excluding off road driving 'ranges' etc

i can think of only once when i had a LR V8 110 County

was invited to fish an upper River Tay beat after severe flooding - my host called at my house and we agreed to go in the LR

drove down the track towards the river to be confronted with a stubble field that i was told was easy to drive across in a 'normal' car

without following the golden rule of walking uncertain terrain first i set off

after about 50yds i just sunk and was 'floating' on the floor pan

the whole field was literally liquid clay

it took a tractor with caterpillar tracks (and £20) to get me free

had a few other narrow escapes but never needed a tow

somewhat related - when stalking in Sutherland years ago i managed to tip over a three wheel offroad motorbike - only the soft ground prevented a crushed leg

those tri wheeled bikes were dangerous - used the quad Honda (big red?) afterwards and they were superb even with bambi on the rear rack

Been stuck loads of times, best was 4 tonne Bedford truck (Bloody useless tyres, nothing to do with driver skill! )

nearly got killed when i helped a guy trying to winch his LR with cable attached to a tree and the cable snapped!!!

missed me by inches - felt the air move as it flashed past and cut a 3" diameter silver birch sapling in half

since then i've had an abject fear of winch cables and stay as far away as possible

the horror of snapping steel cables reminds me of my friends father who lost both legs when a cable snapped in our local 'pit'

Yes - went to a local big house for a garden opening in my then fairly new Disco2 TD5, with all the family. We were directed to park in a field at the bottom of a steep slope "because you are in a 4x4" . We had a great afternoon but it poured and poured with rain and when we returned to the car we found it sunk up to the axles in the soft boggy ground........... no problems I thought it's a 4x4, engage difflocked low and go........... not so I just sank the car deeper as it was running on Goodyear Wrangler M&S tyres not AT's. Fortunately not too embarrassing as there were quite a few 4x4's in the same predicament - what was embarrassing was seeing a Subaru Forester and a Freelander just drive off the same patch. Eventually I and all the other stuck bigger SUV's were winched out by an ancient series 2 parked half way up the slope. I went on an offroad driving course the next week and haven't been stuck in a "non playing" soft place ever since! I regularly get the Defender sunk out on the Argyll Forest drives but that's part of the fun and I'm all prepared for it these days. 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

as you say Tim the off road driving courses are worth their weight in gold

one of the 'best' 4x4's when it comes to boggy conditions is the old suzuki - so light it does not sink

but when it gets on the road it 'falls over'

i've towed plenty of others out over the years inc FFRR's but its always been a case of driver error - more 'gas' does NOT dig you OUT of mud but INTO it!

Oh yes - I got my TD5 110 stuck in liquid clay based mud for about 20 minutes halfway up a farm track on a steep hill before eventually managing to rock it out - lesson learned about Goodyear road tyres versus decent mud tyres !

that 'liquid clay' is the worst i've ever encountered - makes regular mud look like tarmac

If your not getting stuck then your not trying hard enough

Winches shouldn't be sold to anyone without a certificate of competence in my opinion. Likewise kinetic recovery ropes. 2010 Disco XS TDV6, 2009 Freelander 2 GS

Previous Landrover products -1990 110 TDI CSW, 2003 TD6 Vogue - RRC TD Vogue, RRC v8 Fleetline, Disco ES V8 LPG, 101 Ambulance "Morph", 1964 SIIa Auto Powered by Jag 4.2 Lump - "Percy".

I got stuck in my first Land Rover (a 1998 300TDi 110) the first time I ever took it off road.

I was completely unaware of basic off roading and assumed (always dangerous!) that a Defender would go anywhere.
However, the very worn basic tyes mean't I got stuck in the first boggy patch.

Fortunately I had fitted a winch two days before and wired it up!

First thing I did the next day was order a set of BFG Mud Terrains, then immedately book myself onto an off road driver awareness course.



I've learnt a lot in the 9 years since then, having done a lot of competitions, challenge style stuff and a trip to Morocco and Croatia in LRs.

elpeede wrote:

If your not getting stuck then your not trying hard enough

Winches shouldn't be sold to anyone without a certificate of competence in my opinion. Likewise kinetic recovery ropes.

nick h wrote:

and you are quite right - kinetic recovery ropes can be very dangerous

Yes, I've seen them take out back windows and rip off a (not very well attached) bullbar!
The latter was me, when I was recovering a third party at a play-day. He'd pop welded it on.

I guess some will never have heard of them... here is one where it goes a little bit wrong... Its not unknown for rear cross members to be ripped clean off.

Want a tow mate? 2010 Disco XS TDV6, 2009 Freelander 2 GS

Previous Landrover products -1990 110 TDI CSW, 2003 TD6 Vogue - RRC TD Vogue, RRC v8 Fleetline, Disco ES V8 LPG, 101 Ambulance "Morph", 1964 SIIa Auto Powered by Jag 4.2 Lump - "Percy".

I was always taught with a KERR, if it doesn't come out after two attempts, stop.

Wire ropes on winches always scare me - owners put them on and then never do any maintenance to them or inspect them for kinks or snags.

I was recently asked to give some lessons to a bunch of guys about caring for the Dynema winch ropes they had fitted to their winches as we use a bigger version of them for our mooring ropes. Two things are essential for good care of a Dynema winch rope - wash mud and sand out of it as soon as you can as the tiny grains of sand will get into the heart of the braiding and acts like cutting paste, severing lots of the very fine carbon strands that make up each strand, when load comes onto the rope. Also, it is essential to use a cover on the winch rope when you are not using it - UV degrades Dynema ropes as quickly as any other manmade fibre rope. Most suppliers put a couple of meters of coreless plaited covering over the hook end of the rope, never cut it off as that is about the best protection from UV that the rope can have when it is one the barrel, although a proper winch cover is even better as that protects the motor as well. 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

I got an Alvis Stalwart stuck on a submerged car in the Thames - Does that count?

I got my classic stuck more times than I care to remember.

I got my P38 stuck on a bank I tried to crest, had to get dragged off of it by a passing pole and his 3 series!

L322 has been in the occasional sticky situation where I've had to really think about how to get out, but touch wood has never let me down.