Lord, that brings back memories....
You might mention to your buddy, there is not usually any reason to check the temps when you have that much water running through the radiator......
I have been through worse than that, but I was better equipped. My present Ford would have gone through that last hole with 33s.
Once I hooked up the winch!!
I guess I'm spoiled.
Everything I ever took offroad, over the last 40 years, has had a winch on it.
My old Jeep, PTO Konig. My 79 F150, PTO Braden. My present 89 F250, bigger PTO Braden.
My cousin's 4 or 5 trucks over that period, all had Cox built electrics.
All my other hunting buddies, all had Cox build electrics, a PTO Braden or two, and I think a Hickey Sidewinder thrown in for fun.
Your transmission would still be good, you would not have gotten dinged by the brass, and that day would have been a lot more fun with a good winch.
You may notice a theme here.........
The only other thing I see wrong with the videos, I wasn't there!
Of course second guessing is easy, and even though the videos were very well done, I can't really see what I would need to see.
But, it looked like you might have gotten out if you had dug out behind the rear wheels on your last couple of reverses.
I have no view of the rear, but it looked like the duals were hitting a small hole, log, or bump that was keeping them from clawing you back out.
I can tell you from 40 years of doing just what you were doing, that you were never going to get out forward under your own power.
At least after the first try. The first run, you did good, trying to keep a wheel up high.
And when you stopped, a small amount of help, maybe a short back and forth and you might have made it.
But after the first full back, maybe the second, the camera was moving, so its hard to tell, you had fallen into the deep hole.
Your front chunk was hitting mud, and getting deeper each time.
At that point, you
might have gotten out with a couple of trees in the front ruts to get the chunk out of the mud.
But personally, when you were almost out backing up, I would have jammed a couple of trees between the duals with the ends jammed in the mud just under the tires from the rear.
My old Jeep had rear duals, and I used that trick when I was stupid and drove off into something that I did not want to winch farther into.
Usually the duals will walk the trees and come right out.
Oh Yeah, if you have a thermostatic fan clutch, go ahead and get another one. It was not under water as long as mine has been a few times, but they were just not made to blow water.
There is no clutch material to wear out, but the seals usually go after a deep crossing.
I think the pressure builds up when they are trying to move that much load.
Like my father would say when I would come in muddy up to the eyeballs after walking through waist deep mud to hook up the winch, and then finding out that the darn road did not go through so I had to winch back out again...........
Look at all the fun you had!!
. I have always heard about those big holes at camp and finally got to see some.
