Friday, May 12
Got word after 8PM from Chris Z. He'd managed to back Stewie down a narrow forest and accidentally got the left rear tire to slide off the embankment. There was a small creek with Spring runoff water coursing strongly which made things quite muddy.
Anyways, after many efforts to self-recover, Stewie was still stuck. The main winch failed initially, Chris Z. would later take it apart and find it basically rust jammed. Note: the winch was supposed to be sealed against the weather!
The rear winch worked but the synthetic rope broke!
Chris and Lori couldn't safely use the habitat due to the lean angle of their Overlander; so they ended up sitting by a fire through the night! The tow truck from Coachnet which had shown up at 1030 PM proved too small for the task.
Saturday, May 13
After getting details from Chris about a different tow truck company's planned arrival later this morning, I did a hasty displacement to their location to provide whatever support I could. The towing crew (two tow trucks and a flatbed would eventually arrive shortly after Noon (their trailer carrying a skip loader had blown a tire on the way).
The tow truck used to skip loader to clear away the large amounts of snow on the forest road so that the larger of the two tow truck's they'd brought could get into position.
As you'll see in the video below, attempt #1 failed when the winch cable broke! Everyone was quite surprised but fortunately no injuries.
A bit later, after more snow clearing, both tow trucks were positioned to pull together for the second attempt. As you'll see in the video, this time it worked!
Once free, and everything packed up, we adjourned to the nearby town of Cedarville where we'd spend the night. Everyone of us was exhausted, the Z's more so after enduring the traumatic event and spending a night out in the open.
Quite disappointing an experience for the Z's. All Chris' preparations and recovery equipment failed. Sherpa Winch corroded, synthetic lines more than rated for Stewie's weight snapped even before the winch stalled....had the line held, Chris believes he could have self-recovered.
10 comments:
Thanks for taking pictures, videos, and compiling. I was in no fit state to even watch the recovery effort. Thank you for being there and giving me sanctuary away from the truck so I didn't have to witness if things went worse. ~Lori
Wow! We just ran into the video on YouTube.
You're most welcome, Lori.... Let's not do it again anytime soon or for that matter ever! But the way we wander....
Quite The adventure RichardM!
WOW, quite the recovery. Who would have thought Stewie could not pull itself out, he is so massive.
Stronger winches and cable are on order?
Yeah...I'd be good not ever doing that again.:)
CCjon, steel cable replacements for the winches definitely. I think Chris believes he can service the front winch.
added pic of rusted winch insides....
Scary thought of getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. Poor Stewie! Time for a new winch, It really doesn't look good in the pic. Cheres, Sonja
SonjaM, the Sherpa folks are sending new motor.
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