Originally Posted by
Riff Raff
MSHardeman--- Ouch!!! I am so sorry to see Vicki's battle scars from your off-road outing.
Although you didn't take any pictures of your "stuck in the ditch" situation, I am curious about a possible recovery tactic that might have possibly protected Vicki's rocker panel from various scuffs/scratches:
In your professional opinion, do you think if you had one or two of the "Exhaust Air Jack" bags that you could have wedged the deflated air jack bags inbetween the ditch and the VX bottom rocker panel to gently lift and cushion the bottom like a giant soft pillow during the extraction process??? I'm thinking that while the VX was being pulled from the ditch by the recovery vehicle, the semi-inflated (mushy inflation level) Exhaust Air Jack would have acted like a giant soft pillow and if placed just behind the right-front tire would have rolled along the bottom right-side rocker panel against the ditch like a big marshmellow until the VX was on secure footing. This recovery extraction method could have protected the entire right side from possible scrapes/scratches. I don't really know; since you didn't take pictures, but it's just a thought.
RiffRaff thanks for the condolences. In my "professional" (and I use that term loosely) opinion the air jack's might have helped. Since I don't have pictures I'll try to describe what went on: The ditch was about three to four feet deep and probably a couple of feet across with square sides. When Vicki fell in the entire passenger side was resting on the opposite side of the ditch. Standing in front of her she was sitting at about a 45 degree angle (side to side) with the passenger side below the level of the road (like she had just sunken into the road).
I don't think that there was any room to put, even, a deflated bag between the VX and the side of the ditch and that would have just pushed her toward the near side of the ditch, but I guess that they would have protected her as we pulled her out. If we had put the bags under the VX then the passenger side would have been suspended by the bags. I don't know how tough those bags are, but I don't think that they would have been able to roll because they would have been wedged in the ditch. I suppose, if the bags are tough enough, we could have dragged her out across the bags, but we might have punctured them as the VX was scraped across them.
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."
-Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless
Reply With Quote
