RECOVERY FROM THICK MUD. A new way of doing it!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- June 1993 and a trip across the fabled Makgadikgadi Pans in Botswana, driving my Land Rover Defender and a friend in his Range Rover Classic, saw one of us get stuck in the mud no less than seven times, and me, once. This was the first time I had seriously set out to capture an expedition on video tape. The quality by comparison to today’s HD is really poor, but the story is a good one.
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Watching old footages makes me happy, I am not sure why but it really is a treat watching this story.
when we got stuck on the pans we used sand to get out, worked absolutely perfect!
we jacked the landy up with the highlift, got a big shopper grocery bag and shovel, walked to the grassy bits that are on the edge of the pan. and in the grassy bits there are some sandy parts, so we shoveled the bag full of sand, walking back to the car each carrying one of the carry handles to distribute the weight, (it was very hot and heavy) then we put the sand under the tyres and this worked so well because it spreads out by itself and you have alot of traction on it, plus the sand itself doesnt sink into the mud anymore, so do this on all tyres and boom you are out!
The hi-lift and angling the winch cable route is the way we removed fence post on the farm.
Good story Andrew. I must admit I’ve never seen a high lift used like that.
I have used the spare wheel standing up and facing down the winch rope and winched over it to break the suction.
It’s amazing what you can do with a little grey matter thinking.
Correction Andrew, I was given kinetic Strap in 1974. They were used as Mirage fighter aircraft brake chute shock absorbers and had to be replaced after a number of landings. I once used it with my Landy to move a Bren Carrier that was abandoned in SA. I still have the strap, but should have taken out a patent with hindsight.
Loved the story! I'm amazed that you still have the tapes from these early trips. Great content, I was probably a kid in these days and I do remember my dad and his friends having to struggle with navigation in the same way. Thank you for sharing.
my dad was in the military and i remember some old manuals about recovering vehicles, i don't have them anymore but i remember one of the tecniques to recover a truck from deep mud was prety much like the trick with the hi lift, but instead of the hi lift you build with logs and rope an A shaped frame, thick logs because in the diagrams i remember a M54 truck stuck as the victim , then you lay it down in an angle in fron of the truck you are recovering with the top of the frame pointing towards the fron of the stuck vehicle making shure the legs are firmly planted in the ground , on the top of the frame you tie the cable or rope you are using to pull and then you start pulling, hopefully the a frame will rise the front of the vehicle and and make it leap enough so it can pull itself out
I love the old videos of "Vintage" Over-landing...
I've done something similar with a 2.5t ratchet strap and my car jack when I bogged by 2WD TownAce on a sand track.
Worked great.
Did some damage to the jack from operating it in fine sand, but got the car out.
great story, love the goodrich placement on the coke bottle. the great influencer.
Actually, not doen intentionally! But I saw it too. I am sure BFG will be pleased.
Happy suppliers/sponsors = more or better goodies👍
Another really enjoyable story video, the old footage really helped portray it, excellent watch.
Great story! Love the old film footage!
Yes, I enjoy this and all your Stories. Thank You
Really enjoyed this story! Thanks for all you do!
Great Vid. Enjoy the vintage footage..
Very amusing, Andrew. I was also surprised at your choice of background music being 'the Pastoral Symphony' by Beethoven. It suited the programme very well!
Great story, fantastic footage.
It would be interesting to see you produce a video showing the combined jacking/pulling technique in action.
Your wife in this video is so similar to your daughter! Great vid.
hello how are you, just like you I am a big fan of the Range Rover Classic, I always wanted to ask if there are more complete videos of the Darien Gap crossing, additionally you can explain to me where the fenders changed when they placed tires for large measure , the fenders are cut and then in other images they are seen again with their original fenders
BBC's Top Gear trio also faced the similar difficulties in that Macaticati salt desert segment !
Except Richard Hammond's Opel ,....... it was just hilarious to watch the misery of James May and Clarkson through out that journey !
Crazy, but that’s what makes adventures and resulting memories. 👍🇦🇺
Wow that's a cool technique thank you! On a side-note besides the deep mud I noticed getting stuck in the sand with those narrow tires make sense everyone says they don't sink in but they do my 285 75 don't and they're not Super why'd they are just wider than the ones in the video. Everyone calls them wide but come to America and look at whatever on the factory Jeep from the showroom floor. It's about the same as 285 75 16. So anyway going super wide isn't great but going a little wider than in this video is excellent because I can float over most of that in my Discovery series 2 with my 285 75 16. I know the theory about wider ones dragging but look at the trucks going through super deep mud with high-horsepower revving up high doing the exact opposite everyone says to do and they float right through the mud! It seems that the opposite of all the theories actually works. Not super wide but wider and maintaining momentum. A little wider than what's in that video isn't going to create a bunch of drag my disco has less than 200 horsepower and fully loaded with people through sick grain Sonoran Desert sand wet or dry float right over it in high range first gear as my choice! I'm starting to notice that a lot of the stuff I hear about versus what I see in real life is a different story. I feel like a lot of the old-timers say to do what they do because that's what they're used to doing when I go in the same spot and do it better with slightly wider tires every time! All the theories aside more rubber on the ground is better and it's okay your engine can power through that little bit of drag from slightly wider it's okay 1 inch or more a little wider is not going to hold you back you're going to float over the surface better and not sink in. Not only doesn't make sense but I've literally proven it in real life. The tires in my profile pic are 285 75 16 they don't even look crazy wide. I feel like nowadays we determine wide based on if it rubs when U-Turn without trimming so really that's just vehicle build dependent like the fenders and stuff and has nothing to do with the weight and distribution of traction. Feels like if the Disco came better equipped to handle bigger wider tires without rubbing than the consensus would be of a larger size to be okay and not considered too wide but since anything a little bigger rubs then oh no we have to use super skinny Pizza cutters hahaha or how about just do a little trimming and noticed it all the disco's with a little wider not crazy but a little wider and taller will outdo all of the other disco's Offroad. And just because the little skinny Tire ones can do anything at all doesn't mean they're doing it as effectively as they could a little wider and taller. They always say that the old-timers used these and I'm like yeah the old-timers got stuck constantly but when they didn't get stuck they felt as if that success validated their skinny Tire! So now watching videos of guys crawling up rocks and going through crazy things not necessarily rock crawlers but just pretty extreme stuff you see wider and taller tires and never ever pizza cutter tires doing it. I'm tired of little tiny skinny tires being justified just because they can merely pull things off. We need an actual side-by-side comparison of the exact same vehicle with skinny Pizza Cutters and slightly wider taller tires not crazy balloons just slightly wider and taller like 285 75 16. There will be no condition where the bigger ones will not outdo the pizza cutters and if there is then it will probably be a tie or the difference will be negligible but the difference for the larger ones will be some scenarios not getting stuck the way you do with skinny ones. The point to an old series or Willys Jeep isn't valid because they didn't do the things we do and if they did they were much much much lighter weight and that helped tremendously with such skinny Tire it was proportionate
Hahaha Coke and BFG product placement, love it
If only I could get Coke to notice it.
That was great Andrew...who was the young bloke with the beard that sounded like you???? I likes the old fashioned camp site.
hahahaha like the top gear Botswana special . stuff is sticky
Nice story. It looked like one of the tents was a classic Springbar tent, made in Utah?
That angled pull technique is helluva interesting - I'm surely going to try it next time. Oh, and by the way; kinetic or 'snatch straps' have been around for a good few years before 1993! Still have the (well-used but still good) Warn strap I bought from Acsa Park in JHB in 1986.
I doubt very much if it was not a kinetic strap you bought. It was a pull strap that would have had a small amount of stretch, and not sold as either because labels at that time did not distinguish between kinetic or pull. That came later, when the idea of kinetic straps became common in 4WD around 1996/7, and were called, Tuggum straps for a while. My first kinetic was a WARN, and very good it was.
Mmm...you're kinda right. When I got it I just thought it was a good tow strap but since then I've used it plenty of times for recovery by the "snatch" or "kinetic" method - it really works well (and often). It's red(ish), 75mm wide and about 8 metres in length and has a "give" of at least a metre.
We use the same technique to pull stumps and idiots out of the mud since I was a kid in the sixties. we had lots of idiots back then with the hippy movement coming west to New Mexico.
Another great story Andrew! No MAxTrax, no snatch line, thats adventure!! Is the watch your wearing in 1993 the same one you wear these days?
Yes sir, it is. In Feb it will be 37 years on my arm.
Amazing!! What brand and model?
Len Silvester he did a video on that watch, look it up. It’s a Rolex.
Len Silvester Its a Rolex Submariner. They are fantastic watches. They will last multiple lifetimes.
3:40 why I will never buy a LandRover ever again !
My first trip to Bots was when I was 16 with two defenders that we had to dig out a few times on the pans. Now I have a 4 month old baby and I’m trying to figure out how I can still go over landing 😂
I did my first big trip with kids, when my daughter was 8 months old.
4xoverland haha I’m going to show my wife your reply! Proof it can be done! 😂
brilliant
Any comment about the tire pressure? I'd reckon: as low as possible, but on the other hand you're driving at higher speed which lets them get hot. But at least when debugging one could go down to less than a bar, I think.
Wow a slightly fatter Tire can go right through that easy but somehow skinny ones are always praised for what they can do. How about we judge things for what they cannot do when a slightly wider Tire can go right through all that I've literally done it. Most of that ground was so easy for a 285 75 16. Some of the mud yeah but the sand that's crazy I couldn't get stuck if I tried with 285 75 16 aired down. I feel like the old-timers talk good about skinny pizza cutter tires just because that's what they're used to and all the stuff that they did make it through makes them feel as if that's the best choice I suppose on a super lightweight series or Willys Jeep yeah it's more proportionate to be skinny and they hardly had any power but vehicles have more power now wider gives you more rubber underground length and width it's no argument haha. Now don't get me wrong super-wide isn't good. But I feel like half the time we judge what's appropriate based on if it rubs when you turn from the factory without trimming. Or super old rigs that can't do hardly anything that new ones can do. You watch the Jeeps in Southwest American Desert Storm rock crawling Trails or deep crazy mud with heavy right foot and tall wide tires. That's always what makes it you don't even see videos otherwise because skinny can't do it. Again every went to says skinny is good if that's what they're used to and they're only seen the victories that they're skinny had and not realizing the failures probably wouldn't have happened with a bit wider and taller Tire. I always hear stories of what they used to do and it's always getting stuck on stuff it seems easy now.
BFG and Coke and Andrew - :-) and great 'pictures'
Ahahaaahahaa!! Who’s the young guy with the beard? I recognize the voice, but nothing else!
From this old video, you used to spend the night in tents on the ground. Why do you now choose to sleep in a rooftop tent or make a home inside your car? What did you no longer like in a traditional tent on the ground?
Andrew, I've taken your online video courses and I have a question regarding camera settings. I'm relatively new but it seems to me that the shutter speed is higher and I only say because of when a fly comes into the scene it was very crisp. Is there a particular reason you are doing this? Exposure perhaps? Thank you.
I bit of a complex question to address here. A very fast shutter speed will cancel out frame blending, which means, every frame is ultra sharp in terms of movement in the frame. This can be disturbing. Ideally, video should be shot between 25-100th/sec frame exposure. The ideal is around 50th/sec. But it only makes a big difference when there is movement in the frame. With lots of movement, a very high shutter speed, above 500th sec can be ugly and disturbing. But with little movement, its not noticed as much.
The thread continues on methods to trap the buzz.
I liked the CV carb.'s on my MG, they weren't too much unlike my motorcycle's. I know of one brand that had a problem at high altitude - insufficient signal to raise the slide.
Yet another entertaining story from you Andrew, thank you. Are the double wiper blades on the 110, first seen @3:15, a South African option or a St Pierre White addition?
double wiper blades were my own design and conversion. Based on what I saw on a rally car. The water spray nozzle was located between the wiper blades and it could remove mud in an instant.
Have you done a movie about the best old 4x4? Something for under $20,000... Land Rover or an old Land Cruiser etc....
One reason I have my winch mounted low on the car is because if I am stuck I will be pulling up instead of forward into the bank I have created by being stuck. Not the same but along similar line in my way of thinking.
Please any thoughts on the new Discovery 5?
Thanks for the videos 😀
Its wonderful to drive, really nice interior. The exterior looks like the design team got to work late so didn't have any time to do anything different, so they made it look like every other car Land Rover produces. And the only changes they did make, made it look like a Kia. Its a highly complex, digitally-controlled luxury SUV. That is what it is. Its probably quite good at getting to the ski slopes in the snow. Its like a D4 with most of its practicality taken away.
4xoverland would be nice to do a video about it and it's overlanding potential.. I suspect would get lots of views (-:
Thanks again (-:
I'm not sure it would be of interest. Overland travellers don't consider it as a vehicle capable of true adventure travel, because, quite plainly, it isn't. Poor payload, inappropriate wheels and tires, suspension that cannot be upgraded or changed in any way, etc., etc. So I would not have much good to say about it and it would just annoy most viewers who would click on the video hoping for a Land Rover fanboy's review.
I'm not sure it would be of interest. Overland travellers don't consider it as a vehicle capable of true adventure travel, because, quite plainly, it isn't. Poor payload, inappropriate wheels and tires, suspension that cannot be upgraded or changed in any way, etc., etc. So I would not have much good to say about it and it would just annoy most viewers who would click on the video hoping for a Land Rover fanboy's review.
Guy seems a little mental packing that Range Rover to the gills like that. That thing looks like it has a pencil width before it is just sitting on the bump stops lol.
Oh, it was. The trouble was, in those days, were were no uprated springs available for the Range Rover. I owned one for 8 years, and that is still well below max load, and yet it drags its backside around. It was unavoidable.
the back end of the range rover looks very low, was it overloaded a bit Andrew?
A bit overloaded. No uprated springs were available then.
@@4xoverland It was very overloaded. 180l of petrol in tanks, 80 l in Jerry cans on the roof and 2 spare tyres, the roof rack weighed 60kg empty. It was fitted with heavy duty springs (green stripe), and Bilstein shocks. The self leveling unit never worked, even when renewed. It was eventually just removed. Mark Eltringham
@@thesalesacademy1701 Hi Mark. Yes it was. The back tyres would dig in so easily. And those green-stripe HD springs were so soft, I could not see any difference when I fitted them to mine.
Andrew, the video is unlisted yet TH-cam has it on suggested videos, hope this hasn't ruined an upload schedule. :|
Nothing beats the looks of a 2 door classic Range Rover.I wonder how much fuel you both had on board as these V-8's eat fuel while moving.
Great de bogging tip ...
You have to buy an old Range Rover Classic, mate!
true with navigation.. if the US turns off the GPS satellites most of the world is well stuffed ( me included )
888johnmac a lot of the worlds GPS units now use the Russian Glonass satellite system also to make them more accurate. The European and Chinese also have their own GPS systems so they don't have to rely on the US. If the US turned their system off a lot of navigation units can already use something else and everything being made would switch straight over to them and wouldn't even notice.
aah thanks, I didn't know that
Andrew with a beard...
Am I the only one thinking of Top Gear?
Compare to this Top Gear is Fake Adventures...Senseless at all !
You would think that someone can learn from his fails. Maybe 7 times was too still to little? :D
That day I got stuck 4 times, Andrew once, I was in front only 1/2 the time. We were 5 up they were 2. The last bogging down was for fun as we knew we were going to get stuck trying to cross the pan
We had a great time with little resources and always knew we were overloaded but just drove carefully.