knowing when your brakes need attention

Usually, pickup trucks are the vehicles upon which everyone can depend to rescue them out of ditches. When a truck ends up in a ditch, nobody is sure what to do next, especially if the truck cannot simply gun it and drive out of the ditch. If your pickup truck ever gets stuck in a ditch, here is what you need to do next:

Call a Towing Company

Without a doubt, you will have to call a towing company. Be sure to tell them that you drive a pickup truck, as they will have to send a tow truck with a hydraulic winch to get you out of the ditch. Also, if there are any unusual blockages under the truck, you might want to mention that. Large sharp rocks underneath or near the bottom of the truck can cause a lot of damage if the towing company starts to winch your truck out and the truck is caught on the rocks. Knowing this in advance helps the towing company bring the right equipment to the scene.

Do Not Try to Rev Your Way out of Mud, Ice, or Snow

Stuck in a ditch is one thing; stuck in a watery ditch with sucking mud or slippery, icy snow and ice are entirely different things. If you were to continue to rev or gun your way out of the ditch under these conditions, the truck would continue to sink into the marshy, muddy ditch, or fuse ice and snow to the underside of the truck, thereby making it impossible to move. Just wait for the towing company to show up. If you already revved the engine and the truck is even more stuck now, tell the towing company that before they dispatch a driver. They may need two drivers and trucks with winches to pull you out.

It Will Take Time, So Make Phone Calls as Needed

Pulling a pickup out of a ditch is no simple matter. It is much heavier than most passenger vehicles, and the process is slow going. While you wait for the tow truck(s), make any necessary phone calls you need to make, such as to work or home to let them know what happened and not to worry about you. If you can do some other work or have some other activities to keep busy, do those too. If it is really cold outside, stay in your truck. If it is really hot, try to keep the air conditioning running or get out of the truck every ten minutes, so you do not sweat to death.