Glad I had a winch

[dirtdobber]

Went for a ride this afternoon and things got a little soft.
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I ride on Corps of Engineers land near my home. Lots of idiotic young people "hang out" here. Where's a game warden or park ranger when you need one....its a shame people don't have more respect.
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[hipowerone]

When I suspect that it might be soft, I just do not go out, as I do not want to tear up my land or anyone else's. Having someone accidentally shoot across my land when they drove off the road several years ago, I know how much time and energy is required to repair ruts and get it to firm up after.

[dirtdobber]

When I suspect that it might be soft, I just do not go out

I proceed cautiously, and then only if I have a winch point or someone to pull me. This land is all lake bottom of a reservoir, currently exposed because of the drought we've had. It will soon (if we get enough spring rain) all be under water. Mother nature takes care of the ruts.

[allwheeldrive]

Sounds like a perfect place to ride.
I'm interested in how you got stuck / where. Usually when an AATV gets stuck in mud it gets stuck on the belly pan from all the ruts dug deep in the mud hole. But I've found that 6x6s out on open ground that is just soft as your pictures show ride with so little ground pressure they never sink enough to high center. One of the most impressive moments with the Scrambler occurred when I came to a stop in the middle of a drained pit. The clutch was acting up and when I stepped out of the machine I sunk to the top of my boots! and had to brace myself on the machine to not sink more. Yet the tire tracks in the mud where only 1/2" deep. Where you high centered or did your tire tread fill with mud to the point they just spun?

[dirtdobber]

Allwheel I got stuck by sinking far enough to drag bottom just enough to stick me. This mud was just like chocolate pudding. Plus, this mud has enough clay content that it's incredibly slick, so I had a combination of sinking, dragging bottom, and treads full of mud. The hustler has an extra "bump" under the body and for the width of the machine that hangs down and works really good at hanging on stuff.

[allwheeldrive]

Wow, can't image any machine making it far in that quagmire. How long is your winch line?

[dirtdobber]

The quagmire didn't last long. The worst part was only about 20 feet or so. In the first pic you can see a little stump in front of the machine. This is what I winched to. My cable length is whatever came with the winch....maybe 40 or 50 feet. If you look at the second picture and follow my drivers side rut you can see the mud was so soupy that it just flowed back into the rut after I passed through it....just like pudding.

This area is a large flood control reservoir, When the water is low, as it is now, there are literally miles of open lake bottom available for riding. The problem is there are many areas of siltation -- the upstream eroded soil comes to rest at the lowest point....in the lake bottom, and it never firms up. Thus the pudding mud. The pudding mud can look just like the more firm mud, so that's why I always have a winch point within reach or someone that can pull me out.

[onefunzr2]

I know the kind of clay-muck you're talking about. That's what is on the bottom of this section of beaver pond I managed to drain last autumn. Except it's not flat. It's got willow bushes and meandering ditches. This one I had to winch my way out of was about 3' deep. I'm glad I had an extra poly line to hook onto my 50' synthetic winch rope.

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Since this pic was taken I bought two 9.5' aluminum ramps to bridge that trouble spot to get to their dam so I can rip it open.