Silver R/T

I was asked to pull a guy at my aunts house. He has early 90' chevy 2wd truck. I backed up to him and tried to pull him out with not much success. I only pulled him maybe 10-15ft and he kept getting stuck like an anchor. I kinda got stuck myself but Ive put some boards under tires and got out of there. I was wondering if I should've used 4L instead of 4H, maybe any other tips. I know maybe with some snow chains I might've pulled him better.

madhat

Well, when they are stuck stuck, you gotta ****** them and keep on. If they are buried when you get to them, ya gotta dig them out some so you're not pulling an extra ton of mud.

Silver R/T

it was bunch of snow that thawed out and then froze again so both trucks kept on sinking. He finally gave up and told me thanks for help and I went home. If he could've bought some extra rope I could've pulled him once I got out on the street but guy didn't exactly wanted to spend extra $$ to get his truck out.

madhat

That's why I got one of those 4"X30' ****** straps from tractor supply...

JHew84

Exactly, might cost a pretty penny to get one of those long straps initially but after pulling a few people out it tends to pay for itself . I still need to get myself set up like I was when I had my other truck, nice set of straps, heavy duty D-rings, I definitely paid off all that equipment but I let it go with the truck because I thought I wouldn't be getting another any time soon, I was wrong ...

4L works sometimes, but if there's no grip to be had typically it won't do much better. The key is to get a little slack in the line and give them a good tug and if it starts moving (like madhat said) just keep going unless someone starts screaming at you .

I pulled a friend back up onto her driveway a couple weeks ago, probably a good 75ft+ down a hill in pretty deep snow. I put it in 4L and 1st gear and just started creeping down the driveway, yelled back at the guy who was going to tell me when to stop to see if I had tension yet and he tells me I've already got her pulled halfway up the hill . I didn't even feel the Taurus on the other end of the chain! The key is to try not to break traction, which can be difficult in 4L, luckily I had a nice dry driveway to pull on.

jnicewan

i would always try using 4L if you working truck hard. , its increases leverage. just like using prybars and such. it makes it easier on your truck, tranny and drivetrain. you wouldnt want to hook to a trailer and try to start up a steep incline in 3rd gear would you.

Tate

If you are spinning in 4H, 4L is gonna spin just as easy, so there is no benifit. Pulling a heavy load on good surface is quite different than pulling a light vehicle out on slippery surface.

Dartmouth 12V

There are very few low traction situations where 4L will help. By switching to low, you are increasing your torque which breaks traction which is exactly what you don't want to happen.

Placement of the truck doing the towing is very important and often overlooked. Even if you can start with just your front wheels on good traction, you will do so much better. And a lot of people will start on an uphill which is much harder as well.

okish

For those situations i have a 40 foot piece of tug boat rope with loop ends. Get a running start and ****** that sob outta there.... Sometimes they will come out after one ****** sometimes 50...

Dartmouth 12V

While sometimes this is the only way to get enough pulling force, it is also a lot more dangerous. The shock loading is much higher this way. If anyone has to resort to this, use a strap/line with a lot of stretch and strength. The stretch will decrease the shock loading. They make straps specially designed for this purpose that have a lot of stretch to them.

JHew84

True, you can also decrease the danger by wrapping a blanket or something around the middle of the strap/chain, it eats up some of the energy if you end up breaking the strap, or ripping the hook off.

It only took one time having a tow hook fly through the back window of my Bronco to start doing it! Shouldn't have even taken that many times, but what can I say I like to learn things the hard way!

dozer12216

Before I start snatching and jerking, I'm gonna try pulling in straight line and take slack out first. If that doesn't work, I will try from a angle, if possible. The real trick is don't try if you ain't gat enough kahuna's. My brothers generally use their 400 HP 4x4 that weighs 45000 pounds. It also has 8 tires six feet tall. If it won't come out,they just back over it and forget it.