Hells Gate Roll-Over Recovery
Off-Roading can be dangerous no matter where you go, but with the proper equipment you can remain safe and be able to recover your vehicle.
On The Rocks had such an experience when in Moab, Utah and because of the proper equipment the individual was safe and the vehicle was recovered. One of our members was climbing Hells Gate on Hells Revenge and had unfortunate accident and managed to roll his TJ.
With his Jeep tittering with the possibility of continuing it’s roll down the obstacle, it was important everyone work together in order to bring the Jeep back on to all fours. It is important not to rush things and to take every opportunity to ensure safety is observed.
First on the agenda was to establish a leader. The leader is responsible for coordination of the effort and to make the final decisions as to what needs to take place. In our case we chose to let the owner of the Jeep fulfill that position and met in order to determine what the general plan would be.
Once we had an understanding of the general plan we began to setup the necessary vehicles and items in order to accomplish the goal.
A Jeep with a winch, today was a day when the winch was going to be worth its’ weight in gold, was brought to the top of the obstacle and the line was fed down to the scene.
With the cable securely fastened to the underside of the Jeep it was reeled in slowly
As power is applied to the winch, slowly, the vehicle begins to rotate over on to all fours.
With the Jeep back on all four tires we knew our work had just begun. Although it was on all fours it was still facing the wrong way in the obstacle. The rear end of the vehicle had to be moved over so the whole Jeep was facing up hill.
A winch from the bottom was hooked up to the rear of the Jeep in order to straighten out the vehicle.
After a few pulls it was evident that the Jeep was not going to be straightened through sheer winch power. It was suggested that a Hi-Lift Jack was used on the rear bumper to lift the tire in the air enough to have the winch then pull the Jeep off the jack. This was done a couple of times in order to straighten it out.
Once it was straight the cable on the back bumper was unhooked and the Jeep was winched up the obstacle.
Once at the top the spark plugs were pulled and the engine was turned over. This was necessary to blow the oil out of the cylinders. After being upside down for 30 minutes the oil had drained into the cylinders and if the engine was started it could do internal damage to the rings.
With the oil out the engine started up and except for a large amount of smoke, this was the oil burning off, it ran fine and it was driven out.
