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!
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!
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!
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.
