Epic Recovery

[Srikumar]

I was browsing through some offroad content and came across this epic recovery that happened recently at the top of a bike trail in the US which had deep ravines on either side.  What the driver was thinking to go up there alone is another question.

 

The owner had to abandon the vehicle, and after about 36 hours a bunch of offroaders helped do the recovery anchoring the car on the other side. 

 

The video of the recovery is there in the below link

https://www.thedrive.com/news/36696/that-infamous-jeep-wrangler-stuck-on-a-dangerous-bike-trail-has-been-saved

 

We had a similar recovery at Qudra about 6 months back when a car was stuck on a side slope with the hard rock formation below it. The only way to recover the vehicle was to anchor the vehicle from the top of the dune on the left side while slowly pulling it from the back. In our drive, i think @Gaurav had prevented the car from sliding by anchoring the left front wheel with the car at the top.

 

 

 

 

 

[Frederic]

Oh I saw that in the news, but was not aware that they were able to recover the vehicle. Fantastic teamwork !

[Gaurav]

Fantastic teamwork and God's miracle that no one got hurt.

• Risking so many people lives was insane for piece of metal.
• Standing on winch line was the most dangerous stuff.
• Anchoring 20 people on left is another daring act.

Safest option:

• Push the vehicle in ravine and claim the insurance (if possible).
• Drag all the way uphil without course correction as under body damage is much cheaper than anyone life.
• Use the power of stuck Jeep as much as possible, which I don't see it in video.

 

Many thanks to @Junaid Sayeed and his friend from Jeepers letting us recover Sheri's Pajero by safely anchoring.

[Chaitanya D]

1 hour ago, Gaurav said:

Many thanks to @Junaid Sayeed and his friend from Jeepers letting us recover Sheri's Pajero by safely anchoring.

Yes I have witnessed this recovery live ( 20 Mar 2020) , it was great to see @Gaurav marshalling the resources helped by @Ale Vallecchi.

Jeepers ( @Junaid Sayeed) showed true offroading spirit, coordinating a very tactful recovery 👍. 

See  below to the drive thread 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Chaitanya D

[Chaitanya D]

On 3/20/2020 at 9:26 PM, J J said:

Ah I had a friend in the jeepers group who sent me this .. didnt know the recovered vehicle was part of ours ! Below video 

 

On 3/22/2020 at 8:53 PM, Gaurav said:

Trip Report: Al Qudra - 20 Mar 2020

It is indeed a great moment to drive to a meeting point (ahead of time) seeing the majority of cars have already lined up "UNDERSTANDING" the importance of time and respecting each other time. Almost everyone was on time and within less than 10 minutes of distant meet and greet we head towards the deflation point under the shade.

Really appreciate that everyone understand the importance of social distancing and also continue reminding each other, when needed. 

The idea of cutting short the briefing to save time is also helping now in COVID days to spend half the time in briefing, so we can get started faster. After a quick briefing and helping a hatchback to get out from the sand (Qudra - trademark), we assigned the convoy numbering.

@Ale Vallecchi has been a fantastic support to help and manage the whole convoy from start to finish. As I started moving, Ale has made sure that all 15 cars line up in the correct order and keep on maintaining the order through out the drive. He was also the first responder to all the stuck and refusals and he manage to recover all of them with a great efforts and teamwork.

@Jamy B. has been very calm and confident in her second lead for the first time and she totally understood the gravity and responsibility of this convoy position. She successfully manage to lead, detour (when needed) or hold the convoy in place together during the whole drive. Really well done.

@Chaitanya D and his newly armored Patrol Y62 was keeping an eagle eye from sweep position to make sure that almost everyone (more on that later) was in convoy position and following the convoy discipline at all the time. Really well done.

As we progress through I was quite impress to see @Colin Jordan getting used with his pickup truck and he was truly excited at times to push it more and more. I'm sure he will have his fill in Sweihan next week. @Cara Jordan has been patiently riding with Colin with her fingers crossed that Colin learn his truck well, so that Cara can get back her wrangler.

@asifk being the only absolute newbie in this drive was quiet forthcoming and knowledgeable with his vehicle dynamics and offroading. He was also well prepared with his briefing, COVID precautions and carrying his own radio with the correct frequency setup.

 

@sheri Incident update - Extreme recovery

After almost half way through the drive, I got a call from Ale that Sheri has been stuck on the side slope at a very weird angle. After analyzing the situation, it seems that @sheri didn't follow the convoy discipline and went to do the side sloping on a very dangerous dune that has a solid sand formation (almost rocks) at the base of that dune. With the help of @Ale Vallecchi, @luwaimn and few others we manage to break that rocks to almost flat bed instead of spikes.

While winching Sheri's LWB Pajero backwards it started sliding down and almost after half way it was about to hit the rock at a tilted angle, that it has a greater chance of flipping on to the rocky bed. At this time, we took a step back and decided to anchor the Pajero front wheel with Ale's FJ Cruiser on top of the dune with 3 straps that we have had, so that it won't flip. Using of strap in such scenario is highly advisable as we dont want the flex of viking or synthetic ropes that might stretch when car lift off to flip and worsen the situation with its inherent elasticity.

During this whole recovery process Jeepers were very helpful to let us do what we want to do and how we want to do the recovery - as that was my main fear when initially I was reluctant in taking their help, because in such extreme recoveries if too many people start leading and guiding then chances of failure increases multi-fold.

We have removed Ale FJC and used Jeeper's jeep on top with synthetic rope tied with straps to Sheri's Pajero front alloy wheel and spooled the winch to max twice (to contain the flex). Another Jeepr whose name was J or Jeh helped me down in reversing the Pajero with a very well controlled and coordinated efforts with 3 cars involved and within few minutes Pajero was on flat ground without any damage.

Thanks everyone for your wonderful support and patience to manage such extreme recovery with a very cool and calm approach.

Videos from the same recovery and report