Cervantes Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Oh yes - got stuck in the mud big time whilst watching the tour de France last year in Belgium. The field was reasonably OK when we first got there, but more and more vans arriving combined with 18 hours of non-stop rain meant no-one could get out. The young lad in a pick-up truck made a fortune that day! Have a laugh at our miserable exit here. Towed from the muddy field 09/07/2014: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 My Duetto was stuck in sand at a beach campsite in Grimaud. I used the yellow skid mats to get me out and they worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody. Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 bazooka - 2015-01-09 7:24 PM Been stuck twice traction controle useless,now use plastic grips under driving wheel sbut rear wheels still sink in overnight,best to avoid grass unless very dry.Helps if you can park on a down slope. Baz I always put milk crate sides under each wheel , then no sinking happens . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I don't have much faith in the thin plastic anti-slip mats because they don't have much grip under driving wheels but they perhaps have some value if pre-placed under non-driving wheels, to spread the load and maybe prevent you from sinking in so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 But these ladder-type grips have helped me out quite a few times, and they are not too much of fag to lay out and get under the driving wheels as you park up, when conditions look or might become a bit slippy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 And it's not just wet UK conditions which can catch you out. We went to a campsite in Carcasonne, France, which was on sandy ground with lots of smallish trees. Madame warned me (in sign language which I only later understood) about soft ground but I nevertheless failed to spot that I was leaving the firmer ground as I pulled just a little further foirward to give be room to reverse into a suitable position. Down went the front end into softer sand and the wheels started to spin. I unloaded the car from the trailer, then unhitched the trailer and moved that out of the way and only then tried to reverse out but it was no good. Short of a major digging/ramping operation of the sort you see in films about the Desert Rats, for which I was illequipped in both equipment and inclination, there was no way I was getting out of this patch of soft sand, even though the rear wheels of the MH were still on solid ground. "Madame, je ai besoin d'un tracteur, s'il vous plait" did the trick and Monsieur turned up a few minutes later, had a discrete chuckle and then got his neighbour's little tractor and a rope. Only a tiny little tractor but with its pull and judicious use of gentle power on my part, out we came. We saw one or two other MHs drive over the same patch of softer ground during our stay and none of them got stuck. I think it was a combination of our larger MH's extra weight per wheel (nearly 1,000kg per wheel) and the fact that I stopped on the soft ground which did it. The ground look a bit scrufier but there was no real indication of impending hazard. Not sure how i would have got out if I hadn't managed to get Monsieur on side by playing the self-effacing English plonker, so he felt sympathetic and borrowed his neighbour's tractor. I suppose I could have tried pulling with our little car at the same time as using the MH engine (I do carry a towing strap) and I might have been able to dig in the rope-ladder-type anti-slip thingy but I suspect it would have had to be a call to the breakdown service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Cervantes - 2015-01-17 8:44 AM The young lad in a pick-up truck made a fortune that day! Have a laugh at our miserable exit here. Towed from the muddy field 09/07/2014: Just out of interest, how much are you handing over? :-D Looks like €5, a very enterprising young man. I’ve never been stuck in the UK. If I’m parking on grass or any suspect surface I always use 18mm ply boards to spread the load, under all four wheels. Did get stuck in Spain once. I parked, along with a couple of cars, on solid clay soil to visit a bodega. Unknown to me it poured with rain for the 30 minutes we were inside. :$ You can guess the rest. Were towed out by a pleasant and helpful Spaniard and his ‘JCB’ – I gave him €10, which he did not want to accept - it was well worth it. Cattwg :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I suppose if you treat yourself to a MH like this, you could rely on getting out and also make a few bob towing others! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cervantes Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Cattwg - 2015-01-18 11:59 AM Cervantes - 2015-01-17 8:44 AM The young lad in a pick-up truck made a fortune that day! Have a laugh at our miserable exit here. Towed from the muddy field 09/07/2014: Just out of interest, how much are you handing over? :-D Looks like €5, a very enterprising young man. The going rate was €15, and he towed 12 of us out! The only one who made it unaided was an Aussie who put snow chains on and took the longest run up he could to get some momentum. The young lad driving was a bit inexperienced in towing and gave us a couple of fierce yanks (understandable given the conditions) which bent the towing eye, but at that stage we were just happy to be out of the mud and on our way to the next stage of the Tour de France. It continued raining for the next 12 hours which helped to get the mud off the front of our motorhome. We've never been on grass since! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I went to the National Show at Peterborough a couple of years ago when it became a very wet weekend. We arrived early and got on without difficulty but the ground was already wet and it carried on raining, so conditions got much worse. We made the best of the Show on the Friday but the conditions were poor and it wasn't much fun. Anticipating chaos when everyone started to want to leave, Tractors were already active on site pulling MHs on to pitching areas so I decided to get going on the Saturday morning. We were pitched in rows on grass but there was a gravel roadway at the end of our row about 50 metres from me and because no one else had started to try to move at that stage, by using my ladder-tpe grips to get going and then keeping moving steadily without wheelspin, I was able to reach the gravel without help. But it was touch and go and i did leave leave muddy tracks in the grass, simply by driving over it. Once on the gravel road it was straightforward getting out. I was lucky because I read later that getting everyone off site did turn into a major operation, although as I recall the organisers did remarkably well, organising plenty of tractors to do the pulling - but it must have taken ages to get everyone off. Clearly there are risks pitching on grass with a MH and I usually go for hardstanding if its availalble, but I don;t balk at pitching on grass and if the conditions are dry I prefer it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberrat Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 My MH is 4x4 so not too much danger if getting stuck, but not impossible without aggressive tyres (which I don't have), but it's not all smugness of course, if you are at a site and everyone else is stuck, guess who has to pull the others out (unless I stay in bed and close the blinds) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Some years ago when staying on a forestry commission site near Keilder Water I had the pleasure of towing a full blown Land Rover out of trouble. Admittedly he had driven into an area of soft mud and I was on a hard standing but I hooked him up and gently towed him out in reverse gear with him driving forward as well. For the rest of the holiday I never let him forget it asking him if he was OK everyntime we met. The day he left we were out walking but when we came back there was a rather nice bottle of wine by our door and a note that said thanks and perhaps this will shut you up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sydney1 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Was picking up some chicken food last weekend at our local pet food and farm machinery specialist and saw some very thick rubber mat which are used mainly for equine purposes. They are about 1" thick, raised bubbles one side and ribbed the other. Thought that cutting them into lengths would make good traction mats. About £30 for a 1m x 1.5m mat. Anyone had experience of this solution? Only obvious issue is that they are pretty heavy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 We've been carrying and routinely using, 4 of these for a few years now; http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p94411 (I've tried various rubber matting in the past, with varied success..but I found when it got wet and muddy, it just got slippery..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 The last time I was well and truly bogged down there was just my wife and I in the middle of nowhere. After scratching my head there was only one thing for it. I always carry two fairly thick alloy chequer plates that can be used to run on but on this occasion I'd not bothered. I also carry a heavy duty lump hammer so I decided to hammer them into the mud and under the front wheels. What a stroke of luck, it worked, bingo! We got out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 pepe63 - 2015-01-19 8:01 PM We've been carrying and routinely using, 4 of these for a few years now; http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p94411 (I've tried various rubber matting in the past, with varied success..but I found when it got wet and muddy, it just got slippery..)[/quote They look just the part, low weight as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 They have worked really well for the 4 years or so we've had them... .. it was someone on here (by the name of "ned" ?)who put me onto them. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 On every occasion I've got bogged down in the past it's been the result of actually driving on to grass, by the time things start to go tits up it's usually too late, the very last time it happened I was assured by the site owner it was fine, despite me walking the ground first and not being convinced........ he was not best amused that almost instantly I was stuck in his gate...........I vowed I'd never go on grass anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Joe90 - 2015-01-20 11:42 AM On every occasion I've got bogged down in the past it's been the result of actually driving on to grass, by the time things start to go tits up it's usually too late... That's been pretty much our experience.. All this, "..I never get stuck...I park on boards.." malarkey, is all very well but it's all irrelevant, if you can't even make it through the 'site's or event's gateway to start with.. (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Has anyone tried using snow chains when stuck in mud? I have been toying with the idea of chains for some time and if I thought that they could have two uses (snow and mud), then I might be able to persuade myself to go and buy some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 spospe - 2015-01-20 5:35 PM Has anyone tried using snow chains when stuck in mud? Yes, me(again!)..I had a pair for our RWD Transit and then pair for a FWD Peugeot Boxer CB.. To be honest, unless you're liable to routinely launch yourself onto muddy fields, in the middle of nowhere and with absolutely no chance of any assistance, then I'm not sure if I'd really bother with them... I found putting ours on to be a real pain...scrambling around on your hands and knees and reaching around/behind a muddy wheel, isn't my idea of fun..and once caked in mud and grit, they were an even a bigger pain to get off again! Also, on our Peugeot, the wheel arch clearance was very tight and I was always concerned they'd pick up on something or they'd clack a stone and break a link, resulting in them taking out the arch or worse still, brake pipes etc.:-S Don't get me wrong, the few times I "deployed" them, they did work(for us), so if you have the payload and you have a use for them for snow anyway, then they would be worth a try as a last resort... But if there's a choice. I'd just chill and wait for the bloke with the tractor.. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Thanks Pepe More or less what I thought and I can empathise with the bit about the mud and filth aspect of putting them on and later taking them off. Still we have been to some pretty wild places and the thought of having to wait, possibly for days for a man and a tractor does not appeal. I will continue to think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickwwalker Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 StuartO - 2015-01-18 8:30 AM But these ladder-type grips have helped me out quite a few times, and they are not too much of fag to lay out and get under the driving wheels as you park up, when conditions look or might become a bit slippy. They look useful and would roll up into a smaller space than the mat type. Do you know who sells or makes this type of grip? Bread crates have been mentioned in several blogs on the topic too so I'm looking for a local source of old crates to have a go at making something similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 nickwwalker - 2015-01-21 8:15 AM StuartO - 2015-01-18 8:30 AM But these ladder-type grips have helped me out quite a few times, and they are not too much of fag to lay out and get under the driving wheels as you park up, when conditions look or might become a bit slippy. They look useful and would roll up into a smaller space than the mat type. Do you know who sells or makes this type of grip? Bread crates have been mentioned in several blogs on the topic too so I'm looking for a local source of old crates to have a go at making something similar. The ladder-type grips which I favour were bought at a Show or from an accessory shop but I can't remember which - but I think they are fairly widely available so try a Google or EBay search. I was puzzled by the term "bread crate" too but I don't think they necessarily mean an actual bread crate, so much as a plastic grid of a suitable sort. Four of the ground protector gids referred to above might be very useful as wheel stands but they are only 500mm square so I imagine carrying eough of them to make up a worthwhile take-off runway on soft ground might be problematic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 “GripTrack” and “Grip King” are two ‘ladder-type’ anti-slip products (Big difference in price.) http://www.griptrack.co.uk/ http://www.campingrus.co.uk/Pyramid-Grip-King but sometimes only a tow will do Bread crate (literally) bases are OK to prevent wheels sinking into soft ground http://www.plastic.co.nz/plastic-products/1591PP.html if you can obtain them for nothing, but the type of specialised product pepe63 mentioned is normally not expensive. Some will be more suitable than others - GOOGLE using ground reinforcement grid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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