Rollover Recovery 101

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
We all hope that it never happens but, when you play hard enough with your Jeep there's always a chance that you will flop or rollover it over on the trail. And, should that ever happen to you or one of your friends, the post below will help you to know what steps you should taken before, during and after the vehicle has been recovered. This information was provided by my good friend Greg and it's about as good as it gets.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them here as they would be more than welcome additions to the discussion and will be sure to help others as well.
 

GCM 2

New member
1 - shut the ignition off ASAP (even during the flop if possible). Prepare for fire, get the extinguishers handy.

2 - evaluate injuries to people or pets. Attend to those first, forget about the stupid paint, metal and rubber damage.

3 - recover the vehicle. This is as dangerous or more dangerous than the initial flop. This takes a lot of knowledge to right vehicle without causing further damage. The use of winch blocks is highly advisable to lessen the work on the winches doing the recovery, it also makes it much more controllable up until the point of gravity taking back over. Doing this type of recovery is exceptionally technical and actually is very helpful if you have had professional lessons/training.

4 - once vehicle is righted, a seriously detailed assessment of the damage to the engine needs to be done before attempting to restart.

5 - No need to drain the oil! That serves no other purpose other than to make the trail even more messy. However, you do need to pull the spark plugs to release any vacuum in the cylinders that might be keeping oil from returning back into the pan from the cylinders. Also pull the air filter to see if oil has made it up through the intake manifold and all the way to the filter element.

6 - once it has been deemed safe to attempt an engine turn over, and with the plugs still out, crank the engine over to purge the cylinders of oil. Caution: this is super messy, oil is going to spray everywhere.

7 - Once the cylinders seem dry of oil, clean all the spark plugs with brake cleaner really well. Reinstall spark plugs, check engine oil level on as flat a surface as possible and top off. Top off all other fluids too at this point.

8 - start vehicle, prepare for lots of smoke......which will eventually go away. Now drive off trail.

Caveat: it is possible that you may not have to pull plugs, but this is an advance technique to check if motor is hydro-locked, but I will not cover that here.

For all you newer guys here on the forum, during the pre-run for the King of the Hammers 2013 race, my jeep was flopped on the first day of the run. Basically using the outline above, we recovered the jeep, finished pre-running that day and the next day too and then I drove the 435 miles from Johnson Valley back to Scottsdale, AZ
 

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MR.Ty

Token East Coast Guy

Wow thank you for that info and background story.

So I am guessing it is a good idea to add things to my tool bag like: Oil (to top off with), air filter, something to pull the spark plugs with, kitty litter to clean up the oil with. Edit: and a fire extinguisher.

More noob questions: Do how do you crank the engine over....

Loading please wait....
 

GCM 2

New member
Wow thank you for that info and background story.

So I am guessing it is a good idea to add things to my tool bag like: Oil (to top off with), air filter, something to pull the spark plugs with, kitty litter to clean up the oil with. Edit: and a fire extinguisher.

More noob questions: Do how do you crank the engine over....

Loading please wait....

Well, the level of wheeling we do out here in the west is often pretty extreme and if everyone carries a few extra quarts of oil, water/antifreeze, powersteering fluid, diff fluid and a decent selection of tools, there will usually be more than enough supplies to fix someone who had a bad day.

So yes, you are definitely a noob :cheesy: Now this is pretty technical and I'm guessing you mean "crank the engine over" when the plugs are out. I will see if I can dumb this down enough.....insert the key into the ignition and try to start the vehicle! That simple, it won't start because there are no plugs to help compression build and then fire the compressed mixture of fuel and air, so the engine just spins freely. Too easy ;).
 

MR.Ty

Token East Coast Guy
So yes, you are definitely a noob :cheesy: Now this is pretty technical and I'm guessing you mean "crank the engine over" when the plugs are out. I will see if I can dumb this down enough.....insert the key into the ignition and try to start the vehicle! That simple, it won't start because there are no plugs to help compression build and the fire the compressed mixture of fuel and air, so the engine just spins freely. Too easy ;).

I dunno... that sounds like a really advanced maneuver. Nothing about that seems easy. :cheesy:

Serious note: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. :thumbup::beer:

Loading please wait....
 

JAGS

Hooked
KFirst-

Second-

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Eight-

Caveat:

That is an awesome step by step. Thank for that Greg. :thumb: I just printed out the post and am going to throw it in with my trail tools. I hope to never need it, but certainly helpful to have on the trail for myself or to help others.
 

GCM 2

New member
I dunno... that sounds like a really advanced maneuver. Nothing about that seems easy. :cheesy:

Serious note: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. :thumbup::beer:

Loading please wait....

You got it Mr. Ty, no problems brother :thumb:
 

spicoli

Member
KFirst- shut the ignition off ASAP (even during the flop if possible). Prepare for fire, get the extinguishers handy.

Second- evaluate injuries to people or pets. Attend to those first, forget about the stupid paint, metal and rubber damage.

Three- recover the vehicle. This is as dangerous or more dangerous than the initial flop. This takes a lot of knowledge to right vehicle without causing further damage. The use of winch blocks is highly advisable to lessen the work on the winches doing the recovery, it also makes it much more controllable up until the point of gravity taking back over. Doing this type of recovery is exceptionally technical and actually is very helpful if you have had professional lessons/training.

Four- once vehicle is righted, a seriously detailed assessment of the damage to the engine needs to be done before attempting to restart.

Five- No need to drain the oil! That serves no other purpose other than to make the trail even more messy. However, you do need to pull the spark plugs to release any vacuum in the cylinders that might be keeping oil from returning back into the pan from the cylinders. Also pull the air filter to see if oil has made it up through the intake manifold and all the way to the filter element.

Six- once it has been deemed safe to attempt an engine turn over, and with the plugs still out, crank the engine over to purge the cylinders of oil. Caution: this is super messy, oil is going to spray everywhere.

Seven- Once the cylinders seem dry of oil, clean all the spark plugs with brake cleaner really well. Reinstall spark plugs, check engine oil level on as flat a surface as possible and top off. Top off all other fluids too at this point.

Eight- start vehicle, prepare for lots of smoke......which will eventually go away. Now drive off trail.

Wow great info. Thanks. I definitely need to add a couple things to my trail kit.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
With much appreciate to Greg for taking the time to share his well written recovery post, I have just made this information a Recover 101 sticky thread. :yup:
 

Kavanji

Member
i would like to ad something.

once you have accessed the damage to man and machine and before you even attempt to right your rolled rig make sure the parking brake is firmly set and the transmission is in park. or in first for a stick shift.

i was nearly run over by a vehicle when gravity took over and all fours where back on terra firma. the vehicle made a dash for downhill and i can tell you that adrenalin is brown and makes stripes in your undies :D:D
 

GCM 2

New member
i would like to ad something.

once you have accessed the damage to man and machine and before you even attempt to right your rolled rig make sure the parking brake is firmly set and the transmission is in park. or in first for a stick shift.

i was nearly run over by a vehicle when gravity took over and all fours where back on terra firma. the vehicle made a dash for downhill and i can tell you that adrenalin is brown and makes stripes in your undies :D:D

True. Thanks and very good call, yes I did leave that out. Nothing worse than successful recovering your rig only to watch it roll back to the trail head on its own (and that is best case scenario ;) )
 

catahoula

Caught the Bug
Eddie on one of your videos you helped someone in a white JKU on one of your trips. Was that the Rubicon?
 
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