Got rescued... By a Taco

Buddies and I went over to some BLM land to do some target shooting this past Saturday. After finishing for the day and packing everything up we start heading back down the mountain. On the way, we run into this stuck jeep



His friend in a Tacoma was trying to help get him out with little luck. There was also another blue Raptor there doing what he could to help. We noticed they were using a very short strap, short enough that the taco was trying to pull this jeep out while he himself was in the mud.

We pull ahead of them and drive up a grassy hill to make sure the truck isn't in the way and try to assist by letting them use my 30' snatch strap. While they were working on getting the straps connected, I wanted to put the Raptor in a less precarious position. I get in, I'm in 4H, put it in reverse give it a little gas, and no movement… Oh shit... Ok... No problem I have a couple more options here... Put it in 4L and lock the diff. Give it a bit of gas and all 4 wheels spinning. Cant go forward further up the hill, can't even reverse back down the hill. All 4 tires were caked and were essentially slicks. The rear tires weren't buried, but the front passenger tire was so deep that the truck was resting on the running boards. The front driver tire was not nearly as deep but not much better off either.

My predicament was not nearly as bad as the Jeep pictured above so the decision was made to pull me out first. It took the Taco 2 tugs while I gassed it in reverse to pull me free of the mud trap.





I wish I had some video of the recovery but no one around thought to record. The Jeep was eventually pulled out but they needed to call a friend with an F350

I now have a pair of traction blocks and MaxTrax boards on order and my next set of tires will be something that's a little better in the mud that the stock KO2's.

All said and done, it was a fun day out.

Aye, the KO2's are not great in rain or mud. Great on rocky stuff though.

Sounds like some new KM3 are in order!

Why didn’t you hook to the Taco and pull him, while he was hooked to the jeep; tandem pull?

Maxtrax are really the golden ticket for recoveries nowadays; I've seen several of the prominent Australian 4 wheelers get out of really nasty stuff with them.

I will say the K02s are surprisingly decent in mud, as long as you can keep them spinning so they don't cake up. But yeah, that's exactly why I'm eyeing a hybrid for my next tire.

I would say that in a pinch, you could probably have deflated down to 20lbs or so, switch to mud/sand, and maybe walked it out. From the pictures, it looks like the rear tires might have been able to get enough grip to pull your front out.

smurfslayer said:

Why didn’t you hook to the Taco and pull him, while he was hooked to the jeep; tandem pull?

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They tried that with the other Raptor that was there, no luck. If we had enough straps to have both recovery vehicles in the drier part of the road it may have worked but they had to use my 30 footer tied to their own to even have one recover vehicle not pull while also in the mud.

rtmozingo said:

Maxtrax are really the golden ticket for recoveries nowadays; I've seen several of the prominent Australian 4 wheelers get out of really nasty stuff with them.

I will say the K02s are surprisingly decent in mud, as long as you can keep them spinning so they don't cake up. But yeah, that's exactly why I'm eyeing a hybrid for my next tire.

I would say that in a pinch, you could probably have deflated down to 20lbs or so, switch to mud/sand, and maybe walked it out. From the pictures, it looks like the rear tires might have been able to get enough grip to pull your front out.

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I was down to about 25 before we decided to cut our losses and get pulled out. Didn’t want to risk sinking even deeper into the mud. The rears were in good shape in terms of not having sunk into the ground but didn’t have nearly enough bite to pull the front up and over the ditch they beached themselves in.

As far as KO2s in mud, they work well if the mud has enough standing water to keep the tread clean. There are two ways to pass the area the Jeep is stuck in, just to drivers right was a large mud puddle that I went through just fine in both directions earlier in the day. The other way is the mud pit you see pictured.

jabroni619 said:

As far as KO2s in mud, they work well if the mud has enough standing water to keep the tread clean. There are two ways to pass the area the Jeep is stuck in, just to drivers right was a large mud little that I went through just fine in both directions earlier in the day. The other way is the mud pit you see pictured.

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Ah, so that's why I've had good luck on that front. Always had water too. Was wondering, since they aren't well respected for their mud performance.