Mud and wheel extraction

[PNAJones]

Hello, I managed to get my Motorhome stuck on my grass pitch at the storage locker yesterday, the site owner towed the van off which was fine, I struggled for 45 minutes before hand before asking for help, does anyone have first hand experience of what I can buy to get the front wheels out of mud, there seems to be a lot of items out there but a recommended product is always good.

 

[dom_k]

I have some flexible mud mats. They do work well. You can get expensive rigid ones but the flexi ones work ok and are cheap.

 

[Landy Andy]

Four paving slabs or four waffle boards to park on. If you hadn’t sunk into the ground you could have driven off. So park on something so you don’t sink whilst park.

 

[Two on Tour]

I have some flexible mud mats. They do work well. You can get expensive rigid ones but the flexi ones work ok and are cheap.

Are you sure about that, I had a pair of the flexible grip mat and when I need to use them they were utterly useless, gave them away and bought a couple of pairs of the 1200mm rigid fibreglass sand embedded ones which have got us and others out of the more on several occasions.

 

[Two on Tour]

Hello, I managed to get my Motorhome stuck on my grass pitch at the storage locker yesterday, the site owner towed the van off which was fine, I struggled for 45 minutes before hand before asking for help, does anyone have first hand experience of what I can buy to get the front wheels out of mud, there seems to be a lot of items out there but a recommended product is always good.

We are just on the way out at present, but I'll post a link to the ones I bought and know work from personal experience when we get back.

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[WESTY66]

Snow chains or waffle boards (rigid ones)

 

[Figaro]

Four tons of hardcore on the storage pitch ?

 

[WESTY66]

Snow chains or waffle boards (rigid ones)

 

[tacr2man]

these are good vfm and strong
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15657806...pid=5339023013&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

 

[WESTY66]

these are good vfm and strong
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15657806...pid=5339023013&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

That’s what I use except mine are 50mm thick

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[Jev88]

We were lucky at our old storage site. They had a mountain of crushed limestone and if heavier motorhomes had any trouble getting off storage plot they would put two extra runs of the stone down whilst you were away and tamped down ....

 

[rosalan]

Old bread baskets are one method that works.
The best I have used by far are the rope ladder type. I have been stuck in soft sand and mud, where they worked well. The trouble is when to use such things. I used yellow strips designed to get you going, cheap and useless. On mud and wet grass they can fly for several yards when trying to use them, while the van does not move at all.

 

[68c]

The problem is when you have parked up on the grass, not boards etc. None of the boards, mats, bread boxes etc are any good unless you have already parked on them. I am considering those airbags that you inflate with your exhaust to lift the van so you can slide a mat, or whatever, under the wheel. No chance of using the van jack as you will already be sunk in a hole too deep to get them in. How do I know?

 

[meanders]

We have a pair of these that I always park on when on grass and they have only one failed me at Peterborough when about 75% or more had to be towed off by tractor. They have also got other Funsters out of trouble on two other occasions I can remember. Mostly they fail when you tell people to just let the van creep on tickover but the driver thinks giving it weekly will help. They get picked up but then shoot out from underneath and the van sinks further.

Many hands coordinated to rock the van forward and back out of the grooves often works well but it lots of you and a driver with a very light right foot.

 

[Two on Tour]

these are good vfm and strong
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15657806...pid=5339023013&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

That's the ones that I bought.

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[Two on Tour]

We are just on the way out at present, but I'll post a link to the ones I bought and know work from personal experience when we get back.

As per the ones that tacr2man has linked to in his post.

 

[rb62]

Another vote for bread crates,

 

[grasscutter]

Just be careful with wooden boards.
When I moved to my present home I had to park on the front lawn until I installed a hardstanding.
I placed scaffold boards and parked on those.
All good until one day I drove off and the near side board broke in half and dug into the lawn and caused £1000 of damage to the rear skirt and lights.

 

[tonka]

Bread crates are what i used for year until i found a supply of GRP grating that i cut to make waffle boards as in post no 9.
Mine are also 25mm thick, found them more than adequate.

 

[bigtwin]

Prevention is always better than the cure. You need to spread the weight over a larger contact area than the tyre footprint. What you use to spread the load is up to you but there’s no need to buy special products. If you have a regular storage pitch that’s on grass then paving slabs or short lengths of decking will be perfectly adequate. The advantage of the latter is that you can take them with you to use on other grass pitches.

I used decking planks (on a 5.3t tag axle) for 14 years and was never unable to drive off a grass pitch.

Ian

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[Jim]

I wrote this article last year that is worth a read.

How Not to get Your Motorhome Stuck in the Mud

How to not get your Motorhome stuck in the mud, but how to get out if you do. We show you the best ways to extract yourself.

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[The Coops]

Breadcrates again and a 4 ton inflatable jack!

 

[Cockers]

these are good vfm and strong
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15657806...pid=5339023013&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

I’ve got the same one excellent and far cheaper that some of the fancy waffle boards. Some times I do have trouble getting the waffle boards out of the mud after I’ve moved the van.

 

[PNAJones]

Four tons of hardcore on the storage pitch ?

Thanks, yes have asked the owner to put more ‘MOT’ type gravel on the pitch, I have been taking the van out quite regularly during the winter and the grass is in a right state now, got to the point where Inhad to do a run up in reverse to get it over the mud at the front of the pitch

 

[PNAJones]

I wrote this article last year that is worth a read.

How Not to get Your Motorhome Stuck in the Mud

How to not get your Motorhome stuck in the mud, but how to get out if you do. We show you the best ways to extract yourself.

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

Thanks Jim, very useful

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[pappajohn]

If it's the same pitch every time then a couple of 3ft x 6in planks.
Sink them in the grass so they're flush.

 

[PNAJones]

We were lucky at our old storage site. They had a mountain of crushed limestone and if heavier motorhomes had any trouble getting off storage plot they would put two extra runs of the stone down whilst you were away and tamped down ....

Thanks, have asked the owner if they can do that, hopefully will be there when I bring the van back next week

 

[PNAJones]

Four paving slabs or four waffle boards to park on. If you hadn’t sunk into the ground you could have driven off. So park on something so you don’t sink whilst park.

Thanks, the previous person who had my pitch put paving slabs down for the wheels but these are broken now, it’s the grass perimeter at the front of the pitch that is problematic, so have asked for more MOT type gravel to be put there, they seem to have this on the site in a pile!

 

[MHF]

We always carry a long tow strap with the steel shackle
Connected to the proper towing eye which screws into the
Chassis
The minute we feel we are getting stuck we stop trying to get out
You only damage the vehicle and find a friendly farmer or by far the best option
A 4x4 owner who will happily pull you
Land Rover owners are only to willing to demonstrate there off-road skills

 

[pat100]

I used the skinny yellow flexible ones on two occasions when I got a wheel stuck. In the middle of nowhere!
I thought they would be useless.
It was hard work, but turned an impossible job into a merely difficult one. Because the mats are flexible, I could feed them down into the hole. I had to reposition them many, many times as they got spat out. I was so relieved that I didn’t have to go begging a farmer for a tow.