Ever been bogged down?

My Kangoo Roo had to be towed off the Royal Welsh Showground by a tractor last year. I made sure I camped on tarmac afterwards as I was in a very remote and rural spot so could easily have been stranded!
 
That question is tempting Providence as I am booked in at Pickering in 10 days.:eek:
 
my motorholme is 4wd(smug look) went to broughton game fair told to park on the top field, no probs, until i had to reverse up the hill to the wall,two perfectly placed cow pats stopped me dead, they must have measured my wheelbase couldnt have been better. but it has got me out of a few wet sites, and once had to tow my mates mh out
 
:)We like to camp all year round and have found ourselfs getting stuck in mud/snow and sometimes needing a tow or using the rubber mats out of the camper to get out, so we looked at alternative traction. Snow chains were a good possability but to messy so we looked at better tyres and now use mud & snow tyres which are great and work really well. We do carry snow chains which can also be used in mud when the going gets tuff.:)
 
Whenever I park on grass, dry or wet, I park on fiamma roly mats under all 4 wheels and never had a problem. Twin wheel rear axle and rear wheel drive helps!

Trying to slide roly mats under tyres with treads already full of mud is a waste of time.
Park on them!

Voxy.
 
voxol51 said:
!

Trying to slide roly mats under tyres with treads already full of mud is a waste of time.
Park on them!

Voxy.
Click to expand...

my bold

Sorey, bit I still believe that the Fiamma Rolly mats are made from the offcuts of Satan's discarded unterkrakers
 
It is interesting that there are so many negative posts about the Fiamma Rolly mats!

I have been stuck 3 times in the past few weeks in sloppy clay like mud, wild camping in here Romania and Bulgaria. All 3 times the mats had me out in a very short time. Without them I would have been stuck for ages and probably hiking miles to find help to pull me out.

Perhaps they are of little use to a large MH, but my little Romahome seems to be perfectly adapted to rolling out of the bog on the little yellow mats. Without them, the wheels just dig deep holes. As soon as I realize I am about to be stuck, I stop trying to spin the wheels and place the tip of the mat against the front tyres, choosing the direction that seems best to get to harder ground. Then slowly drive onto them.

The only problem is what to do with them after, as they are so caked in mud it is impossible to clean them off immediately - especially as you were about to go somewhere. Best way I have found is to toss them in a plastic bag and clean them in a fast flowing river later on.

I have been carrying them around after getting stuck twice last year, requiring a tow both times. Didn't need them to get out of a problem until recently. But as far as I am concerned, when needed, they worked perfectly.

I have also placed them under the front wheels when camped on suspicious grass or sand, especially if it looks like rain coming. Makes it easy to drive off to a hard surface in the morning then walk back and pick them up.

You'll not see me on a dirt road without those mats stowed behind my seat.

Peter
nomadness.benlo.com
 
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I used the Fiamma mats last week to get out of trouble on a sloping welsh CC site at Devauden. I wasn't badly stuck, but the grass was very wet and it was on a slope. Using the mats gave me enough traction to reverse 5m up a slope. Then this height enabled me to build up momentum, roll down into a dip and up another grass slope out of the site.

So it's unfair to say they are useless. They may not get you out of a deep rut, but there was definitely no way I would have got up that slope without them, and no way I would have got up the steeper grass slope out of the site without building up momentum on the other slope.
 
I agree totally with ***** and baloo about the yellow fiamma mats - useless. When it happened to us (once in Britanny and once in Poland) we found that the best solution was a group of burly youths who virtually lifted us out for the price of a drink or two!
 
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I just carry a few 5 ton ratchet straps and a pole..Hammer the pole in the ground and use ratchet strap to slowly pull us out..only way if you are on your own,plus the ratchet strap is useful as a tow rope.
 
My story on getting stuck ... on a French aire bout lunch time, it was quite full, the only place was a small grassy patch on a slope! As I pulled on to it I just knew I would never get reversed back out :eek: and all those eyes watching! before I switched her off I selected reverse gear and tried slowly to pull back out, no way was I going anywhere.

I told DW our situation and to save face we out sat them all, we had a long long lunch ... waited for a clear path on the low side of the aire, started up drove down the grassy slope and out the other side ... Hey Presto

Lesson learnt, I'm now very careful where we park.

Cheers

:)
 
baloothebear said:
Its an interesting subject because Motorhomes are pretty bad at getting off the wet stuff.
The biggest joke item has to be the rolly mats made by Fiamma. I'd like to see the Joker who thought them up try them.
The best stuff has to be Perforated Steel Plate-PSP but it is very heavy. There is now an aluminium version but you could probably have a month in Spain for the cost of the stuff :D
Something that does work and does not take up very much space are bread trays.
You will need 4 of them. Cut the sides off and then place them so that the ridged sides are facing out (for grip) Get a jumbo economy pack of zip-ties and join them together.
When you are going somewhere silly, stop and have a look first. Put the mats down and drive onto them. They can make the difference between having to stay an extra day or not.
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We can vouch for breadtrays but where can you get replacements from ?
 
Bogged down....?

Never!
Image0037-1.jpg


Luckily a dozen burly pheasant hunters in 4x4s arrived and saved the day.
 
avandriver said:
A good idea that the 4x4 guys use when using boards is

Tie some rope to the back edge of each board and attach the other end to the back of your van , That way when you drive over and of the boards you will not have to stop on soft grass to retrieve the boards you can just drag them behind you untill you get to firm ground


Steve
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Bit dangerous to do this with front-wheel drive vehicles (which are the main ones to have problems) and some vehicle recovery information doesn't recommend the practice either.
 
Daveandjacqui said:
We can vouch for breadtrays but where can you get replacements from ?
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I guess you can steal them just about anywhere. Just make sure that none of the UK's 47,000,000 CCTV cameras are pointing your direction.
 
Been lucky & always managed to get myself out of trouble but had some close calls. I wouldn't say the yellow mats are useless but they won't help much if you have got to the point of being stuck. If in doubt use them early on as once you are sinking down into a hole the problem gets worse. I'm lucky that on my van I have a 'snow mode' button, it has got me out of a few dodgy situations. If I turn it on it engage 2nd gear & I think it gives drive to both the front wheels, all I know is I have felt the wheels starting to spin & a quick press of the button & I'm off.
 
Last summer I got stuck in a grass car park up by Hadrians Wall, had to flag down a friendly farmer, who towed me out with his land rover, cost me a bottle of wine .... well worth the price. And, yes I'm going to be much more careful in future.
 
My intension's were to use our van all year so with that in mind we got a Transit with twin rear wheels for better traction..:rolleyes::rolleyes:
ps not all my ideas are good ones :eek::eek:


dunk
 
Probably already been suggested but letting the driven wheel tyre pressures down often helps must have inflator handy of course.
I once extricated my van by threading a length of rope through the wheel vent holes and around the tyre and knotting off on the outside (bit like snow chains) soon as I was clear cut the rope off.
 
Aire_on_a_shoestring said:
Never!
Image0037-1.jpg


Luckily a dozen burly pheasant hunters in 4x4s arrived and saved the day.
Click to expand...





Jesus i thought we had had problems,interesting thread and a great photo this one as we had this happen to us late one night near usk on the brecon beacons.We were aided by some army folk on there way to a day of quad biking nearby,they pushed us out but boy did we (in particular the wife) have a sleepless night just a shame we could nt have enjoyed the view.I wish we had of had a camera as i was trying to dig my wheel out with a fiamma block the next morning we had an audience of about 40 sheep watching us in the road,for some reason they found us to be quite a draw:D,that was the only smile for a few hours that morning too!!
I now have a shovel in my van,but looking at this thread made me realise i could have jacked the wheel up and made life easier for myself,well i suppose you live and learn at least im not the only one lol

You deserve a prize for that photo,i imagine that photo was taken for a reason probably to rub your nose in it.
After our experiance we went to the nearest town to a cheap car park and spen an hour having a bloody good clean up operation,the bloody mud got everywhere.
 
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