Ken's Towing was working the accident scene. Ken has been working as a Vehicle Recovery Specialist in Polk County for years. He's honest to a fault, and would give anyone the shirt off his back. I asked Ken for a hand and after he recovered a Ford F-150, he pulled his truck up to mine, hooked up a chain and in less than a minute, pulled me out of a bad situation. Thanx Ken!
(Scroll through the pictures below)...All pictures courtesy of Snookems (with her amateur camera).
I pulled the truck ahead to early cause I was worried about hitting the red car (behind Big Red).
The front tires were digging into the soft mud...
...while the rear tires weren't getting any traction.
The harder we tried, the worse it got.
The heavyness of the front of the truck was lifting the rear off the ground.
At first, Ken was going to hook up to the rear of Big Red, but he wisely noted that the front tire may not get over the culvert and could damage the front end...(I'm the goofy gringo with the red shirt). Notice DPS Trooper Darwon Evans in the background working a wreck (Darwon is a TOP NOTCH Trooper).
So he connected to the front end of Big Red :)
Success!...Folks, if you need your vehicle towed...Give Ken a Call! (936) 967-2050
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