Glamis 911

Saw a video of them towing out a big pusher from the flats. I thought to myself hell if the guy in Sand Hallow (Matts Off-Road Recovery) can do that with the Banana they should be able to do it. He didn't dig in or anything he just cruised. Not nearly as violent of a snatch as with the stretch rope. He attached to the rear reciever of the bus and just crawled right thru the flats towing that big pusher out by the ass. 

Here is the thing. 90% of the people who call for this kind of help struggle to put fuel in it without social media.  They have no clue as to how to get SxS unstuck. Can't tell you how many people we have come across who had been digging "for hours" to get unstuck when we just pull the front end around a little bit and say drive or when we tell them to tie up the front broken A-arm synch down the opposite back shock and three wheel it out and they say you can't do that.

I have taken a three wheeler with a blown up motor let the air out of the front tire dropped that front tire into a six pack rack strapped it down with a couple straps and towed it out like a trailer.  Hell it was harder to get the cooler out of the dunes then the trike.

Half the experience is adapting, and over coming the pitfalls you run into every trip and if all you do is pick up your phone and see what social media wants you to do your never going to figure it out on your own.

That being said, I got towed out last year by another car in our group and that was the most scared I have ever been in the dunes in 30+ years. And if his car breaks down and he looks to me to return the tow because that is the only way out. I will be calling these guy's. But it's going to be a last resort not the first call that is for sure.

 
Lord of the Dunes said:
...the problem with a tracked vehicle is you can't air them down for more traction...
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You do understand why airing down helps in the sand, right?  It's about getting a bigger footprint (which helps both in terms of traction and flotation).  That's the entire reason for a track: it creates way more surface area than any tires ever could.  Look at the overall footprint of a track compared to even a giant tire aired down - the track has way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more surface area than even the biggest tire aired down.  

Anyway, cool service, and I'll probably sign up.  I know they've had a few issues, and looking at their "fleet" I suspect they'll have a lot of breakage themselves.  But, I'd rather have to wait a few extra hours and have them send multiple rigs than tow with my Albins or take my D'max out in the dunes (which I've done... and it does far better than you'd think... but the stress of thinking "if I get this stuck or break it too, then I'm double-effffffffed" isn't fun).  


(yes those noises are coming from the transaxle)

TBH, I've always thought a dune-recovery business would be a fun "semi-retirement" gig.  I was thinking an old Chebbie with a TT Big Block and some 54" Baja Claws cut for sand use cuz I'm an idiot... 

-TJ

 
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I've drug a 4500lb buckshot with my stock 1500 4x4 Suburban from way... WAAAAY.. out in the dunes... 

1. 4wd low

2. 15psi on all four tires of the suburban

3. 3 30' tow ropes.. that's right 3.. so when the burb goes UP a hill, you're not towing.. you go DOWN a hill and the 90' straps engage.. every time you're going down, the sand car is going up and vice versa...

Not my first rodeo.. I could pull ANYTHING out of the dunes.. to make it ideal though, I'd sky the suburban and put on 37" bead locks.. cause when you yank that sand car ... and it catches.. you throw beads on stock tires.. 3 in one trip.. Before my Jeep and SCU, I used to cruise around Pismo at 15psi with the same Suburban and yank out stuck Fords.. 

... for fun.. no money required..  :rofl:

abc

For more fun advice.. Use a Ouija board.. since I'll be among the dead soon.

 
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6 minutes ago, tjZ06 said:

You do understand why airing down helps in the sand, right?  It's about getting a bigger footprint (which helps both in terms of traction and flotation).  That's the entire reason for a track: it creates way more surface area than any tires ever could.  Look at the overall footprint of a track compared to even a giant tire aired down - the track has way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more surface area than even the biggest tire aired down.  

Anyway, cool service, and I'll probably sign up.  I know they've had a few issues, and looking at their "fleet" I suspect they'll have a lot of breakage themselves.  But, I'd rather have to wait a few extra hours and have them send multiple rigs than tow with my Albins or take my D'max out in the dunes (which I've done... and it does far better than you'd think... but the stress of thinking "if I get this stuck or break it too, then I'm double-effffffffed" isn't fun).  

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Naw holmes, M1A1, Sno Cat, BFVs, all wish they could air down to get around the desert… Lol

 
Sandy claws said:
 We stopped on a dune to check things out and my car didn't want to restart. Battery. He tried to pull me to bump start and he got stuck. No one out that night. we called glamis 911 and were told there was no one there and they could pick us up in the morning this was about 10:30 11:00 if i'm not mistaken.  We asked them if they had a jump box 
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For a small fee, I will tell you to keep some sort of battery jumper in your possession. 

I keep one in my truck.  They're now the size of a sandwich. 

I'm dying to hear some of the stories FROM Glamis 911 themselves.

 
25 minutes ago, tjZ06 said:

You do understand why airing down helps in the sand, right?  It's about getting a bigger footprint (which helps both in terms of traction and flotation).  That's the entire reason for a track: it creates way more surface area than any tires ever could.  Look at the overall footprint of a track compared to even a giant tire aired down - the track has way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more surface area than even the biggest tire aired down.  

Anyway, cool service, and I'll probably sign up.  I know they've had a few issues, and looking at their "fleet" I suspect they'll have a lot of breakage themselves.  But, I'd rather have to wait a few extra hours and have them send multiple rigs than tow with my Albins or take my D'max out in the dunes (which I've done... and it does far better than you'd think... but the stress of thinking "if I get this stuck or break it too, then I'm double-effffffffed" isn't fun).  

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Yes, I understand how it works.

Now think of the context of my statement. The original FB poster said they got stuck with their tracks. If that was true (it turned out it wasn't) it wasn't like they could somehow make the tracks larger and get more flotation, like one could do by airing down tires. It was a joke about what do you do if the tracks don't have enough flotation. 

 
I come from snow country.

Tracks float. Paddles, not so much. Not at all. Unless it's hard packed. In the snow anyways.

These rigs are heavy. So are snow cats. I'll be interested to see how they do. 

They are doing  it smart by having multiple rigs.. Just in case.

I'd rather pay these guys there yearly membership than try to drag my rig out with the truck I have to haul my camper and family home 1000+ miles with.  

 
Did anyone else have to use them this past season?

I had to use them for their snow cat but without insurance and it was close to 1300 bucks.
 

Next season I will buy the full season coverage just to not have to worry about it. 
 

 
I used Glamis Rescue but for a trailer repair, not a recovery.  Found a broken spring hangar on my flatbed while in Glamis.  We had a welder in our group but I was being lazy and figured I'd try these guys because I like to support local businesses, especially one that could save my azz someday.  This should have been a 1 hour job and that's being very very generous.  Just weld the hangar back to the frame is all I asked for.  30 minutes after they started grinding they called me over to look at the hangar and the bolt hole was ovaled out.  They said they had flat stock on hand and could make a new hangar and weld it on.  I said ok, it's worth doing correctly.  2 and a half hours later they were done.  Whatever, it's fixed.  I asked how much and he says $300 muther effing dollars.  WTF?  Paid it and haven't been back since.  Welds were sh!t too.  I took the trailer to my regular repair shop and had them go over everything.

A buddy broke the air bag pivot on the frame of his Funco.  He was camped at Cement Flats and drove it to them for a repair.  No idea what they charged or how long it took.  When they were finished he drove it back to camp and it broke off the frame.  He loaded it up and took it to Joe Fab.  They spent a lot of time grinding off the sh!tty welds and fixing it correctly.  Harvey posted it on his IG.

Reputation means a lot in any business and you can only screw over so many people before word gets around.  Especially true for the small off-roading community.

 
Haven't used their service, but went to them to buy some antifreeze.

$40 for a gallon.

Sweet Maries, 10 steps away, had a gallon for $19.  Just sayin.

 
Glamis Rescue or Glamis Recovery? Two different businesses or same?

 
I used this service: https://glamis911.com/ 

I will say the one time I went over to the Glamis Rescue area the owner was a pee pee and was not helpful whatsoever. Probably the reason his "Service bay" was pretty much empty all season long.

 
Sandkist said:
Glamis Rescue or Glamis Recovery? Two different businesses or same?
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Two different businesses. Glamis Rescue (and Glamis Grub - same same) is off of Gecko next to Sweet Marie's. Glamis Recovery is the Glamis911 tracked trucks that thread was about, usually parked at vendor flats.

 
Well we had the misfortune of needing rescue services.  We called around and there are at three seperate ones.

The day we called all three were down for repairs. One told us that they would be up and running later in the day. We were still trying to get one to call us back when heard from reliable source that rig that should be up later in the day had been parked for repairs for two weeks. 

Finally we got one who could be up and running a little later.  They called about two hours later said meet some guy on a quad at the Wash 10 restroom.  He will scout out the route.  He scouts the route and leaves.  Couple more hours go by another phone call. Meet the truck now at Wash 10 rest room for a guide in.

Well the guy on the quad was in the truck with the driver.  They made it to the broken car hooked it up and got it back to camp.. Trying to got the car backed up and onto a trailer was the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life.

The "Guide" and the "Driver"  couldn't get on the same page as to what way to turn the tracks, plus the tracks don't turn while sitting still. So it was forward backwards turn wheels left, no the other left. pull forward turn wheels to the right again.  We got close  and just manhandled the car into position ( flatbed trailer was real tight)  So there we are after at least an hour of trying to get this car into position we now just need to unhook. It is at this point the driver hits the wrong lever and the tow boom moves to the left.

In other words they didn't really have a clue as to how to use the equipment or how to communicate with each other let alone us.  

End of the day they got us out for $1,400.00 from top of Brawley Slide to W13.

 
I used the POULE PICK-N-PULL Recovery Company! Worked Great. I heard they've since closed the Doors. Peace

 
I paid the $300 subscription to Glamis911 at the beginning of the season.  Figured it was cheap insurance against a huge tow bill if I broke down.  I am pretty good at doing maintenance, and also at getting stuff out of the dunes, but figured it would be good to have in case some stupid thing broke that was not fixable or if I wadded the car up really bad.  I had told my group that I do not tow people out unless they want to pay for a trans bill in the off season, and I do not expect my group to tow me out either.

Second to the last trip of the season in April I start feeling the steering getting heavy and then smell burning rubber.  Figured it was the serpentine belt and a stuck tensioner.  Turns out it was the harmonic balancer slipped the rubber and was burning and spitting rubber.  Diagnosed the issue and decided I was going to test out the towing service.  I called the number for Glamis911 and despite having only 1 bar on the phone got through.  Took several dropped calls to get my issue explained to them and where I was located.  I was told I had to use some stupid app to request a tow.  Totally unacceptable as I had basically no service where I was.  Finally convinced them to let me talk to someone else and they agreed to let me bypass the app.  They called back and told me it would be at least 4 hours before they got there as they were on a call in Ocotillo and did not have a unit available until that was finished.

At this point 2 hours had already passed so I decided to try to start the car hoping the balancer had cooled enough to keep turning my serpentine belt.  I seemed to work, so I drove straight over to wash road keeping turning to a minimum.  Called and canceled the tow when I hit wash road as that was where they were going to tow me anyway.

I will probably buy it again this year, but they need to ditch the stupid app, and have coverage for the season like it says, not just 3 months.

 
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