Not as bad as yours:
but I did a decent number on my door after tangling with a tree a couple of weeks ago:
This is after pulling it back out with a suction cup a tad I think, but the dent would snap back in at the slightest touch:
I took the panel off and worked it from behind and got it into decent shape:
Maybe one of these days I'll take it to a PDR shop to finish it, but it's OK for now. Even the wife is glad to see it like this compared to how it was.
It all started when we were nearly to the end of a trail and came upon a bone-stock Wranger that had somehow slid off the trail and had been left there. He had tied a strap and rope to a tree on the opposite side of the trail to keep it from going any further down the hill:
Unfortunately for us, the strap was about 2' off the ground and prevented us from continuing. We weren't particularly interested in going all the way back, so we thought about our options.
Not being sure if the strap was actually holding the Jeep in place or if it was just a precaution, removing the strap was out for the time being.
The Jeep was a manual transmission and had been left unlocked, perhaps we could just pull it back onto the trail ourselves and do the guy a favor in the process? Nah, too much risk to assume.
OK, I'm in front, I'll pull off to the side of the trail leaving enough room for the rest to pass by, hook a strap to the Jeep and my X and use my X as a temporary anchor while the original strap is removed to let us pass.
So I'm maneuvering around in front of the Jeep trying to get in position, and wrestling with an 6" thick fallen tree about 5' off and almost parallel to the trail. I keep riding up on the trunk, and eventually drove over it with my LR wheel and straddle it. No problem, but each time I ride up/along it it works the rear end a bit further off the trail. That's kinda what I want, so I go with it.
At some point I realize that I'm about an inch from the tree alongside my driver's door and start to pull out and try again. But this only works me closer to the tree until I'm just touching it. Uh-oh. Time for help.
It's a bit fuzzy, but I think this is the order of events. We first
tried to pull me backwards back onto the trail, but only succeded in
nearly ripping my mirror off and bringing my door into contact with
the tree slightly. We put a towel around the tree to protect the
paint. We then decided to drag the fallen tree out from under my
truck to get it out of the equation. Then we had to get creative.
We improvised a snatch block using a tree protector strap as the
anchor on a tree across the trail between Riad (the puller) and I,
one of my giant shackles between it and the pull strap as the turning
point, and a strap running through it forming a "V" and joining us
together. The whole arrangement formed an apparatus which would pull
the rear of my truck sideways towards the trail when Riad pulled the
strap back up along the trail. A fine piece of improvisation, except
it didn't work quite as planned and I ended up HARD against the tree
with my driver's door and it is now dented in almost entirely from
the body molding to the window.
OK, that sucks, now what? We then moved the arrangement down the
trail to another tree across the trail from the front of my truck to
attempt to pull me slightly ahead and more sideways away from the
tree. We also tied the back of my truck to a tree to keep it
anchored so it would act as a pivot point rather than moving forwards
(or further down the hill). This worked well, and we had the front
of my truck back on the trail but my bumper was now against the strap
securing the Jeep and I couldn't drive ahead. We went back to the first arrangement with the strap pulling on the back of my truck again to get it back on the trail. I put the X in 2WD and spun the rear tires forwards (so they weren't biting and providing resistance) as Riad pulled me sideways using the improvised snatch block setup one more time. Finally I was back on the trail. A picture of this improvised apparatus will appear below, we had to use it again later
So after all that, we say to hell with it and determine that the Jeep isn't going anywhere on its own and we carefully remove the strap securing it. It did have a good bit of tension on it, and I can't for the life of me figure out how they set it. We used a ratchet strap to bridge and take the tension off the rope half of it to unhook it. No problem, and we all file on down the trail before re-attaching the strap.
A short distance around the bend we came across the only real
(natural) obstacle of the entire trail. The direct line consisted of
essentially a ledge a bit over 2' tall, with a notch on the right
that allowed the right side to come down gently, but the left side
was a vertical drop. The alternate line was all the way to the left,
but put the right side tires up on a foot-high rock ledge while the
left side descended, tilting the truck to the left and towards a tree
that was all too close by.
I elected to try the line to the left, and navigated through pretty
cleanly with a little spotting. Riad elected to try this line too
and appeared to be doing well until he got a bit
more tilted over and was just touching the tree at the top of his
rear door. Attempts to correct his line brought him into more direct
contact with the tree both at the top of the door and now just below
the window. Again with the towel to protect the paint, and we tried
to figure out how to get him off the tree.
He was fairly close to dropping his right front tire off the small
ledge which would tilt him back away from the tree, and the best way
to go was ahead if we could keep him off the tree. We again
improvised a snatch block setup with me ahead of him and to his right
with the strap going up off to my left front and then back across to
him. We tied the strap to his roof rack base and carefully (very
carefully) used it to tilt his truck away from the tree as he crept
forwards. At some point the base of the rack started to lift away
from the roof a smidge, so we hooked to the opposite side and
continued. This worked quite well, but he did take a couple more
dimpes in his rear fender bulge and just above his tail light in
addition to the ones at the top of his rear door. We pretty much
finished off the tail light at the end too, but it was already a loss (we both popped our LR tail lights on a root earlier that day).
Wish we had thought to air down the passenger side of his truck while we were at it.
Here's the strap apparatus in use on Riad:
(The guy in the pic was not there when the strap was under tension.)
At this point, nobody else was interested in trying that line, so we
started rounding up rocks to pile under the ledge so they could come
down in a less abrupt manner. Fortunately, there were plenty of
soccer-ball and larger sized rocks around to do the job. We brought
everyone down without much drama, and even Jim in his King Cab
Frontier and Jeff in his F-150 manage to come down without dragging
their rears. Jeff did chew the lip of the ledge with his transfer
case and crossmember due to his long wheelbase, but it was minor and
no threat to his truck.
One of the things I learned from this: roll up the window if your door is doomed to come in contact with a tree. If it had pushed in much further the glass would have been shattered in the door. As it was, the motor was straining to move it up and down.
Other than that, the day (and the trails) were pretty uneventful. Well, except for the hour I killed before we even hit the trail while trying to find someone to help a kitten that someone had hit and left injured in the road.
Brent
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Hey Schlud, look familiar? (long story)
Wish we had as much room as you did to maneuver the recovery rig around in.
I have one that belonged to my grandpa. It's called a Red Devil. 4 ton rated with snatch block, cast iron frame, 50 ' 3/8" cable. Fits in the back of the X on all trips.
