Holy crap! I pulled an 18-wheeler!

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:03 pm

I don’t really have the time to post this story right now but I still can’t believe it happened and need to share. I pulled a stuck 18-wheeler out of the snow! :shock:

Read on.

I decided to drive up to VT very late Sunday night to go snowboarding the next morning at Mt Snow to take advantage of what I thought would be 10” of fresh snow (they ended up only getting 6”.) Needless to say I was driving up in a snow storm on an unplowed I-91. I decided to pull over at the last rest stop in MA before crossing into VT to take a break. There was a Freightliner 18-wheeler who pulled in sort of funny and his trailer was partially blocking the entrance ramp. I got of my Jeep to stretch and the truck driver started walking towards me (in all honestly at this point I thinking the worst and grabbed my pocket knife and Maglight just to be safe since we were the only two people at the rest area and it was 2:45 in the morning in a bad snow storm.) He told me he got stuck in some deeper snow while pulling in the entrance which had a slight incline and wanted to know if I had any cell service to he could call a tow truck. I said why don’t I try to pull ya! He laughed and said don’t bother.

Challenge accepted! :twisted:

I asked if he had a full load or not and he said he only had about a 10% load so I told him we might as well give it a shot. So I put the D-ring in and doubled up my recovery strap to his front hook. I told him to get in the truck and give it some gas while I did the same. I put it in 4L and gave it some gas up to around 2,500 - 3,000 rpms locked out in 1st gear. I was sliding around in an arc motion from left to right with what seemed like all 4 tires spinning and I could here his engine screaming as well and wouldn’t you know it, I got him out! :shock:

I had to pull him all the way to the exit ramp which was flat to maybe a slight down hill so he wouldn’t get stuck again.

He told me he never thought I’d be able to pull him and said he didn’t even think a full size truck to could pull him. He apologized for laughing at my Liberty and offered me all the cash in his wallet and said I had now idea how much time and money I had saved him but I refused and said the story was worth more to me than the money. That’s when I realized I didn’t have a picture of the event and knew no one would believe me without a picture. So all I was able to get was a bad photo on my cell phone which didn’t come out very good since it was dark and I didn’t have a flash. I’ll try to upload that later.

That night I don’t think there was a prouder Jeep Liberty owner in the world. On a side note my good karma was not returned, on the return trip on Monday late afternoon I was slammed by a giant sheet of dry wall that had blown of a truck and exploded on my bumper. It broke my driver side fog light loose and scratched the hell out of the front and right side of the bumper. Scary! Perhaps if I hadn’t stopped to help that guy that dry wall would have broken through my windshield and killed me like some scene from Final Destination or something like that.

Budke · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:07 pm

Fckin right dude!!!! Thats how you do it!!

KJ's FTW!!!! :JEEPIN:

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:11 pm

Great story

AZKJ · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:27 pm

Wow!! That's a good read, but sorry guys, that's a hard story to believe!! As they say, gonna need pics.

How close to the front of the rig were you when you doubled your strap, maybe 15 feet max? That's too close for comfort. The driver would barely be able to see the end of your Liberty over his hood. How did you finally get traction if you were sliding all over in an arch and if he was stuck in deeper snow? Why did you have to pull him all the way across the rest area to the exit after getting him unstuck from the deeper snow at the entrance, especially if it was flat to downhilla little? That's the first time I ever heard a driver refer to how heavy he or his load was in percent. Truck and load weights are refered to in actual weight. Load weights vary, some very light, others maxing out the legal weight limits for the truck. Saying he was 10% loaded means nothing to anyone. It's also hard to believe the driver didn't have a cell phone. If he didn't, there should of been some at the rest area he was in. He really must of been desperate. Drivers tend to shy away from strangers at rest areas too.

BTW... I drove tractor trailers for 19 years after I retired from the Air Force is why I find the story hard to believe. Too much stuff doesn't add up from a trucker's point of view. A tractor, with an empty box, weighs in at least38~42,000 lbs give or take a few. That's a lot of weight to be pulling, especially out of the snow, even for a large rig set up to handle 18 wheelers.

Anyway, glad you weren't hurt on the trip home after being stuck by a sheet of drywall flying off a truck. I hit parts of a soft plastic pallet that a pickup truck ran over on the freeway in the lane next to me and spread flying debris everywhere. It took off my entire left fender flare, the parking light was gone, and a small section of the bumper was gone. You got super lucky and it only broke a fog light.

:POPCORN:

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:10 pm

If it was anyone else telling the story I wouldn’t believe it either. In fact, I just did a youtube search to see if this thing has ever happened to anyone else, the clip below is sort of similar to what I was doing, you can see his Jeep sliding all over the place, like I was doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNRKlFfrJak

As for the load, yup, 10% is all he told me and at the time I didn't bother to ask what that meant in pounds b/c I was still feeling out the entire situation - was anyone else in the truck? was someone sneaking up behind me? Did he have a gun? I never let the guy get between me and my Jeep and never turned my back to him. I was just doing my best to help the guy out and make sure I didn't end up in the snow without a Jeep. Sad that we have to think that way but it's always beter to be safe then dead. Looking back on it I'm sure the guy had a CB but it was 2:45 in the morning when all this happened and not real close to anything. Maybe he tried the CB but no one answered? Oh, and he did have a cell phone but no signal.

Keep in mind his truck still had power. If it was a dead truck I wouldn’t have been able to move it an inch. The incline was maybe 1%, not much at all. The snow was great packing snow so I'm sure that helped my traction a bit. My tires are still in good condition (245/70/16 Firestone AT's) and while I was spinning the tires, I wasn't spinning them too fast, just fast enough to clean the lugs so they could get a fresh bite. Also, his truck had 8x8 - both of his rear (of his tractor) axels could engage. With all that said he was 100% stuck. I took the slack out of the strap before I tried to pull him and told him to give it some gas and the strap never moved so by himself he was stuck and not going anywhere. First I tried to just give it some gas and see if that would help but we didn't go anywhere. So while he was giving it gas the whole time I would back off, put it in N roll back a bit and then put it back in 1st to give a little jerk. After about 3 of those we got some momentum and from there we both were skidding the rest of the way up the entrance ramp to the other side where it flattened out and he had traction.

I can e-mail the picture to someone if they want to post it for me but it really doesn't show to much except for my strap and his truck.

1996xj · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:39 pm

Hey, It can happen !! I pulled a Semi, out of freshley layed gravel and mud in a parking lot with my "01 Dodge Ram" 4x4, the truck driver said he had 1/4 of the trailer full, and he also laughed untill I pulled his ASSS out !!!! :mrgreen:

AZKJ · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:40 pm

Okay, just going by the way I perceived the situation as you described it. Yeah, e-mail me your pic and I'll post it up for you.

TAHOE · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:12 pm

I can't see it's true or not, but to support ya.... he was pullin with the tractor also, sometimes when stuck, it takes very little extra effort to get moving. I can see it happening. Shoot.... look at the strong men competitions, A single strong man pulls a 40k # tractor trailer from a dead stop with a rope. No reason a 200 hp Liberty couldn't give a rig a little extra pull out of the snow.
I say good job :SOMBRERO:

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:26 pm

A lot of times when a person is stuck it only takes a little something extra. Can I push a full sized pickup truck out of a ditch in snow and mud by hand? I did it! I'm sure a lot of you have helped a stuck vehicle get out by pushing by hand. A little slack here is in order.

Terry

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:41 pm

Fulltimer wrote:

A lot of times when a person is stuck it only takes a little something extra. Can I push a full sized pickup truck out of a ditch in snow and mud by hand? I did it! I'm sure a lot of you have helped a stuck vehicle get out by pushing by hand. A little slack here is in order.

Terry

So true....all he was doing was proving the extra montum needed to get the rig unstuck, but still the story is cool.

Tokyojoe · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:01 pm

This sounds just like a story posted last winter....or was it two years ago....

Boiler · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 3:42 am

Tokyojoe wrote:

This sounds just like a story posted last winter....or was it two years ago....

Yes

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:21 am

I thought Jeep actually had an advertisement with a story like that ~3-4 years ago.

ihatemybike · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:34 am

I've seen a video recently of a Subaru WRX doing the exact same thing, so good job scoob!

LibertyFever · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:01 am

You're so right to refuse the money. The bragging rights alone are priceless.

STINGN · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:07 am

there is a video of a WRX pulling out a semi but i cant find it :/

offroadohio · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:19 am

Not hard to believe since pulling a barely stuck semi up a sligh inclinde isnt that much of a challenge.

WRX vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6yj7kHHg08

Dodge truck doing as you did
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOvJH7iukLM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z38Sfxb-olI

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:49 am

Back when I drove I pulled into a rest area late one night after a good snow, ran into the little boys room, back out, drank some coffee and yes was stuck couldn't move. What had happened was my tires were warm from running about 350 miles and then pulled in and they had time to melt into the snow/ice just enough. There I sat spinning only of course making matters worse. Couldn't rock it enough. Some guy came along in a ratty old Ford pickup and was able to give me enough pull to get me out of the ice enough to move on my own.

If the driver said he had 10% of his load on he was maybe making multiple stops at different stores so had already unloaded about 90% . He would have no idea of real weigh of what was left.

So mythbusters

I think this could of course be true!

Neatus · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:46 pm

AJ...don't be a neigh sayer....it's a good story.

durangotang · **Posted:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 6:13 pm

AZKJ wrote:

Wow!! That's a good read, but sorry guys, that's a hard story to believe!! As they say, gonna need pics.

How close to the front of the rig were you when you doubled your strap, maybe 15 feet max? That's too close for comfort. The driver would barely be able to see the end of your Liberty over his hood. How did you finally get traction if you were sliding all over in an arch and if he was stuck in deeper snow? Why did you have to pull him all the way across the rest area to the exit after getting him unstuck from the deeper snow at the entrance, especially if it was flat to downhilla little? That's the first time I ever heard a driver refer to how heavy he or his load was in percent. Truck and load weights are refered to in actual weight. Load weights vary, some very light, others maxing out the legal weight limits for the truck. Saying he was 10% loaded means nothing to anyone. It's also hard to believe the driver didn't have a cell phone. If he didn't, there should of been some at the rest area he was in. He really must of been desperate. Drivers tend to shy away from strangers at rest areas too.

BTW... I drove tractor trailers for 19 years after I retired from the Air Force is why I find the story hard to believe. Too much stuff doesn't add up from a trucker's point of view. A tractor, with an empty box, weighs in at least38~42,000 lbs give or take a few. That's a lot of weight to be pulling, especially out of the snow, even for a large rig set up to handle 18 wheelers.

Holy crap! I pulled an 18-wheeler!

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