When I was a kid, my Dad drowned out a '76 Bronco in Clear Creek in Colorado.  Siezed the whole engine up.  We had to wait in the middle of the rushing creek for a couple hours with water around our ankles for the tow-truck.

That was cool.  Cost my Dad nearly $1000.

yup. in the military (Navy) driving around the base in our HMMWV. the Div-O motions for us to stop and told us we had just been extended in Guam for two more weeks! man we hated being STUCK in Guam. it sucked.

Had a Bronco II as my first vehicle,Well we were out offroading at our local spot and everyone was getting stuck except for me in this huge mud hole.After a day offraoding and on the way back everyone got through that mud hole that was swallowing everyones SUV up except one guy.That one last guy was me.I guess that the luck of the trail. I had water and mud up to my mirrors.I had to keep the engine running for about an hour and it was starting to overheat while we tried pulling it out.Boy was that hell to wash out!

Don't have a lot of time to tell the full story but... My friends and I get a slightly modified Range Rover stuck in a mudpit. For those of you who don't know Range Rovers are pretty heavy and very capable off-road with aggresive mud tires. So we are VERY stuck. This redneck in a '70s vintage big block Ford truck offers to pull "that little red thing" out of the mud for us. He pulls out a chain and hooks it around his home-made channel iorn bumper. Then he hooks it up to the Rover. He states it does'nt matter what gear the Rover is in 'cause he's gonna jerk that thing out of the mud in any gear. He get's back in his truck and proceeds to rip his bumper off in a violent fashion. Then we got in the Rover and drove out as he is dragging his bumper back to the truck. Trying not to laugh.

How did ya guys ever manage to get it out? they weigh almost two tons right?

Well,

I bought a brand new 4x4 Nissan Frontier crew cab back in 2000.  Immediately took it to Dallas to show off to my buddies.  We go down to the Trinity River bottoms off of Hwy 360 (to see what it's made of) (bad idea).  Proceed to get gloriously stuck, somehow manage to totally destroy the nerf bars and rocker panels, scratched the paint all to hell, got stuck on railroad track saw train...........yelled like hell for help....made it off tracks with a couple of minutes to spare.  I even had to replace the pittman and idler arms.  I guess it was the Bud Light...  I was thinking of how in the heck I was gonna explain this to my wife on the way home.  50 minutes from home, a section of overpass falls on top of above mentioned truck.......no injuries except glass cuts.....wife believed story.

My first 4x4 was a 74 gmc 1/2 ton pickup.  I went fourwheeing in the desert of west texas at night with some buddies.  I had just put a 4in lift and 36" tires on my truck and was climbing a dune that was pretty high then leveled off on the top.  Little did I know the wind had shifted the sand and at the top it dropped off about 15t.  I went flying over the top, nosed over and came down on the front axel snapping it in 2.  Had to leave it over night

The next day I called a wrecker service and told them I needed a 4wd wrecker.  They sent a 2wd.  The guy said "I can get you out no problem".  We drove out to where I was stuck and he said no way and called a 4wd wrecker.  

While we were waiting for the 4x4 to show up this guys supervisor shows up in another 2wd wrecker to see whats going on and ends up sticking around all day to watch.

The 4x4 wrecker showed up, hooked up to me, drove about 5ft and buried himself.  He dropped me down off the lift but left me hooked up and with just the rear wheels I pulled him out of the holes he had dug himself into.  He lifted me up again and again buried himself in the sand.  This time I could not pull him out.

Then along came a Border Patrol agent in a 4wd Ramcharger.  The BPA pulled out the tow truck.  He then positioned himself about 50 yards away from me on sold ground and pulled my truck sideways over to where he was and was then able to hook me up and get me out.

That whole episode cost me $600 for the tow trucks ($30 per hr apiece for the two 2wd trucks and $60 per hr for the 4wd wrecker.  It took about 8hrs to get my truck out.  Then I had to replace the front axel which cost me $750 out of a wrecked truck and I put it in.

I sold that truck a few months after that and bought a 77 cj5.

Heres a pretty good site that has a lot of good stuck trucks pics[:D]
[url]http://truckworld.com/Stuck-Of-The-Month/stuck-trucks.html[/url]

I'm too wimpy to $eriously offroad with my 2001 Z71 Chevy, but sometimes the joys of having a beater 4WD catch up with you...

Several years back, during my poor college days, I was riding shotgun with a good buddy of mine. We were in his 197something Jeep Scrambler (IIRC, a cross between a shortbed pickup and a CJ) driving on old logging roads on the backside of Summerhill State Forest overlooking Owasco lake (one of the smaller NY fingerlakes). My friend was in to sled dog racing and was looking for new trails to run his dogs on. We were a couple miles off the main trail when we hung up the frame of the jeep on a log skidder rut hidden by tall grass. Oops. Normally, when he off roads off the beaten track, he carries a 4 ft lift jack and a 2x4 for such occasions. Sadly, he had used the lift jack to change a tire on another vehicle and hadn't put it back in the Jeep.

Summerhill is surrounded by agricultural farmland. We hiked out of the woods, and came into a back hayfield. It was a beautiful summer day, with a tremendous view of the lake. If any of you have seen any of NY's fingerlakes, especially the ones with steep wooded ridges overlooking the water, you can appreciate this.

The first sign of trouble was an overturned (loaded) haywagon on a grade in the field. The wagon was badly damaged. We came upon a farmer shortly thereafter as we neared his house and barns. My friend Greg explained why we were on his land. I commented on what a gorgeous view he had of the lake. The farmer responded with "Fuck the G*ddamn view!", and a bit more besides. His summer help had just rolled the wagon a few minutes earlier. He was having a worse day than us, by far. He did drive us to Greg's house, about 10 miles away, after stating he had no interest in yanking us out with his tractor. We couldn't really blame him.

Greg and I drove back in another vehicle as far as we dared without 4wd, and carried the lift jack and a few other goodies a mile or so to get his jeep unstuck.

I guess the moral of the story is to remember that no matter how bad you think you've got it, somebody else is likely being screwed worse-and don't forget the lift jack!

I've gotten nearly every vehicle I've ever owned badly stuck. The worst was when my '79 W150 got stuck while trying to get close enough to an overflowing creek to pull someone else out. I had to leave the truck and we came back with 2 different rigs to pull mnie out. By the time we got there the 2nd time, my truck was about 100 feet "offshore" with the water up to the top of the bed. It finally stopped rising when it hit rearview mirror height. A week later we pulled it out, I drained and changed all the fluids, put a new carb and starter in, and it fired right up...more stories and pics are at my website.

[url]http://members.tripod.com/~Maineiac68/4x4s/4x4.html[/url]

There are a couple 4x4 clubs around here, but there can always be another one. Maybe someone should start an [b]http://4x4.AR15.com[/b] forum/club with regional chapters (i.e. N. Texas)?

Would that be a good idea?

I think most hunters and shooters have 4x4s... and 4x4s and bad-ass guns go together...

This is a priceless memory:

About 2 years ago, at Camp Blanding, FL (Jax) my AAV platoon was doing some land ops.  FYI, the USMC AAV is a 27-ton beast of a machine, and doesn't get stuck without trying pretty hard.  
Anywho, the lead track came upon a very large pool of water (more like a small, deep pond).  The sides were very steep, and very loosely packed.  Soooo...the newbie driver decided to traverse the obstacle, and slowly creeped into the hole---
The AAV is very front-heavy, and went face first into the muddy bog.  So, we now had a 27 ton track stuck with half in the mud, the other half straight up in the air.

My track pulled behind to attempt a recovery- the 4 Marines onboard jumped out of the rear hatch, swam to safety, and climbed out.  The track itself, however was another arduous story.

My track was stuck in the deep sugar sand after an unsuccessful recovery attempt, as was the third vehicle attempting to help me.  As you can imagine, this cluster fuck went on throughout the evening, into the night, and on to the next morning.

 Our platoon spent all night chopping down half of a "protected" stand of pine trees, in order to build a small wooden road for the track to engage.  After cutting down approx. $300K (yes, $300,000) worth of 'endangered' trees, we positioned the logs underneath the tracks in order to give them added traction. (and then we prayed)

 We linked up all seven of our vehicles, all with logs underneath.  Together, we all managed to free the three stuck tracks, and get the hell out of there.
 An evening I will never ever forget!  

Wish to God I or someone else had brought a camera!

Damn....in the army we'd have just used the unit's M88A1 tracked recovery vehicle (AKA "the 56-ton bobsled") to winch it out. [:D] Pull out all 200' of 1" cable, drop the spade, and let that 90,000lb winch do its thing!

'77 CJ-5, 4" lift, 35" BFG A/Ts.

Slow speed slide off a snowy trail, down a short, steep incline, and smacked something solid at the bottom. Over we went. Nothing like hanging upside down with gas and battery acid dripping on you.

Another rig winched us back upright, let all the fluids drain back down, fired 'er up with a puff of smoke, and away we went. Only damage was to the soft top. Had to buy a new one. Oh yeah, the gas messed up my stereo speakers, too. [;)]

Really being stuck is sticking a D7 dozer over the tracks!

I help manage a ATV park and its full of that fun kinda mud. It seems ok on the top, but when you get down into it a little it acts like quicksand and gets more soup like the deeper you get. Had a park helper that didn't believe us when we warned him not to take it certain places. The rest is history with an overheating dozer and PO'd help digging under tracks to place railroad ties!

Later

IAJack

Well I rockcrawl with a modified Suzuki Samurai,
(33" tires 8K LBS winch locking diffs front and rear.) with the winch I can get through about anything. best stuck I ever saw was a guy that
had a corvette engine in a Jeep YJ that cracked the knuckle on the right front trying to get up a rock and then tried to power through a Mud
pit. he hit the throttle and spun the tires up which broke the right front tire and hub off the diff! well once we saw what happened then it was recovery time. strapped a log to the diff to act as a skid and then whinched him to dry land.
this was about 5 miles in a long trail.
he ended going back the next day with a whole new front diff he bought and replaced it on the
trail and drove out.

Well, if we're going to bring heavy equipment stucks into the picture.....

[img]http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/download.php/1,133977/BNSFoops.jpg[/img]

Just got through welding a chunk for a dodge 4 wheel drive. The locker is a noshit locker now! That thing might frag out but it aint ever gonna slip again.

I've had my 79 CJ5 high centered on rocks here in Tennessee and nutsack deep in Louisiana Gumbo.

been stuck myself a couple of times, none of which are nearly as glorious as your stories.

however, went to a party at my cousin's house in south eastern IN.  her mom's boyfriend and boyfriend's friends were really into the 4 wheelin' thing.  so they took their vehicles down to the slopes and let 'er rip.  were having a glorious ol' time until this one truck, a toyota, stopped going forward.  he was heading uphill sloggin through this mud pit, i guess he was shifting trying to get more power to get out.  something screwed up in the transmission and he couldn't catch any gear.  so now he's got no power basically and he's in mud up almost up to his axles.

they tried crawling under to see if they could manually change gears or something.  but they couldn't get underneath cuz of the mud.  finally, one of the older (for this group that translates into veteran mud slogger) guys chugges his 70's model blazer down there, hooked up the chain to the front, and pulled this toyota right around so he's facing down hill.

apparently, the toyota's driver hopped in fired it up and put it into gear.  of course, in coming back up he had to try that same damn mud pit.  luckily this time he made it!

I've seen Humvee's and a[s]Duce&halfs[/s] 5ton stuck in mud upto the floor level of the cab/door cutout (Ft. "Hungry Lizzard", Ca) took forever to get 'em out.

I've gotten my Unimog stuck in the mud/snow up over the axles (15" of clearance there!) Nothing 45min of diggin with the old shovel couldn't solve. [:D]

Yet another case where drinking and 4 wheeling/driving don't mix.

Many moons ago, January of 93, myself and a few buddies were in Plattsburg, NY.  We were in a local bar drinking it up when a news story about ice fisherman of the area came up on the TV.  Well of course the refiend that we were visiting said he knew exactly where the lake was and it'd be cool to drive my almost year old jeep on the lake.  So we head out.  We get to the boat ramp, drive about 75 feet down the ramp and anouther 75 feet onto the lake, where of course the snow gets too high for my stock jeep with stock tiny tires.  BAM! there we are, in the middle of this lake.  The more I try to get out, the deeper I dig myself in.  Finally my tires break the ice.  Water starts rushing up around my boots, so I shut down my Jeep.  We decide to hike our way back to a pay phone, about a mile away.  Needless to say that it was -15 (-40 windchill) and in the middle of the night.  We get in and call a tow company and hike back.  After about an hour we see headlights back on land so we walk our way back to the shore.  The truck driver looks at us walking up the boat ramp, then looks at the Jeep, then back at us again and says, "You boys ain't from around here are ya's?"  The driver figures we are out about 150 feet, and he only has 50 feet of chain, so he'll have to go back to the shop and see if he can rumage through the other trucks and find more.

Eventually we did get pulled out, and the guy was nice enough not to go crazy with the bill.  Needless to say when I got back down state I went straight to my local tire shop and had him throw 31x10.5 BFG all terrain tires on my Jeep.

"Stuck" is only a state of mind.

all 4 wheel drive does is allow you to get stuck in places 2WDs cant even imagin getting stuck in.

sadly, all my good stories i made it out. my bad stuck one was when i had just got my SKS, and was goin to test fire it. thier was TONS of snow. the county guys hauled out snow and filled country ditches. it was raelly cool, like driving in a hude tunnel, but when i stopped to test fire, i ended up with each tire in its own tractor track. the snow was hard and slick. even with the most agressive LT tires, a 4WD wasnt getting out of that. it was like eact tire was in a ice bowl. it was cold, and i had an SKS and a windsheild scraper. for some reason, my gut feeling was telling me to shoot something, but i knew that would be counterproductive at best. after a while some guy with a big duely F350 super gave me a tug.

I'm not stuck in these pics,but this is my 4x4 that I go to the trails with,Im going to get a Brush bar and some bigger more aggressive tires this fall.
[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/M4%5FAiming%5Fat%5FU%2FOFF%5FROAD%5FXTERRA%2EJPG[/img]

[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/M4%5FAiming%5Fat%5FU%2FXTERRA%5FSNOW%5FREAR%2EJPG[/img]

I try not to go into places where I may become stuck. Did that too long ago in an old (new then) Toyota Corolla.But the best one happened in Oct.2000. We were leaving a wet, muddy and quite cold Mingus Mountain deer hunting trip. After pulling 2 other guys in my hunting party out of the mud,we were just about to pull out onto the main road back to Phoenix, my partner in the front seat sees a flashlight coming up out of the forest.(its around 8pm.)I knew we should have taken off but I thought better of it as there were no camps near by. Turns out this guy from Cottonwood had got bogged down "a little" and just needed a tug out.Drop the trailer and we head in a road I wouldn't go down in the dry let alone the foot of water on top of the foot of mud.He tells us he was going to walk 8 miles to the nearest phone to call the wife and that his 7 year old twins were ok with their 15 yr. old brother to spend the night in the stuck truck. I then inform him that there is a major winter storm w/ 12" of snow due tonight! Finally get to his 4x4 Dodge Ram on street tires w/ 30 day temp tags!Its off the road 25' and the ground level is above the hub centers!Tried to pull him out with my F250 Super Duty on BFG muds, just dug 4 trenches. Said "lets go,its starting to snow"! Almost got stuck on the way out. Dropped him & his 3 kids in summer clothing off at a restaurant to get some food in themselves. Thanked me, I wouldn't take anything for the rescue. Just told him I felt sorry for him as he now had to call the wife. "It's not that she'll be mad because you got stuck but that you'll have to explain why you have to make truck payments on your Dodge frozen to the top of Mingus Mountain for the next 5 months."

It was mothers day a few years ago.  My buddy and I were bored so we thought we would go through this little trail and come right back before we had to do family stuff.  We had been down this trail before and it was no big deal just a week earlier, we had also been down it over a dozen times before.  So we are in his '74 land cruiser, jump out and lock the hubs, go about 100 yards and we are not going anywhere.  Apparently it had rained a bit and someone had gone thought a couple times and dug out this one part.  It was sitting on the differentials without a tire on the ground and us without a highlift or a winch, real smart.  Had to get a ride home, fortunately we did have a cell phone, then come back at night with my friends bronco and drag it off.  

edited for clarity, because its 0330 and comprehension is difficult.  

I thought that the whole idea of 4X4's was getting stuck?

My worst was back in 1981, I was fishing for Stripers on a full moon off Arbutis avenue in Staten Island N.Y.

I was driving a 1981 Toyota 4X4 pickup and it was about 1AM when I called it a night. I decided to take a shortcut back to the paved road and put the damn truck face down in a pit about 6ft deep. The fit was so tight I had to crawl out the sliding rear window to unlock the manual hubs. After 2 hours of digging to get at the hubs I was able to get back in the truck and back it out of the hole.

I still miss that little beast, Lots of good times!