Into the Drink...and Out Again (hopefully)
Part III: How To Get Across

Assuming that your rig is sufficiently prepared for the depths that you want to attempt, the first order of business when approaching a crossing is to inspect the physical aspects. Take a look at the banks where the trail (if there is one) enters the water. Keep in mind the angle down into the water, as well as the angle out on the other side. If the bank in is too steep, it is possible to wedge the front of the rig against the bottom, and find yourself stuck before you are even into the water completely. If it is too steep (or loose) on the opposite side, you may have to winch your way out of the flow. In either case, extraction will be more difficult than if you were on dry land. Take a careful look at the speed of the water as it flows by, and check for any indications of underwater obstructions or iregularities in the surface of the water that will give you clues as to what lies underneath. If wading is a safe undertaking, it is usually a good idea to do so.

This is a shot provided by David Leveille Jr, of his '60 at play in some shallow water. Note how the rig has caught up with the bow wave, and it is breaking against the grill. In deeper water this could cause problems.

This will tell you how firm or soft the bottom is, alert you to any holes or ruts, and let you find any hidden obstructions. As I have mentioned previously, you will want to carry chest waders or even a dry suit if you are dealing with chilly waters. Some water ways which can be crossed without undue hazard in your rig can not safely be waded. Swift flowing water over smooth polished stone can be pretty difficult to negotiate on foot if it is anything over knee deep even when it can often be driven across easily.

If a direct crossing at the point where you have reached the bank is questionable, don't hesitate to look both up and down stream for an easier spot, and don't think that you have to head straight across to the other side either. (In some areas, legal or common sense restrictions may apply to any travel off of established trails, so make sure you are not violating any regulations, or doing any environmental damage by off trail travel.)

Once your crossing point and route have been determined, take a minute and deal with any last minute tasks to ready your rig itself (Securing clutch fans, covering radiators, moving gear to higher positions in or on the rig...) Once this is done take a little more time and formulate "plan B" in case you do not make it across to the other side successfully. If you're traveling alone, this may be as simple as deciding what gear to take along as you hike back to the trailhead for help. Hopefully you are not attempting any questionable crossing without a companion vehicle, so your plan will reolve around deciding the most like cause of an unsuccessful crossing (swamping, stuck in a soft spot, high centered on the bank, or ???), and the best way to remedy the situation if it occurs.

This can involve determining which rig is the best one to send across first, who should drive it, which rig should be the designated "recovery rig", whether to use snatch straps, or winching, where to position the rigs, what gear to have out and ready, and so on. Some times it pays to have a winch cable already spooled out and ready to attach in the event that the crossing is unsuccessful.

On some occasions I have attached auxillary cable lengths to the back of a rig before setting off into a stream. Just make sure that it is long enough so that the free end isn't pulled into the water before you have made it past the tough stretch. Make sure that it doesn't get fouled on stumps, rocks, vehicles or anything else. AND MAKE SURE THAT ALL PEOPLE ARE WELL CLEAR OF THE CABLE AND ANY ARC IT MIGHT FOLLOW!!! Keep in mind that the current will try to wash the trailing cable downstream. It can be helpful to have someone carefully hold the free end of the cable and walk forward, keeping some tension on it as the vehicle crosses the stream.

This shot from David Leveille does an excellent job of showing the effects of overrunning the bow wave. The static water level is less than bumper deep. The bow wave (now behind the front tire) was nearly as high as the top of the fender. The water that is being thrown forward is the remains of the wave that has actually been sheared off by the rig as it blasts through. This can be very hard on the radiator and fan, and the surge of higher water within the engine compartment can swamp components that would otherwise remain high and dry. In deeper water this would be much too high a rate of speed.

With some careful and coordinated driving, you can even go ahead and attach it to the rig that will be tasked with recovery duties. If you do this exercise extreme care not to foul the cable, or drag on the leading vehicle. It can be very difficult to avoid these problems, and you really do not want to have to stop in mid flow becuase the trailing rig has run over the cable and wrapped it around an axle. This can also require a good bit of cable for most crossing that are large enough to cause any concerns. I always carry at least 300 feet of cable in addition to what is on the winch, and for many crossings this would not be sufficient to keep one rig on dry ground until the other is all the way across. I don't normally reccomend dragging a cable behind the rig, but if you are careful, it can be real helpful when dealing with low current, soft bottom crossings.

Sometimes all you will need to do is attach a snatch strap to the rig and coil it up in a secure location, to be thrown to another rig in case you get mired. Or even just have one in hand, and a volunteer to go wading.

If you will want or need waders or any sort of clothing besides your cutoffs to enter the water for recovery purposes, then it only makes sense for at least one person to already be ready to go before you get started.

The choice as to which rig to send across first, and which to hold back for recovery is an important one to. For example, on one outing I was driving my lifted, locked, fairly well "water prepared", and PTO winch equipped FJ55. The rig that was with me was a '66 FJ40 with no functional mods other than a well worn set of 31x10.50s.

This is an example of launching into the water with far too much enthusiasm. The driver of this rig was concerned only about the soft and sticky bottom, and looking for momentum to carry her through.

After making our way through some beaver ponds that my buddy didn't expect to cross successfully, we reached a fairly shallow and slow moving but wide river crossing. The bottom was soft and sandy with silty patches. There was little doubt in my mind that I could make it across. But I was not 100% certain. The sandy shore on the other side offered no solid winch attachment points, and we did not have a winch anchor with us.

The odds were against the stock '40 making it all the way across, but it did have a chance. When all this was considered (along with the fact that it was 20 trail miles back to the road) it was an easy choice to send the '40 into the water first. He had less chance of getting across. But if I tried it in the '55 and sunk in the silt, there was virtually zero chance that the '40 would be able to snatch my rig free. By the time we gave up, we had extracted the little rig from the silty riverbed three times, and his best attempt had gotten him about 80% of the way across. We didn't make it across that day, but we did make it home and not too far behind schedule.

When you have three or more rigs traveling together, the decision making can be a little more complicated. Basically you have to rank the rigs in terms of ability to get across, and ability to recover another rig from the water if need be. Then decide what order the rigs should cross in, with the additional consideration now of getting a rig on the opposite shore which can help the other rigs make it if they swamp or get stuck.

Probably the most common mistake that people make when crossing water obstacles is improper speed. It would seem that everyone would have heard by now, that you should not move too fast while in the water. But an awful lot of people do just that. It takes a lot of power to push through water at high speed. There are a couple of results that follow. You will generally have the engine turning at fairly high RPM, in a lower gear. This will cause a mechanical fan to toss a lot more water around under the hood, increasing the chance of electical problems and of fan-radiator contact. It also means a wider open throttle position and higher momentum of the rotating assembly.

After the high revving start she only traveled about the length of the rig into the water before the volume of water displaced killed her momentum, and the splashing under the hood killed her ignition. As you can see the water is not at all deep, and it has had plenty of time to settle down, as she tries in vain to get the '40 started. Eventually she had to get her feet wet, and finally drove right through at a more reasonable rate of speed.

If you do get water into the intake tract, it is less likely to simply stall, and more likly to pull a good slug of water all the way into a cylinder and "hydrolock". Remember water doesn't compress. Any significant amount drawn into a cylinder of an engine turning at a high rate of speed will have destrutive consequences. Moving out of the engine compartment, the high power needed to push the water out of the way quickly still has repercussions. This power has to be fed through the tires, which will not have great traction to begin with. If you are in a rocky and swift flowing stream, your tires are already tasked with resisting the lateral force of the current. You may not have a lot of traction to spare. If you break them loose through application of throttle, they can no longer anchor you against the current. If you are dealing with calm water and a soft bottom, too much throttle will dig you into the sand and silt at a rate that will make a sand dune seem like slickrock.

If you can make the power, and deliver it without any problems, you're still not out of the woods yet. As the water is displaced by the moving vehicle, it will create a bow wave. At the proper speed (usually around 5-7 MPH) this bow wave will rebound from the front of the rig, and create a trough behind it which is actually lower than the surrounding static water level. But the bow wave can only move so fast. If you travel faster than the bow wave can, you will catch it, and raise the water level at your grill, or within the engine compartment to higer levels than the surrounding calm water depth. In addition to the obvious problems of water proofing and air intake concerns there are a couple of minor but notable side effects. You can actually damage grill mounted lights, and such if you overtake the bow wave at a fast enough rate in deep water. The bumper mounted license plate brackets on the front of the '40s and '55s are particularly susceptible to this, even at proper crossing speeds. I have bent several brackets, and seen many others so damaged. They are pushed forward by the water rebounding off of the front of the vehicle. After I lost my second front plate in deep murky waters, I moved my mounting location to the center front of the roof rack to solve this problem.

This is a fairly uninteresting shot. But look closes and you'll notice that you are looking at water over the top of the transmission cover, not the floor boards. This is an FJ40 that could handle the fairly shallow water depth okay, but could not overcome the soft and silty bottom. In 35 degree water, the driver had some cold feet as he fought with a balky idle while waiting for the winch cable.

The scenerio of someone launching off the bank at full throttle, just to come to a dead stop within a couple of vehicle lengths is a tired cliche, but it is something that you can still see wherever inexperienced off roaders meet water crossings. Water spraying high into the air, and crashing out to the sides may look macho for photo shoots, but it is not the answer for safe and dependable fording of anything more than the rain puddles behind the highschool.

A proper crossing speed will produce little or no splashing from the front of the rig. Once you get the hang of it, you can adjust your speed through the water a bit to control just where (in relation the the front of the vehicle) the trough behind the bow wave is situated. This can actually allow you to cross deeper water than you would be able to without this phenomenom. Crossing at so slow a speed that a bow wave is not created will usually result in deeper water within the engine compartment than if the go pedal was depressed a tiny bit more.

Significant current will alter the bow wave equation, often stripping it completely away from the vehicle. In this case there will often be higher water at the upstream side of the vehicle and lower water in the lee of the rig. Levels within the engine compartment will usually be roughly equivilent to the level seen on the lee side of the rig.

Once you are into the water and heading for the opposite side, if the bottom and any obstacles will allow it, you are generally better off to head straight across.In fast flowing water, a slight angle downstream will put the front of the rig in a sheltered position, and may drop the subjective water level some. But it will put you out in the water for a longer distance, and increase the likelyhood of stumbling across a deep spot, or other underwater surface irregularity. Climbing the far bank without straightening the rig out will create an off camber situaion. This can be scary enough on dry land, much less when a possible roll over will put you under water. Turning upstream is worse. The current will usually amplify the bow wave, and push it back into the vehicle. You can easily wind up with water breaking over the hood. It will require much more applied power to push your way upsteam against the flow, and the same considerations of the distance traveled while in the water, and the bank approach still apply.

In the real world however the best route in terms of bottm solidity, bank angles, or water depth will often require heading upstream, downstream, or even zig-zagging across the flow.

As you reach the far bank, it will often be advantageous to gain a little momentum to climb out of the water. With careful timing you can increase your speed so that you overtake the bow wave as the nose of the rig raises out of the water, and the ill effects will be reduced or negated. It is possible (and pretty simple) to apply full throttle a few feet from the shore, and have the engine turning nicely and the vehicle accelerating as it starts up a steep bank. In fact, with the minimal traction that usually exists coming out of the water, this approach is required for many steep exits.

If you run high wattage headlights, it is a good idea to turn them off and let them cool for a couple/few minutes before starting across waters that are particularly cold. The thermal shock can shatter the glass housings. I like to have a set of auxillary lights mounted high on the rig for use during night crossings. Even clear water does a real good job of creating dark when your headlights dip underneath it. It is also usually a good idea to select a gear that is lower than the one you expect to need. Again, water can be tough to push through.

In a small pond like this, the bow wave of a vehicle can stretch all the way across, pushing water in front of the rig, and lowering the level behind it until the wave crashes into the other side and rebonds. In this crossing, since the rig has an electrical fan, the speed is pushed up until the bow wave rides right at the grill (but still not quite trying to break). This provides for the lowest water level inside the engine compartment in this particular crossing. The differences in water depth ahead of the rig, at the grill, just behind the front wheels, and at the rear of the rig are very evident in this picture. Of course, this is partially due to the fact that the bottom is shallower behind the rig than in front of it. But at this point the effect of the bow wave is of approximately equal importance.

You may also have dips, bumps, and rocks to climb over in the stream bed, and there is the bank on the other side to deal with too. It is almost always a bad idea to use the clutch any more than absolutely necessary while in the water. When the clutch gets wet it slips, and obviously doesn't pass power to the drivetrain. Clutches seem to be worse at this than brakes are. In very silty or muddy water, repeated use of the clutch can allow the particles that are suspended in the water to settle in the working of the clutch and prevent firm engagement. Drying out will not solve this problem either. You will have to partially disassemble the clutch and wash it out (tough to deal with in the field). This is actually more of a problem in soupy water/mud holes, and I have never encountered it in flowing water. In any case, gear down, and try to avoid shifting until you reach the other side.

If your rig gets you out into a stream, river or pond, and then succumbs to the water gods, it's all part of the game. If it sputters and stalls due to ignition problems, or a small amount of water reaching the intake, go ahead and carefully try to restart it. If it bucks, back fires, or resists cranking, STOP. If it has ingested a good dose of water into the intake, don't even try to restart it. If it has bogged down in a soft bottom, but is still running, don't shut it off. Leave it running while arranging the retrieval. Especially if your water proofing is good enough so that the combusion chambers are below the level of the water as the rig is runing. Shutting it off will allow water to enter the engine by way of the exhaust system, even if the intake remains above the water. If the recovery of a stuck or swamped rig entails a second rig moving into the water so that the snatch strap or cable will reach, be aware that stoping, and then reversing direction can create momentary surges of higher water at the front and rear of the vehicle, as well as within the engine compartment. If the recovery rig is working at or near it's depth limit, be very careful not to wind up with two rigs disabled in the water. Also keep in mind that if you are attempting to tow or snatch from within the water, you will have reduced traction, and the resistance of the water to deal with. If at all possible keep the recovery rig on dry land.

Once your rig has been returned to the shore, shut it off if it has remained running. Give it a minute and then check the oil for water contamination. I have seen water find it's way into the oil pan through the dipstick and through the PCV fitting. If water got in while the engine continued running, it will probably be throughly mixed with the oil, and will call for an oil change. If the recovery was of a stalled rig, then inspect and dry the ignition system and air cleaner assembly. If there is any chance the water got into the engine, pull the spark plugs, but don't crank the engine yet. After the rig has sat for a few minutes, carefully loosen the oil drain plug, and see if it is oil or water which wants to come out. If water has entered a stalled engine, it will usually settle to the bottom of the oil pan without mixing with the oil. It can be drained off without the need to drain the oil itself. After this is done, then crank the engine with the spark plugs removed to expell any water from the cylinders. Make sure the spark plugs are thoroughly dried before reinstalling them.

This article, when taken in conjunction with the previous ones will still not make you an expert at dealing with water on the trails. Nothing you read on your computer screen, or a printed page will do that. Only real world wet and dirty trail time does that. But hopefully this has provided you with some ideas and facts to consider while you're out there getting your rig dirty. Maybe it can at least accelerate the learning curve a little bit.