Stuck in the mud
 

Well we finally managed to get the H3 stuck in the mud. Actually it was my wife who got it stuck. The area was wetter n'wet and the gravel/dirt road was mostly mud. I was working back off the road clearing some trees for our new rifle range, using a Polaris Ranger 4x4 for transporting people and gear - great little vehicle for getting around in betwixt trees & stuff.

My wife went to take the H3 back to the house for some more gear & came walking back telling us that she'd got the truck stuck. I took the Ranger out to scope out the situation. She had decided rather than turning the H3 around on the road, she'd just take a loop off the side of the road & ended up in slick mud and in a bit of a depression with an upslope in every direction. I got in, dropped the H3 into 4WD low lock, locked the rear diff & tried to get out. Was able to back up about 2 feet then tried to go forward - about 2.5 feet then lost traction. Tried a couple of times to repeat, then managed to change heading & tried again. After about 5 minutes I gave up and hooked a tow strap to the rear of the Ranger. Turned out the 500cc engine was able to give me just enough extra to drive right out.

Personally while I'd like to blame it all on my wife, I believe it's the fershlugginer factory tires. I'd have already replaced them, but at ~$200 each it's hard to discard tires with lots of tread remaining. I'm figuring that a set of BF Goodrich A/T KO tires would have never lost traction at all.

Bottom line, no real damage but a lot of very decorative mud on the truck. I keep it on there as a badge of honor till it gets washed off naturally.

THe only time I ever got stuck in the mud with my H3 was when I went through a big old mud puddle and at the end of it was a lip. Well I had the factory 33'' AT's on and the treads just filled with mud and the tiers were like racing treads with no teeth on them...

no pics=no stuck!

what was she doing out of the kitchen? lol

simian - That's exactly what those factory tires looked like - racing slicks.

006h3 - Mea Culpa! I forgot to grab a quick cell phone pic before i got unstuck. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Oni - As far as out of the kitchen goes.... you don't know my wife. She's no danger around clothes stores, shoe stores,etc. But keep her away from the power tools section of Home Depot. I bought her a new chain saw for Christmas three years ago and my friends thought I was gonna catch a ration of sh-t until they found out that was what she'd asked for. She also pushed for buying the H3 to replace our old Xterra.

By & large I got one of the good ones.

BFG A/T's ain't so good in mud, but might have had that wee tad bit more traction to get out of what you described. I ran the BFGs on many trucks back in the day, and then, (1978-88) I thought they were the berries. I am smarter now.

Here is my old trusty '79 Chevy with built small block w/ 33s on 4" lift.
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Look at the BFG design and compound, they haven't changed chit since I was running them.

MTZs kick their butt, on and off road. Driveway action shot of my 305 70/R16s (33s). :D
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Yup exactly!!!

But I finally got to try out that winch I stuck on the front for the first and only time.... It worked ;)

Those Mickey Thompsons complement the 3 so well.

I like the MTZ's too. They really look good. Great tire pick!