stuck in the mud - tow ropes ?

Hello,

We went to a show over the weekend where everyone parked in a field. Rain and traffic churned up the field and made it very muddy. On the way out, my car got stuck. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, it got stuck in the snow the other year! (it's a 60 plate Mondeo).

I had got stuck in a muddy patch and was pulled out by something that looked like a quad bike. Whatever it was, it must have been stronger than it looked. I didn't get a close look but it seemed the chap that rescued me used a plastic coated cable to pull me out.

Now I was wondering, to stop this happening again, would something like this help:

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Some reviews say they work, others say they are too short?

Could I have used them to reverse back onto firmer ground?

I was also wondering about a tow rope to pull me out. I googled and found a land rover forum where they were saying not to use "standard" tow poles and tow ropes. Their logic was that these are designed for pulling broken down cars along roads, which requires less force than trying to pull a car out of mud. That makes sense to me.

I also think that if you were towing along a road you would not want a long tow rope whereas if you are stuck in mud, you want a long rope so that the rescue vehicle is nowhere near the mud.

However someone off roading in a landrover and getting completely submerged in mud is completely different to the front wheels of my Mondeo sinking in a muddy puddle, so I am wondering how heavy duty my tow rope would need to be. Any ideas/recommendations?

Thanks, Stephen.

Reply to
Stephen
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You want something with some spring in it. A good cheap and easy to stow tow 'rope' is a length of the flat webbing strap that is used on lorries to hold the load on. You can often pick them up from the roadside.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

The webbing strap sounds ideal, if you make a habit of muddy puddles...

I once spliced two broken lifting slings together to make a tow rope, using my Jack knife. An ex Merchant Navy friend taught me how to do it, but I don't think I ever used it other than on a 1936 Standard 10.

I always carried a shovel in the back of the Mondeo in snowy weather and used that one day to dig out a silly woman who got stuck on a road she shouldn't have ventured down...

As for the mats, I've carried bits of old matting in the boot, with a piece of twine so that they get towed along until you're out of trouble.

Reply to
Gordon H

Ditto. The bits of string to pull them out are essential.

Reply to
Davey

Great getting a RWD car out forwards or a FWD out backwards. Problematic the other way around.

Reply to
Adrian

IME you can get a 7.5T lorry out with a telehandler & a bit of 8mm nylon rope, it doesn't take muc extra force unless you've spun the wheels & dug yourself in.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

Roughly how long is the matting? The criticism of these folding plastic tracks I mentioned seems to be that they may be too short.

Reply to
Stephen

Thanks. The advice to use a 1" thick rope was on a land rover forum which I now think was about off road use, where the land rovers got stuck waist high in mud. A 4x4 submerged on all sides is in a different league to my Mondeo with just the front tyres stuck in some mud, so perhaps the comments about the force don't apply in my situation.

Reply to
Stephen

If you tried to tow a Mondeo in a situation that required a 1" thick rope, all you would do is pull the towing eye out!

Most places that sell tow ropes that are rated to vehicle weight, Anything much heavier-duty than you need will be a waste. The key is to pull steadily without jerking; one of the few occasions where an auto comes into its own.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

I haven't used any since I got a FWD car, but probably 18" or so, just enough to get momentum.

Are you going to make a habit of getting bogged down? :-)

Reply to
Gordon H

How about one of these and a nearby tree:

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We used to use them for shifting machine tools around. :-)

Reply to
Gordon H
[...]

Heh!

More suited for moving heavier loads shorter distances perhaps.

Not to mention the need to only get stuck where there is a convenient tree...

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

It was interesting watching four blokes position something like the QE2 and other large vessels to a position that has to be right within an inch or two so it sits accurately on the Keel blocks in a dry dock. One each side of the dock at the Bow and the same at the Stern, as the water level drops the dock staff direct the chaps on the Tirfors to pull in or ease out as they line the ship with some pointers suspended exactly over the middle of the dock which are also lowered as the level drops, the bow just touching the first one to get the fore and aft position correct. All done by eye and experience of a couple of blokes usually in their 60's or 70's. It's about 14 years since I was last in such a dock so I expect the lining up process has been whizz kidded and made more complicated by now using something that only a person with a degree is allowed to use. But the Tirfors will be hard to replace for simplicity of operation.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

Very useful equipment...

When I was an engineering apprentice at a large company I served some time with an old fitter who claimed to have straightened the Forth Bridge with one blow of a 14lb sledge hammer.

I wondered why Alf Bridgewood was never recognised for this achievement. :-)

Reply to
Gordon H

If you wish to suspend it in the air then abit of 1" poly rop is a bit borderlinne once you've allowed for the splices, for any normal use it's overkill. (So about right for a bogged Land Rover, but you'll bend the towing eye point on a Mondeo)

Reply to
Duncan Wood

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