What to do after an OOOPS?

[K85 Octane]

Ok, so I've been offroading maybe twice, in the drivers seat at least. I've got a few questions about proper OOPS management. Let me know if I'm right etc.

1.) End up stuck in lots of water. Keep engine running to avoid water in exhaust and problems restarting.

2.) In super deep water that covers hood. Shut off engine as fast as humanly possible. Tow it out. Remove spark plugs, turn over engine to flush or check for water in cylinders. Not to mention all vent lines afterwords. BTW, I moved my front axle up above my core support. I haven't done my rear yet. Where are my 700r4 and 208 vent lines? I don't see any.

3.) I tip on my side and cannot move. I should shut the engine off right? Might starve engine of oil and flood carb/ engine? Procedure after I'm back on all 4 wheels??

4.) I'm upside down. Same question. Immediate response and after I'm upsided.

5.) I've somehow gotten stuck facing straight up. What to do? Do I worry about engine oil? I'm carbed, so I doubt I'll have a choice to keep it running

6.) Stuck facing straight down??

7.) Icechest falls out and beer cans are exploding??

There is so much I don't know about when offroading. I haven't had a chance to even break sh!t, the truck has been down. I wouldn't know the first thing about an axle, u joint, driveshaft, etc fix to get it back home.

 

[Fordum]

Well, I'll jump on a couple of these, beings as I've been there.

(1) yep, if you are able to get out reasonably soon, leave it running. Just know that you are probably going to have to replace your fan clutch soon.
If you have removed the belts to make the crossing, disregard and shut it off.

(2) Again, yes. If you are fast enough and lucky enough to do it before it ingests the water, you will need to change the oil also. Probably twice.
Do so quickly, because water will rust the bearing surfaces.

BTW, I moved my front axle up above my core support

You K5ers and your mods. Just when I think I have heard the most radical one, you come up with another.
Sounds like a double shackle flip.

BTW, moving the vent lines is a little over rated. It does help. But if you go into deep water, it will get in through the shaft seals.
Not only are they designed to keep stuff in, not out, but they are not designed to handle pressure.
In fresh water, you get almost a half pound of pressure per foot of depth. (.432 psi).
Normal shaft seals will not handle that.

(3) Depends on how much.
I don't have a good maximum angle for you. If you have help, go ahead and switch off.
But whenever I laid my old Jeep over in a ditch, I had run the engine to use the winch to get out.
I generally turned it off until I had the cable hooked up and ready to go.

(4) If you know you are going over, try to turn it off on the way, but whatever be sure to close your eyes.
Unless you are belted in, you are going to wind up on the headliner with more crap in your face from the floorboards and dash than you would imagine.
After you right it, check the battery first thing.
If you have a gelcel type, not problem unless it came loose from its mount.
Factory mounts are not designed for that and may fail.
Otherwise, you are going to have to wash off and neutralize the acid.

If its fairly brief, then you can probably crank it after you let it sit for while. Otherwise, you might want to pull the plugs in case enough oil has gotten past the rings to hydrolock the engine.

(5) Not sure.
With my old Jeep, several times I would throw my winch cable over a big tree limb and winch it up until it stalled.
Then I would use the starter motor to get it straight up so I could grease it and/or change the U-Joints.
Didn't like crawling under in the deep mud.
Then put the transmission in reverse and crank it back down.
Never had any problems, but the engine was not running in that position.

(6) Not sure how to accomplish that one. Gravity usually works around here.

(7) If its while you are driving down the highway, drop a gear and floor it.
You need to get far enough away so that they cannot get your tag number.


Hope this helps.

 

[K85 Octane]

thanks for the input!

lets see
*running electric fan anyway
*water in oil is very bad
*put axle back below frame
*very interesting pressure/ seal info, cool
*yeah, on it's side, I'm just worried about the oil pump not getting oil
*ooo I'll be closing my eyes and calling for mommy for sure, bolt everything down inside the cab. The battery thing I didn't think about. I have 2 batteries, one is acid filled. How do you neutralize the acid? And yeah, I forgot my cousin's truck sat on it's side for a while. Tow truck ahole flipped it over and then tried to start it, bent a rod. gezz
*if I'm facing up, I think the oil pump is good, the carb maybe not so much. I like the tree idea lol.
*if I bury the bumper into a ditch or stuff a tire into a rock/ crack. Something like that. This is where I'd be most worried about the oil pump. Having the oil run to the front of the pan. Or like on long descents. If I see oil pressure drop, am I already screwed?

thank you sir

 

[imiceman44]

You K5ers and your mods. Just when I think I have heard the most radical one, you come up with another.
Sounds like a double shackle flip.

And I believe he was talking about the vent lines for the front axle.

 

[Fordum]

And I believe he was talking about the vent lines for the front axle.

True, but I have learned on this forum to never assume.

Until I started hanging out here, I had never heard of doubling transfer cases. The first few times I heard it mentioned here, I did not believe it.
Around here if you did that, you would stay stuck all the time.
No rocks, just mud and deep sand.

So, if a guy says he put his axle above the frame, sure its probably a typo, but who am I to doubt it.......

 

[zombie1969]

Try not getting stuck or upside down.Seems to work for me.

 

[Fordum]

Try not getting stuck or upside down.Seems to work for me.

Actually, you are looking at the two offroad limit indicators.

If you don't get stuck once and a while, you are not trying hard enough.
If you flip upside down, you are trying too hard.

You want to stay between the two extremes......

 

[K85 Octane]

I can already say (even though I've only got 4 hours of offroading under my belt) that I'm going to do many of what I mentioned. I want the truck to look decent, but I wont be afraid to try something.

upside down or under water I wouldn't look forward to

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

This guy is proactive!
I like it!

 

[blazinzuk]

Find an organized trail ride and go on it. Start with mild trails even if your rig is built to the hilt. Run mild trails for a while even better if you can find a trail ride that has hard obstacles but bypasses.

Be the first guy to jump in, you might not know what your doing just ask what you can do to help. Hand guys tools hold the light do whatever.

Best way to learn how to wheel, is go wheeling!

 

[imiceman44]

I can already say (even though I've only got 4 hours of offroading under my belt) that I'm going to do many of what I mentioned. I want the truck to look decent, but I wont be afraid to try something.

upside down or under water I wouldn't look forward to

I have not been upside down yet, and hopefully never will, but i have been in water up to my door handles in alifted K5, good thing I had a diesel which is pretty much water proof.
I drove in not knowing it was that bad, I was on 35" tires and a 2" lift.
The guys before me had 42" tires and 8" lifts so I didn't realize it until I was in, luckily I kept on it and got out of it and still drove home with no problems other than a burnt alternator. it didn't like water in it while running.

 

[Adventurous 4x4]

Ok, so I've been offroading maybe twice, in the drivers seat at least. I've got a few questions about proper OOPS management. Let me know if I'm right etc.

1.) End up stuck in lots of water. Keep engine running to avoid water in exhaust and problems restarting.

If it's not sucking in water leave it running.

2.) In super deep water that covers hood. Shut off engine as fast as humanly possible. Tow it out. Remove spark plugs, turn over engine to flush or check for water in cylinders. Not to mention all vent lines afterwords. BTW, I moved my front axle up above my core support. I haven't done my rear yet. Where are my 700r4 and 208 vent lines? I don't see any.

If your in over your hood it's probably to late and you are already screwed. Run a snorkel if you want to do deep water.

3.) I tip on my side and cannot move. I should shut the engine off right? Might starve engine of oil and flood carb/ engine? Procedure after I'm back on all 4 wheels??

Yeah, shut it off. After a roll we just fire them back up and the smoke goes away after it runs for a little while.

4.) I'm upside down. Same question. Immediate response and after I'm upsided.

Same as above except you might need to jack the roof up.

5.) I've somehow gotten stuck facing straight up. What to do? Do I worry about engine oil? I'm carbed, so I doubt I'll have a choice to keep it running

Toss it in reverse and hammer down. If that don't work then you can leave it run but before oil pressure I worry about the trans. I doubt you will ever get stuck totally verticle though.

6.) Stuck facing straight down??

You might loose oil pressure here.

7.) Icechest falls out and beer cans are exploding??

You shouldn't have beer on the trails to begin with. If you are headed to a destination to camp or what not then it's fine and if it happens turn around and go get more beer and make sure the strap down the cooler better.

There is so much I don't know about when offroading. I haven't had a chance to even break sh!t, the truck has been down. I wouldn't know the first thing about an axle, u joint, driveshaft, etc fix to get it back home.

I used to take everything with me on the trails to make repairs as needed. Now I don't carry anything except a small med kit, 2 fire ext., and a cooler with drinks and lunch. I have a box in the back with recovery gear and that's it. I don't even carry a spare tire. If I was headed to the middle of nowhere it would be different but most times I can get out or somebody can run back to the trailers and get what is needed.

 

[Adventurous 4x4]

Just don't do this and you will be fine.

 

[496truck]

I used to take everything with me on the trails to make repairs as needed. Now I don't carry anything except a small med kit, 2 fire ext., and a cooler with drinks and lunch. I have a box in the back with recovery gear and that's it. I don't even carry a spare tire. If I was headed to the middle of nowhere it would be different but most times I can get out or somebody can run back to the trailers and get what is needed.

This is the difference between wheeling here on the east coast and wheeling out west where you can get lost for days and self sufficiency is key.

 

[Doc Feel Good]

Just keep the dirty side down, turtling is bad....

anywho take extra foods and water, and let your buds know where u r...

sucks being broke down in the middle of nowhere and walking out...

build your truck and take it slow until you know your limits...

 

[gotblazers]

5.) I've somehow gotten stuck facing straight up. What to do? Do I worry about engine oil? I'm carbed, so I doubt I'll have a choice to keep it running

Ive gotten stuck at 60* or so up and i can tell you from experience its pretty damn fun. my right side was in a 3 foot rutt and my front dif was in the ground so i used a hilift to jack up the front and started it up and spun the tire in reverse (open difs) until it fell backwards. One of my fun-nest experiences wheelin so far.

 

[Wrenchen66]

I have been softcore wheeling for a 7 or so years, recently finished my truck and have been trying just about anything I can.... and let me tell you, it takes some getting used to, but enjoy it and be safe. DEFINATELY make sure the beer is straped down good, cause when you get back to camp, you may need all you can get sitting around the camp fire talking about what happened earlier lol...

Like this one... from this weekend....

I thought it was going over, but creeped forward about a foot and it finally leveled off and I went down, going back up it was fun too lol

My saying the entire afternoon was, "I think someone s^&t my pants.... Not that I am pointing any fingers..." lol

My only mistake here was that I did not have my shoulder harnesses on and if I would have gone over, it would have brought the pain!

 

[Big6ft6]

All I can say to that picture wrenchen is HOLY S%&T! I'd be afraid to walk down those rocks not to mention drive. That is amazing for two reasons...1) takes guts 2) takes a crazy well-done truck!

 

[K85 Octane]

dunno if I properly did this yet but
thanks all for the replies!
good stuff, now I just get to break stuff and learn from there

 

[CherryK5]

I have been softcore wheeling for a 7 or so years, recently finished my truck and have been trying just about anything I can.... and let me tell you, it takes some getting used to, but enjoy it and be safe. DEFINATELY make sure the beer is straped down good, cause when you get back to camp, you may need all you can get sitting around the camp fire talking about what happened earlier lol...

Like this one... from this weekend....

I thought it was going over, but creeped forward about a foot and it finally leveled off and I went down, going back up it was fun too lol

My saying the entire afternoon was, "I think someone s^&t my pants.... Not that I am pointing any fingers..." lol

My only mistake here was that I did not have my shoulder harnesses on and if I would have gone over, it would have brought the pain!

If you had a hi res version of that it would be my background in a heartbeat