Sometimes when you travel in the middle of the winter days or rainy days or beaches or something with a lot of sand .. and your car gets stuck, sunk … This is to be expected when you drive on unpaved roads.
The real question is: How do you get your car unstuck?
Plan ahead
- Always have your phone available beside you just in case.
- Always pack a tool kit for emergency cases and put it in your car, you never know what might happen.
If you are planning on a long travel
The kid should consist of: A shovel, an ice scraper, a Hi-life jack, a Tow strap…
If you live in a place that snows a lot, invest in winter tires.
When you drive in areas which have a lot of sand, avoid sharp corners.
Let some air out
- This is the first thing you should do whenever your car gets stuck in mud, sand, snow or any other similar stuff…
- Let some air out of the tires to increase the surface area of the tires on the ground. You may wonder how much is enough? You can drop the air about 12-15 psi, even less if you have narrow, high-profile tires. Flattening out your tires will allow your care to float over the surface instead of digging a trench.
Rock it
In case your car doesn’t get stuck too deep.
- Keep the wheel straight ahead to have more traction, don’t spin the tires, this will only make your car traps further and deeper. Press the brakes slightly will decrease the spinning.
- Use a very touch the gas pedal very lightly to move the tires really slowly so the tires won’t slip. Throttling up the engine only works for mild incidents. If you car is in a more serious case, you will dig even deeper. Set your car in the lowest gear and move back and forth really slowly to gain traction.
Dig out
- To give the car more faction, use a shovel or an ice scraper to dig snow, sand, mud… has built up in front of the car and all wheels, especially in front of the power wheels. When your tires are flat, they will be widened and easier to drive on sand, mud or snow. Wedge something under the wheels such as: A floor mat, an old coat, a chunk of wood, tree branches… for traction.
- How much should you dig? Dig a channel about 3 foot long and dig all the way down until you can see the bottom of your wheels.
- In case you want to reverse your car out, for example there is water in the front, do all the digging in the behind.
- If you have a jack, also dig out to make a clear and flat area to place the jack, put it on something solid.
- If you have some type of specialized tool exclusively created for this kind of situations like a TracGrabber, do the same thing with the digging then install it to your tire.
Seek for assistance
- It would be better if you have someone with you so they can help you push the car while you hit the pedal. The more people you help, the better. Have them push on the hood or the trunk lid.
- It would be even so much better if you have another car to pull your car out with chains.
Throttle up
- Now with your tires and surface are flattened, throttle up! Set your car in the highest gear and hit the gas pedal while the other push your car at the same time. Remember to countdown for the maximum effect.
- Back up a little before driving forwards, doing this will gives you and your car more momentum.
- If you succeed, don’t forget to re-inflate your tires and wash your car as soon as possible, especially the underside.
If it still doesn’t work…
- In the worst case, when all of your effort proves to no avail, your car is still stuck or even in a worse condition than before, call the emergency services and ask for a tow truck!
Good luck on rescuing your car!
