I had an 'almost recovery' yesterday Saved only by judicious use of my ARB Ezy tyre deflator gauge

I was out hunting in some country between Tenterden and Tingha when we got to the bottom of a steep gully only to find that the bottom 1/3rd of the track down and back up was made up of mushy black mud

The whole 4,500 acre property was pretty wet so I had already aired down from 40psi to 28 when we first arrived. When I got to the bottom of the hill and had to perform a 90 degree right hand turn I quickly realised we weren't going to make it up the other side. I was is low 2nd with the CDL engaged and got about 2m before sliding off the track and stopping

I reversed back down and got as far back as possible (20ish metres) before giving it some berries and having a straight on run. I made it 3m this time before stopping and sliding off the track....

So with my mates telling me they thought I'd better rig up the winch I thought I might drop the pressure in the tyres and have one last go before resorting to a long slow recovery up the steep 50m+ hill.

I dropped them all to 12psi and reversed all the way back into the creek that bounded the clearing. I got myself mentally prepared and took off - performing a snap change into 2nd and taking a slightly different line. We got about 4m before coming to a halt; however this time we stayed online so I stayed on power and started steering left-right-left

We slowly gained an inch at a time until we got to the end of the mud. It took quite some time and I was acutely aware of the slight side-slope and the danger of coming off the track again; but the deefer inched itself out of the bog. I was quite relieved to finally get to solid ground

We avoided that area for the rest of the weekend and found out later that another mate of mine had to hand winch his jap dual-cab out of the same gully a few weeks earlier


I'm mightily impressed with the 33" Maxxis Bighorns and their ability to move a LOT of mud and find traction in difficult circumstances. Aired down to 12psi they transformed the landy into a different vehicle (not just from white to brown )




From now on the first thing I'll be doing when something looks hairy is to air down.