Antarctic Delta Stuck in Snow

[calvinhobbescinnamon]

i see equipment like log skidders working and they all have chains..thinking a chain for a tire like that...$1000 each maybe a bit more. was looking at you trying to get it out and if i was there, i would have been freustrated that there were no chains! lol

[XNtr3k]

@calvinhobbescinnamon

Well, you could always suggest it to the NSF, maybe through the USAP website. You could even apply to work as a vehicle operator down there, drive the big things out on the ice.

[calvinhobbescinnamon]

@XNtr3k i've already driven the big things out on hte ice! lol now just haul 140000lb loads up and down the hiways in western canada. tired of the cold...going to bed with truck running at 1600rpm, sleeping in a skidoo suit, driving with parka wrapped around legs because of cold drafts, things just snapping from the cold! i just hafta get my shit together and win the lottery so i dont have to do it anymore! lol

[calvinhobbescinnamon]

one question to the uploader...why would they not run tire chains on it? good set of chains and it would pretty much go anywhere. i drive commercial vehicle in northern canada and we all carry chains....

[XNtr3k]

@calvinhobbescinnamon

Oh, I have no clue. Its probably a budget issue. I just know the thing hit a soft spot of snow and then dug its own grave. Eventually we got it out, but yeah, for a while we were digging around the tires.

Or maybe they have chains and don't know it. There was a lot of old, forgotten equipment on station.

[foamybubbles79]

@calvinhobbescinnamon

Being the fact that the Antartic is a sort of a "protected" environment the use of chains could chew up and destroy the ground thus defeating the purpose of being there to study stuff. Plus those tires are designed to "float" over the snow, so once again, chains would dig in and once again possibly hurt the sensitive areas.

[calvinhobbescinnamon]

@foamybubbles79 i understand the idea that tire chains can possibly tear up the ground, but being stuck and digging your way down a foot with tires isnt the best either. i run tire chains on my transport truck sometimes and dont dig down at all. i will run on an iceroad or a bushroad in the oilfields where chaining up is mandatory for large vehicles. the ones who tears things up are the ones who go in "barefoot" (without chains" and get stuck.

[camel1410]

co to za złom, nie ma blokad?

[jacobdorp]

if they put differental locks on it it would have never gotten stuck

[sbongey]

delta,s dont get stuck

,drove one in rothera research station  few years ago point and go

[XNtr3k]

Clearly you did not watch the video.

[yamahandrea]

why he don't block diff?

[XNtr3k]

That is how we wound up getting out. They put sheets of plywood under the tires which the Delta drives up over.

At first they try to 'crab-walk' it out by changing directions several times as they back up and drive forwards again.

[XNtr3k]

It was a training outing anyways so we learned to free ourselves (it wasn't planned, no). Besides, would have taken the VMF over an hour to get to us, and we were told you only want to call them as a last resort unless you don't want to hear the end of it around town. Of the three Deltas that went out on that trip, two got stuck twice each.

[jimmy1257]

ok wait a min wernt you suppose to call vmf if you are stuck in antarctica? damm summer people dont know what they are doing