Stranded deep in Canyonlands NP, had to call Matt's Off-road Recovery (24 hour rescue)

[ratherbskiing]

We were traveling with a Land Rover who bailed us out, although most of our personal belongings had to stay with the jeep. Miraculously, we had service at the exact spot of the breakdown but not service anywhere else. I did have a Garman in reach that I used to communicate with my brother back in Pennsylvania who spent time coordinating with Chrysler and all of the off-road recovery companies. It was my brother who was able to get an escalation to a manager at Chrysler who understood the gravity of the situation and understood the specialization required. My brother contacted Matt and Rory and gave them a heads up that Chrysler might be calling. He kept in touch with me on the inreach. We wrenched on the jeep for quite a while before abandoning ship, we tried every trick in the book to get her started. The issue was that the starter would not stop starting. I thought the whole thing might burn to the ground so we started pulling wires and fuses and relays, and almost nothing would stop the starter from engaging and then finally we pulled a fuse that shut down both the starter and the engine and then it never restarted because the starter was fried at that point.

 

[Overwatch]

You’re a bit behind the times, he paid the fine a long time ago already and dealt with that.

I actually had no idea. I thought it all just happened a few months ago. Normally an insurance fraud case takes a year or more. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[InVinoVeritasty]

following.
I will be watching for @JeepCares comment or OP's post if this gets resolved. I suspect others like me who have vehicles on order are following.

 

[ConqSoft]

I actually had no idea. I thought it all just happened a few months ago. Normally an insurance fraud case takes a year or more. Thanks for letting me know.

https://jalopnik.com/off-road-recovery-youtuber-to-serve-probation-for-fraud-1848682414

 

[Chris2183]

following.
I will be watching for @JeepCares comment or OP's post if this gets resolved. I suspect others like me who have vehicles on order are following.

Don't expect much more from Jeep Cares than a generic "Oh so sorry you are having trouble, please PM us if you need assistance" message. If they do anything for OP it will be done privately.

 

[1BadManVan]

I actually had no idea. I thought it all just happened a few months ago. Normally an insurance fraud case takes a year or more. Thanks for letting me know.

“When the gavel landed, Wetzel pleaded no-contest to a class A misdemeanor to avoid prison time. To repay for his wrongdoing, Wetzel will be on probation for 18 months and will pay back $15,328 to AAA along with a fine of $1,745 to Utah’s insurance fraud arm. For a public persona who has made his name on serving those who need assistance, this is a small price to pay for the accusations at hand”

 

[Go_Galt]

We were traveling with a Land Rover who bailed us out,

Not to make light of your situation (sucks bad), but that's funny as hell.

How unreliable is a vehicle that needs a Land Rover for an assist?

 

[fat_head]

Which trail are you on? It looks like something I want to do.

 

[Trailrated]

Sorry to hear it. But not surprising, given my own experience with Jeep & its dealer network....

About the only thing you can do at this point is spread the tale far and wide with the hope that it hurts Jeep more through lost sales than they hurt you.

This. Put them on blast every chance you get. I'd be posting on Jeep's FB daily

 

[Trailrated]

Best part of the story is dealer fixed your Jeep with a new starter relay.
Long trip reliability I’ll stick with Toyota. I tell my wife the 4Runner is the Jeeps support vehicle until it proves otherwise.

I agree. I like Jeep, have one and had an LJ. But I don't trust them. Anything Chrysler I don't trust really.

 

[LooselyHeldPlans]

Jeep reliability and subsequently service is the worst part of owning a Jeep. After my current Wrangler, there’s no chance in hell I’d buy another Jeep.

My JL has been back to the dealership 12 times for warranty service, mostly due to the mot***fu***ng ESS system (But often times for more than one issue at a time). Its currently just sitting around not able to be used because I’m like 100 miles under the 36k warranty service and waiting for weeks for an upcoming service appointment.

The only thing that has ever seemed to make any sort of difference was threatening to contact the media regarding my problems.

 

[OSCAR II]

Sorry to hear OP,
IDK, my experience with the LL it was fast smooth and simple. The only thing that wore me down and was a pain in the tail was keep bringing it back to the dealer. I know now, 2 trys and its theirs. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[txj2go]

how much was the extraction. Heard they are the best but they also charge a pretty penny?

When you make backcountry reservations for one of the Canyonlands districts they warn you to be prepared, that recoveries from back there can be multiple thousands of dollars. I never knew how many people did that work but there may be only a couple of companies that are really expert and equipped for it. There are a couple of more interesting videos where Rory recovers Jeeps over Elephant Hill, that makes the recent video look tame by comparison.

ignoring the issues with the vehicle, i'm curious about how you dealt with the breakdown.
did you have Cell Coverage where you were?
Garmin InReach?

It's really unusual to me that you can be in a very remote part of Canyonlands and have cell signal. It's not everywhere, but sometimes you realize that all of a sudden you have cell signal in one little spot. When I started going to Utah by myself my wife bought me a Garmin Inreach Mini, it works anywhere.

“When the gavel landed, Wetzel pleaded no-contest to a class A misdemeanor to avoid prison time. To repay for his wrongdoing, Wetzel will be on probation for 18 months and will pay back $15,328 to AAA along with a fine of $1,745 to Utah’s insurance fraud arm. For a public persona who has made his name on serving those who need assistance, this is a small price to pay for the accusations at hand”

I saw an explanation that they were trying to give their customers the service that AAA promotes. I thought AAA should have used it for publicity rather than trying to prosecute someone.

Which trail are you on? It looks like something I want to do.

That's the road/trail that eventually takes you to the Dollhouse, in Canyonlands Maze district. (We were there last October.) That road is technical but not much challenge for a JL with the ground clearance of a Rubicon. The roughest part is just past Teapot Rock and that is some of what they showed in the videos. They showed very little of the trail though. They went in and out on the dirt road that intersects highway 95 near Hite Marina. From Hanksville to Dollhouse through Hans Flat is about 100 miles, with about 20 miles of it somewhat technical. Back to Hanksville is another 100 miles so you need a vehicle that will do 200 miles with the fuel it carries. We carried an extra 5 gallon can but didn't need it. My JLU gets about 10mpg on the slow technical stuff but probably 20 on dirt roads. There are more than 6 campsites on that trail, you have to reserve them 3 or 4 months in advance.

 

[zouch]

glad to hear you weren't alone.

and glad to hear your InReach worked; mine doesn't always. (currently, it actually still shows me in Arizona,...)

We were traveling with a Land Rover who bailed us out, although most of our personal belongings had to stay with the jeep. Miraculously, we had service at the exact spot of the breakdown but not service anywhere else. I did have a Garman in reach that I used to communicate with my brother back in Pennsylvania who spent time coordinating with Chrysler and all of the off-road recovery companies. It was my brother who was able to get an escalation to a manager at Chrysler who understood the gravity of the situation and understood the specialization required. My brother contacted Matt and Rory and gave them a heads up that Chrysler might be calling. He kept in touch with me on the inreach. We wrenched on the jeep for quite a while before abandoning ship, we tried every trick in the book to get her started. The issue was that the starter would not stop starting. I thought the whole thing might burn to the ground so we started pulling wires and fuses and relays, and almost nothing would stop the starter from engaging and then finally we pulled a fuse that shut down both the starter and the engine and then it never restarted because the starter was fried at that point.

 

[txj2go]

glad to hear you weren't alone.

and glad to hear your InReach worked; mine doesn't always. (currently, it actually still shows me in Arizona,...)

I've been to Utah by myself but considering how remote the Maze is I invited my cousin to go along on that trip in case I needed some help.
My Inreach Mini has worked well for me. When I'm away I have it set to send tracking points every 30 minutes. My wife will sit home and follow where I'm at on the map. She figures if I stay in one spot for a couple of hours then there might be a problem. Each night I send a free "all OK" message then I turn the thing off.

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