A Snowshoe Is No Xtractor!

In our first installment of “I Wish I Had An Xtractor!”, a fan of ours finds himself in the middle of an icy bog, waist deep, kicking around for his snow shovel and an anchor to get his ATV out of trouble…read on:

If you have a story, and would like to become eligible to win an Xtractor, contact us!

21 Apr 09

The weather had started to turn warm and the snow was melting fast up in the mountains. So I decided I better head out and get one more ride in with my tracked ATV. I got up early, loaded the bike, and headed out for a fun day of “Track’in”.
After arriving at the staging area and unloading the bike, I thought to myself, “It’s warmer than I thought it would be…”,  and I headed out across this big meadow to get into the rolling hills.

As I came over a small rise in the ground, I could see this “gray” area and I knew it was probably water under the snow. It looked to be only be about three feet wide and I figured I could get across that pretty easy. Bad idea…as you’ll see from the photos.

Damn!

Since I couldn’t get out going forward, I attempted to try and back out, and at one point, I was high centered on snow, slush, and ice. I broke out my snow shovel and began to dig the bike free, in hopes I could again, get going forward.

Now I'm in a small lake!

When I finished digging, I placed the shovel between my cargo box and my gas cans (but I didn’t secure it) and began racing through the icy slush to the other side of what was now a small lake about 30 feet wide.

I need a boat!

From Bad to Worse

Well, long story short, I couldn’t get out going forward either and again, became high centered on the ice and slush. I walked around the back of the bike to get my shovel and it was gone …!

This is getting deeper.

I had to step down into the waist deep ice water and walk around kicking in the mud, until I located the shovel.

What in the hole!

An Xtractor Replacement?

By this time I knew I wasn’t going to be able to drive out of this “hole”. So at first, I tried to use my snow shovel as a winch anchor…that didn’t work.

Hey, my new snowshoes!

So next, I got my brand new, never been worn, snowshoes, wrapped my winch strap around them, dug a hole, jammed the snowshoes into the hole, buried the snowshoes with snow and stomped the snow down.

The entire time I kept thinking to myself, “I Wish I had an Xtractor!”

The snowshoes worked and got me out of the hole and onto dry land, but the snowshoes, not being designed for this type of use, where destroyed.

A snowshoe is not an anchor!

What I needed, and will have ASAP, is an Xtractor.

I made it out!

Bummer!

Great Story!

Special thanks to Robert Hepner CSM (RET) USA, for sending in that great story. He will automatically be entered to win a new Xtractor! If you’re interested in getting in on the fun, and have a great “I Wish I Had An Xtractor!” story, send it to us here, by using our standard contact form. You will automatically be entered to win a new Xtractor, in our monthly drawing!

Here’s all this the pictures for you to get a closer look!

Do You Wish You Had An Xtractor?

I Wish I Had An Xtractor!

A couple of years ago, on a whim, we teamed up with the good folks at ATVFrontier to put on a Christmas holiday promotion. The “I Wish I Had An Xtractor!” contest was born. The idea was to get their forum members to send in photos of themselves and their buddies getting their 4-wheelers stuck to high-heaven. Then, everyone within the ATVFrontier community voted for the photo each thought was the best (no real critera was established here, but for the most part they all chose the one that was burried in the deepest mud). The winning photo received an Xtractor™ ATV winch anchor (image by Scorch07).

Deeper Than It Looks!

A continuing part of the Xtractor Web site

Well, the promotion went off without a hitch and a good time was had by all. A couple of weeks ago, a fan of ours sent in a story and some photos of a recent 4-wheeler trip, where an Xtractor would have really come in handy. We’d love to share it with you. In addition, we’re going to revive the “I Wish I Had An Xtractor!” idea, and have it be an ongoing feature on our blog and in our monthly newsletter.

If you want to be part of the fun, send in your photos, videos and stories to us through our contacts page. We’ll get them out here. Plus, any submissions will be eligible to win a FREE Xtractor ATV winch anchor, just for submitting a story!