The rains have finally landed giving some much-needed relief for many of the east coast farmers, but do you know how to tackle the muddy tracks this spring, and if you get stuck, do you know how to get yourself out of trouble?

This is a handy how to guide, on how to get yourself out of trouble on the tracks, so follow along closely and make sure you aren’t relying on anyone else to cover your back when you are on the tracks!

First things first, pay attention to your driving technique – whilst you may have all the mods in the world, a capable 4WD has more to do with the person behind the wheel than the upgrades to the vehicle and making sensible decisions on the tracks, coupled with a mind for knowing just how capable your vehicle is when faced with an obstacle will do you wonders when traveling off the beaten path!

There are a few old wives tales about getting un-bogged on the tracks one of them is to travel with your vehicle in 2WD, that way when you get stuck all you have to do is pop it in 4WD and drive straight out, whilst sound in theory, this will get you stuck sooner on the tracks and will also mean you have to lose momentum when you hit the tricky sections of track whilst shifting into 4WD and subsequently 4WD low range!

Our best tip is to start with dropping your tyre pressures down to offroad pressures as soon as you encounter unsealed roads, by reducing your pressure by about 30% you will increase the amount of traction on the surface of the road and can also increase the comfort of uneven surfaces like rocky graded tracks, and washboard corrugations.

When you drop your tyre pressures you should also engage 4WD this makes it much less likely that you will lose traction on slippery surfaces, and also means when things get tough you are already 90% of the way ready for crawling in low range!

The next step to dragging your 4WD through the tricky stuff, is to know when, where and how to engage your low range gearset, this will usually lock your center differential, and if your vehicle is equipped, any time you are hunting for more traction with low range you should engage differential locks if your vehicle is equipped.

Low range is what makes a 4WD a “REAL” 4WD – effectively binding all of your wheels to spin together with reduced speed, and massively improved torque, when low range 4WD is engaged, you’ll find you increase your traction offroad and your 4WD will turn into a slow speed tractor, capable of hauling itself through some incredibly tough terrain, no sweat!

With low range 4WD engaged, you should drop your pressures down to what may seem like a crazy pressure of around 50% of your highway pressures, this reduction in pressure can increase the surface area of the gripping tread pattern on soft terrain by around 250-300%, as you can imagine this increase in surface area is also a decreased downward pressure on the tracks making punctures and a rough ride a problem of the past!

The most efficient way to reduce your pressures is to use a Kwiky Tyre Deflator, by screwing onto your Tyre valve and internally removing your valve core, you can easily and in control, dump huge volumes of air out of your tyres, not only in control but with accuracy, thanks to the integrated pressure gauge.

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Knowing this, you should avoid a lot of trouble when you hit the tracks – but not all trouble, do you know how to get your 4WD free from trouble when you do lose traction?

The best thing to do when traction starts to fade, is to stop trying to drive out- it can be alarming when your 4WD begins getting stuck but one of the worst things you can do is to give it the berries and bury your tyres further.

By stopping and assessing how stuck you are, you can formulate a plan for getting your 4WD unstuck – the first thing to try, is putting your 4WD in low range if it isn’t already, and trying to reverse out of the situation, low range will give you better grip and less wheel slippage, making it more likely to pull your 4WD free.

If this doesn’t work it is time to hop out and have a look at the greater situation, by dropping your pressures down as low as 12psi you can instantly gain traction but by also pulling out your shovel and trying to clear some of the debris out from under your 4WD you can simply drive it through.

Making sure to not spin your tyres more than necessary, you can more than likely drive it through – nice and slowly, but this doesn’t work everytime – particularly if you were a little ham fisted with the throttle when getting into the mess in the first place.

This is were a smart, well thought out self-recovery will come into it’s own! – It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, unspooling your winch cable!

When operating your Domin8r X 12,000lb Winch, it’s a great idea to get your hands on a fully featured recovery kit like the Hercules Essential Recovery Kit or the Hercules Complete Recovery Kit. They not only include a safety Winch Dampener for peace of mind, they also include a tree trunk protector for setting up an anchor, a winch extension strap and even a snatch block pulley for when you need to double your pulling power!

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By deciding on a winch recovery you need to assess whether you have a suitable anchor point in a direct line with the direction your vehicle is pointing, by running your winch cable in a straight line, you allow the cable to respool in a straight line, preventing it from binding on the drum.

If there is no straight line run, you should consider doing a line redirect, using a secondary anchor and your Snatch block pulley to set the line running dead down the middle of the path of travel and anchoring to one side of the track!

With a line redirect established, you can pull your vehicle in a straight line and prevent cable binding on your winch drum – pulling yourself free.

After you’ve rigged up and are ready to rock-N-roll, its time to sit back in the pilot seat, start your motor, engage low range 1^st gear and  bring your idle up a few thousand RPM. Now using either the wired in controller or the wireless function, you can begin winching your 4WD to freedom!

Winching PRO TIP: Winches get hot when pulling under load, and if they get too hot can fail on the tracks, we use the 30 second rule, which means 30 seconds of winching to 30 seconds of break. This allows the winch to cool right back down, preventing overheating and allowing you to get the most pulling power out of your winch!

With all of these tips and some common sense, you should be able to get your 4WD free from strife out on the tracks this soggy spring 4WD season!