I pulled a FedEx truck out of a ditch tonight

[Caliber357x]

I was coming home from the gym tonight and along a state road in VERY rural West Virginia there was a FedEx truck completely off the road in a snowy ditch, and tilted on its side about 30 degrees. I stopped and asked if they needed help, because there is no cell service along that stretch of road and he flagged me down. A guy with a Toyota RAV4 had stopped to help and was going to try to pull him out with tow straps, which didn’t seem like that was going to work.

I offered to use his tow straps with my truck - turned on all the zone lighting, hooked up the straps put the truck in tow/haul mode, locked the differentials and pulled that truck out with ZERO difficulty. The tires didn’t even stutter - I thought for a second the tow strap had snapped. I don’t know what a fully-loaded delivery truck weighs, but it was no problem for the Lightning.

Thought you all might like to know that you too can pull a delivery truck out of a ditch

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[MotoGary]

No pics? Seriously? You know the old saying….”Pics or it didn’t happen”…

 

[Caliber357x]

No pics? Seriously? You know the old saying….”Pics or it didn’t happen”…

I thought of it for a split second, but that road (WV-259) is a thoroughfare for semis and known for speeding - but I have a feeling someone who passed by the scene will call it in to the “Moorefield Examiner” newspaper and it’ll get a mention

 

[farmtruck]

Did he have your NACS adapter?

 

[potato]

Did you tow it in reverse using the tow hooks on the front, or did you have something attached to the hitch?

 

[Ricks Lightning]

It sounds like a similar experience i had a few days ago with a large tree limb. Honestly the truck never felt a pull or resistence.

Good job lightning.

Rick

 

[jeff_h]

I thought of it for a split second, but that road (WV-259) is a thoroughfare for semis and known for speeding - but I have a feeling someone who passed by the scene will call it in to the “Moorefield Examiner” newspaper and it’ll get a mention

I live a mile from that road and can attest that the speed limit is mostly-55 and trucks go mostly lots-over-55.

I think the only improvement would be to tell the Tacoma guy to get his phone out and take some pics, otherwise great job!

 

[Caliber357x]

Did you tow it in reverse using the tow hooks on the front, or did you have something attached to the hitch?

The hook on the tow strap went into the groove just to the right of the tow hitch receive - pulled it out driving forward.

 

[Caliber357x]

I live a mile from that road and can attest that the speed limit is mostly-55 and trucks go mostly lots-over-55.

I think the only improvement would be to tell the Tacoma guy to get his phone out and take some pics, otherwise great job!

Howdy neighbor! Yeah it was between the Lost River Grill and what I call the Teet’s store “Meat Church” - there was a grey Tacoma with a cab that slowed down to get a good look at the situation while we were hooking up - I should have asked him to record it

 

[The Weatherman]

Did he have your NACS adapter?

Hell, I want know if he had MY adapter.

 

[jeff_h]

Howdy neighbor! Yeah it was between the Lost River Grill and what I call the Teet’s store “Meat Church” - there was a grey Tacoma with a cab that slowed down to get a good look at the situation while we were hooking up - I should have asked him to record it

Yep, we go to the Teet's rodeo each August... see you there!

 

[roddiaz1]

Sorta off topic here, but how do you guys in WV travel long distances?
There appears to be ZERO charging infrastructure in WV.
What gives?!? What do you Mountaineers do when you travel from Morgantown to Charleston?
What is odd is that Electric vehicles run on coal more than any other type of vehicle (provided the power plant is burning coal). Seems like WV should have a higher commitment to EVs than other states.

 

[jeff_h]

Sorta off topic here, but how do you guys in WV travel long distances?
There appears to be ZERO charging infrastructure in WV.
What gives?!? What do you Mountaineers do when you travel from Morgantown to Charleston?
What is odd is that Electric vehicles run on coal more than any other type of vehicle (provided the power plant is burning coal). Seems like WV should have a higher commitment to EVs than other states.

Yeah that seems to be the prevailing mindset that EV owners must be the "green" types that are trying to save the planet, etc... and if that's someone's thing OK great. I agree with the thoughts on coal and in WV we have a "Friends of Coal" specialty plate and I have one of those. I'm not a big fan of buying foreign oil but there are plenty who don't care about that one way or the other, so to each their own.

As for lack of charging infrastructure, I'm sure (at least I sure hope) there are smart people out there from Tesla and EA and Chargepoint and others who plan out where locations should be. My guess is that they looked at the number of EVs in the state and since it's probably lower than others so are the number of locations. I am glad I bought the A2Z adapter as having access to Tesla locations really helps, and they tend to be more reliable than the EA stations too.

For the OP, sorry to continue derailing this thread, we're driving it into the ditch like the FEDEX truck!

 

[Jim Lewis]

@Caliber357x, maybe you’ll get a Thank You letter from FedEx, although the driver might not want to tell his bosses he ended up in a ditch. But perhaps if FedEx trucks are monitored as closely as UPS’s and Amazon’s, they already know there was a good delay on the driver’s route that needs an explanation.

 

[Caliber357x]

Sorta off topic here, but how do you guys in WV travel long distances?
There appears to be ZERO charging infrastructure in WV.
What gives?!? What do you Mountaineers do when you travel from Morgantown to Charleston?
What is odd is that Electric vehicles run on coal more than any other type of vehicle (provided the power plant is burning coal). Seems like WV should have a higher commitment to EVs than other states.

Yeah…the charging infrastructure is…lacking. The closest “convenient” L3 charger is in Stephen’s City, VA, which is about an hour away. If we didn’t have access to Tesla’s network, I doubt I would have been able to make my road trip to Indiana without spending some serious time at a L2 charger.

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