My first 4 wheel drive truck

[Ron in Indiana]

Dec 1977 I bought my first 4x4 truck, a 1978 Dodge W 200 Club Cab with a 360 and automatic with limited slip rear axle. In March of 1978 we were hit with a blizzard that paralyzed all of NE Indiana and the surrounding area for three days. After being cooped up for three days we were able to get out to try to get to town a half mile away. My neighbor had a 3/4 ton Chevy 4x4 so the two of us decided to blast the snow drifts to get to town. He wanted to go first which was fine with me so I would pull him out when he got stuck in the drifts. As we ventured up our street more neighbors suffering from cabin fever joined in the effort. Everyone helped shovel, hook up the chains or jump in the beds of our trucks to ride to town. After 2 1/2 hours of breaking drifts and pulling the Chevy out we made it to town.

A week or so later I took my then young family out to go wheeling in the snow. We came across a kid in a short wheelbase Chevy half ton trying to get down a country road that was drifted. I pulled up beside him with my wife and two kids when he tells me there's NO WAY to get through. He had ruts in the snow from his wide tires so I put my truck in HI -Loc and I proceeded to make my run. I was half way down the road when it got pretty deep and snow was flying to where I couldn't see. My wife was yelling at me saying I better not get stuck with two kids in the truck, my son only a year old. I had to back up twice to hit it but with the long wheelbase I broke through. After this spot a woods broke the snow and it was clear. I turned around and drove back to the kid who was still sitting there watching my run. I pulled up and said, " Nope there's no way to get through.... with a Chevy" I drove off with the kid having a disgusted look on his face. I miss that truck.

[MoparNorm]

OK...ha! ha! Great story Ron!
Being a Jeep guy this is hard for me to tell...
We had piled 6 people into my home made 4x4 B Van and proceeded up to Mt. San Gregornio, on a Friday afternoon after work, to cross country ski.



We arrived after dark and started up the trail head road in total darkness, at about 11PM. It started snowing and the visibility was pretty poor. The snow was about 3-4 feet deep, but I had a set of tracks to follow and we came upon a group of 5-6 Jeeps parked in a ditch, which gave us barely enough room to get by, we traveled on another 2 or three miles and I began to get worried that I could find a place to turn around and park, since the mountain was on one side and a cliff was on the other side.
I finally found a place to park and the 6 of us made a small camp and we spent the night in a clearing. At first light we put on our skies and took off, up the mountain for a beautiful day of CC skiing.
About 4 hours later a Ranger on skis meets up with us and asks, "Who does the Dodge Van belong to?" I'm thinking crud! I must have parked in a forbidden zone or past the wilderness area bountries..."I do, is there a problem?"
"Oh, no" said the Ranger, I just wondered how you built that thing and wanted to comment upon your driving skills, you made it miles past those stuck Jeeps!"

Ha! Ha! We thought they had parked for the night, he said that they were stranded there for a day and after we got done skiing, could I pull them out?

After much laughing, we quickly loaded up our gear and rushed back to the scene of mayhem and with the Dodge Van, pulled out 5 of the 6 stuck Jeeps, one guy had managed to get free on his own...it was great fun!

[JimmieD]

Hah, great story, Ron! My ultimate joy was to go down to the lakebed [which I knew like the back of my hand] in the Town Wagon. Quite often a Toyota or Chevy was good and stuck and I'd pull them out.

"Wow, those Power Wagons sure are neat, no wonder they're so famous..."

[Me] "Yeah, I want to get one some day too..."

"What!!? You don't like this one?!!!?"

"Yeah, love it, but it isn't a Power Wagon. It's only 2WD, but it's a Dodge, kid, a Dodge...."

[Jake]

Great stories guy's, which brings me to my own ignorant episode of snow and stupidity.
It was the spring of 2004 on a bright sunny day when I decided it was time to try out my wifes new Rubicon in the mountains just east of us. We still had not had a chance to try out those cool axle locks.
The snow was getting deeper and deeper beside the road on our way up the mountain as my three kids and I traveled up the the main road towards the summit.
We spotted the perfect road that had not been plowed all winter and decided to drive along it to see where it went. Soon we were traveling through about two metric feet of snow and still climbing. Everything looked good until the road made a sharp turn to the right, thats when we stopped and realized that we were pretty much hung up and really stuck.
I stepped out of the jeep and immediately my shoes filled up with wet cold snow, this is when I realized that I had all the necessary gear in my truck which was still in the garage at home ready for immediate emergency of any kind.
We tried to call my wife and realized we had no cell service anywhere within several miles.
Thats when my two boys got busy and by using some wood pieces they were able to dig the snow out from underneath the jeep, this gave me the opportunity to drive it in even deeper.
After three hours of warming up in the jeep and getting progressively more stuck and closer to running out of gas. The very real possibility of spending the night and rationing the fuel just to survive kept me going.
Then I finally realized my problem, the axles were locked in and thats why I couldn't get the jeep back on the road. I disengaged both axles and proceeded to drive out of that road like it was summer time.
What a ridiculous way to learn when not to use axle locks, we still laugh about it today.

[sagarverma]

Great stories with good explanation shared guys.....