Years ago before I had a four wheel drive SUV getting stuck in the outdoors got to be routine. Now that I'm back to a two wheel drive van I've had to remember the methods I learned long ago. I had spent the last week fishing Southern Missouri streams and was beat just wanting to break camp and head home for a hot shower. But there was a problem, I was at a private campground that had a circle driveway to access the campground and the exit was blocked due to a erosion and broken water pipe. The drive is cut into the side of a hill on the river side a mound running along the road keeps you from going into the river the other side is cut into the hill. The drive is in bad shape and narrow, I didn't think I could back out. I found a spot I could just turn around but it was very tight. I would need to make many small turns back and fourth a couple of feet at a time. I was about halfway around lying across the road I pulled forward and decided to get out and check my position. This is when I screwed up I put the van in park and took my foot of the brake before setting the parking brake, I also had not straighten the wheel. The van rolled back and to the side dropping down onto a large root hanging up my front bumper. I tried reverse but the back tire just spun, crap I'm not getting out of this one easy.
If I called a tow they would needed to yank one end of my van back to the center of the drive this would heavily damage my van and likely my insurance would salvage it. I had most of what I needed to get unstuck a folding shovel, jack and some boards but not enough to get the job done. I went to the owners house and barrowed several longer scrap boards and got one of the workers to spot for me. The drive was not level it sloped down hill so I used the shovel to level a spot for my jack. I used several boards to keep the jack from sinking and raise the height enough to get off the root. Once it was high enough I used a coupe of longer boards between the root and wheel so it could roll back. The back wheel had stopped right against the mound so I had to repeat the earlier steps and also knock down some of the mound so I could reverse a few inches. I lowered the back wheel onto the boards and said a little prayer and with the help of the spotter was able to get turned around. I will be getting a couple of 2x6's before I head out on my next trip. I've never gotten this badly stuck before and with such a larger vehicle, normally it's just a matter of jacking up the drive wheel and putting down some boards.
If I called a tow they would needed to yank one end of my van back to the center of the drive this would heavily damage my van and likely my insurance would salvage it. I had most of what I needed to get unstuck a folding shovel, jack and some boards but not enough to get the job done. I went to the owners house and barrowed several longer scrap boards and got one of the workers to spot for me. The drive was not level it sloped down hill so I used the shovel to level a spot for my jack. I used several boards to keep the jack from sinking and raise the height enough to get off the root. Once it was high enough I used a coupe of longer boards between the root and wheel so it could roll back. The back wheel had stopped right against the mound so I had to repeat the earlier steps and also knock down some of the mound so I could reverse a few inches. I lowered the back wheel onto the boards and said a little prayer and with the help of the spotter was able to get turned around. I will be getting a couple of 2x6's before I head out on my next trip. I've never gotten this badly stuck before and with such a larger vehicle, normally it's just a matter of jacking up the drive wheel and putting down some boards.
