Little quad rescue last night
 

So, I was in my shop last night, maybe 6:30, checking the moose jerky in the smoker and my phone rings..
Wife on phone " you should go and help, "daughter 3" just ran out of the house, her friend rolled a quad and they might need help"
I glance out the window to see a quad tail light peel up the dark driveway, around the corner and disappear into the night.
So, naturally I was confused "What? Who? Where?" Still trying to process what's happening.
I head toward my truck as wife explains " "friend" called my daughter, she rolled he quad by the cemetery, she is ok, but needs help. That's all we know.
I figured, ok, no worries, the quad probably just needs to be righted and checked for damage, no problem. (The cemetery is about 1km from my house). I did a drive by, and didn't see any quads, lights, or girls. I figured they must be on a piece of the trail in a treed area, wheeled the truck around and headed back to the cemetery access road. From in there, I could see quad lights down the trail, maybe 200 yards, no way to get the truck closer.
So, this little piece of the trail is cut on a side hill, uphill on the left side and drops off kinda sharply on the right side. As I'm walking down the trail to them, I notice that there only seems to be one bike on the trail, not good...
As I arrive on scene and glance over the bank I silently confirm to myself, this is not good. It gets worse as I assess what happened.
13yr old friend was riding towards town. Trail is bumpy and slippery. Friend is hugging right side of trail to avoid the worst bumps. Friend sees a blue bunge cord on trail. Friend is distracted by bunge , catches right edge of trail and over she goes. Quad rolls one revolution and comes to rest against a tree. Friend ends up in a pile on downhill side of quad. Im not sure how it went exactly, but friend distinctly remembers seeing the bottom side of the quad in the tumble down.
Friend keeps insisting that she is fine, no injuries.
I slid down the hill to the quad, I thought there was a slight chance that I could manhandle it away from the tree, fire it up and maybe weave my way the rest of the way down the hill, through the trees, and onto the road.
I was wrong.
It turns out an 800 Outlander, on a side hill, in the snow, pressed into a tree is super heavy, I couldn't budge it. I also couldn't start it, the battery only had enough juice to light up the electronics and would not start the engine ( more on this later )
So, here i was with two 13yo girls, in the dark, on a side hill and our "rescue" machine is half the size of the downed bike. So, I got a ride back up to my truck, daughter stayed with friend and I went home for another quad, some slings, shackles, snatch block, etc.
With 2 pull machines we managed to get the Outlander most of the way back up to the trail just as Friends "13yo boyfriend" shows up to help ( apparently she phoned him while waiting for me )
I re-rigged the machines a couple times, daughter and I finally manage to get that beast back on the trail ( boyfriend never left his quad, just watched myself and the girls get it done, lol)
We wrapped up our stuff, the Outlander was still a no go, I hooked up a tow strap and towed it back to my place. Even that wasn't easy with my little 420.
Ya, anyway, I pushed it into my shop, checked it for damages. All I could find was the switch for the winch was broken and jammed to the IN position. I believe that is what killed the battery, the winch was trying to run when the key was in the on position.

So, ya, that's how I spent last evening, all is well, nobody hurt and only minor damage, but even more importantly the jerky turned out great.

https://i.imgur.com/J758xzF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JFFjaEb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/67wQRqj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KJwn5xW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lCcyVTP.jpg

RD

That’s better than a Highway through he’ll show on recovery! Well done glad to hear no one was hurt.

BW

Glad to hear nobody was hurt. That is the main thing.

Good rescue!!

And for sure glad nobody was hurt

Kinda/looks like the young lady is enjoying the job :sHa_shakeshout: and good job by the way.

Glad no one got hurt, but gotta ask what a 13 year old is doing on an 800?
An 80cc machine may be more appropriate.

I've had several friends severely injured flipping quads, and one acquaintance died...

Just spoke this afternoon with an old work mate who broke 7 ribs, shattered an arm, crushed in a cheekbone, and broke his ankle flipping his quad, and he is a 6'2" 250 lb tremendously strong brute of a man.

Love stories like this, nobody hurt and minimal damage to the machine.

Another lesson learned (hopefully) and another story to tell. Good stuff :)

Great story with nobody hurt. Great adventure and a memory you will all remember fondly.

I was thinking the same thing that's a pretty big machine for a 13 year old that's a pretty big machine for a 60 year old very lucky

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

Some years ago in the middle of nowhere a deer exploded from the bush beside the trail and into me. Came to with a 500 arctic cat on top of me. I cannot imagine tumbling with an 800 sized machine..
The odds of a 13 year old girl walking away unscathed from something like this in the dark are ridiculous. She was extremely lucky.
Great of you to dig her out!

Osky

Yeesh.. very lucky..

A friend's 16yo neighbor is paralyzed from the neck down because of an almost identical incident, except she ended up hitting a log at speed and head first into a tree. Yep. 800 quad, and she had been riding quads/dirt bikes since she could walk. Might want to have a serious talk..

Very thankful you were home and she wasn't hurt. Where was the girl's father?

Good job big guy and glad no one was hurt. No matter what age you are, things can happen, it is really good to have excellent friends and neighbours to help out when they do.

Thank god this story comes with a happy ending...it could have gone bad in so many ways...glad to hear that all is okay in the human damage, the quad can be fixed a lot easier than fixing broken bones.
Good on ya for getting out there and helping...
Zip:)

quad
 

Good positive ending to bad situation. I thought those stickers on quads always state "Must be minimum of 16 years old to operate" were for a reason.

I get it, this is a discussion that could go on for months without a satisfactory solution to anybody. Personally, I believe there are factors that must be considered in any given situation. In this particular case we have a young rider who lives out of town and is riding on a groomed trail. She had her riding gear on, she does this often, this is how we get around up here. (she was riding to the grocery store to pick up her sister after work). If she had been on a smaller machine it might not have happened, maybe. On the other hand, she might have been going faster on a smaller machine, and it could have been worse, we will never know.
Ive been condemned numerous times as a bad parent, here and other places, for some of the things I let/encourage my kids to do, then later those that condemned me would let/encourage their own kids to do some things that I believe to be sketchy.
We all have to make our choices, I believe we should make our own choices.
Sometimes we make bad choices, sometimes life deals us a ****ty hand.
I don't have all the answers, but I'll do my best to help you out if you get one of those crappy deals.
My girls don't ride 800's, they ride 420's, I don't know if that's better or not. They also drive my F350 (yes, even the 13yr old), they all scuba dive, they've all been at least 3-4km in caves, they can all drive a jet boat, seadoo, Argos, dirt bikes..... Hell, they race dirt bikes at the local track, one on a CR150R and another on a KTM250.
I try to provide opportunities, training, and safety gear; after that all I can do is hope for the best.


RD

Great that no one got hurt.

Imagine if she slid into the larger tree on the left of the picture? From the skid marks, she didn't miss it by much.

Wow...

Also good job teaming up for the recovery.

Pointing that out helps nothing and is down right rude. Quad accidents happen to all ages. I do all kinds of stuff the stickers say not to. There is a sticker on my ladder that says not to use the top two rungs, guess what, I use them anyhow. Farm kids are driving grain trucks and tractors at 10-12 years old, depending on size and maturity. How about you let their parents parent their own kids and you mind your own business.


P.S. I see Rock Doctor posted while I was typing. A much more complete answer, but same result; Worry about your own kids, let them worry about theirs.

My daughters first 80cc mini quad has that sticker on it, even though I've never seen a 16yo small enough to actually fit/ride it. Those small bikes are clearly designed to be used by younger riders. You can drive a truck on the highway in Alberta at 14, but warning stickers say you cant ride a 50cc quad/bike. Seems a little odd

RD

Not sure exactly, he drives truck, last I heard he was maybe in Montreal area. The mother is recovering from a recent surgery. My wife and others have been helping them get around, school and such, but they are strong independent people that try to look after their own needs ( like most people ).

RD

Interesting note:
Other than the odd Race Quad, like our 250 Raptor, I don't know anyone that owns a "small" quad around here. Everything is 420 or larger and must have 4WD.
Im sitting here trying to think of someone i know with a smaller quad and I'm drawing a blank. Not sure what its like around where you guys are located.

RD

ouch...could have been worse...age, speed, and yup...man wish I had an 800cc ripper when I was 13....had a yammy trike that threw me off a few times....ouch.

Good on you Rock Doctor. I am in full agreement with your look on life and letting the young ones experience all aspects. All we can do is teach them well about the pros and cons of every action. They will figure it out the easy way or the hard painful way lol.

Glad to hear the young lady only got a scare.

You sound like a good dad. Don't pay any heed to the squawking.

You’re a great Dad RD! I to encourage my daughter to try new things. She drives my 3/4 ton at times and on private property, she’ll turn 12 in April.

BW

Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.
 

Good job on the recovery and providing a learning experience on self-sufficiency. That will be invaluable to the youngsters in the future. :happy0034:
BTW- you're not supposed to put the fear in other girls boyfriends, or was he being polite and staying out of the girls way?

Interesting to see who believes in letting kids learn and gain valuable experience versus those who want to raise a bunch of future Karens. Nanny state all the way! :rolleye2:

Sorry guys, you can only drive a vehicle on highway at 14 years with temporary license when accompanied by a mature co-pilot. I do not buy your argument. Just talk to a few emergency room doctors that treat all the quad injuries.

Exactly, we all know that mature adults don't make mistakes or ever have accidents. They are fully capable of talking a junior driver through anything they might encounter at any given time at a moments notice.
As mentioned before, I doubt we would be able to nail down a set of all inclusive guidelines that we all agree to, we all have different comfort levels, people of different ages are all over the map with their skill levels. For example, I'm comfortable riding in a jet boat to Tuchodi with one of my daughters driving, at the same time I might be uncomfortable riding along with another boat owner on the same trip. NOT saying my daughter is great, or unusual, I've just seen her do it before and I'm comfortable with her skill level. At some point you have to trust people to do things.
Im not trying to sway your opinion in any way, you do you and I'll do me.
Have an awesome day

RD

If more people could live by this very simple idea the world would be a lot better than it is right now. You can't even post a positive good news story without someone trying to take you to task for some tangential issue. Lord I hate the Karens and Buttinskis that dominate all aspects of life these days.

You are my idea of a GREAT Dad, keep up the good work and keep raising self reliant kids that know how to get things done.

Lol, I didn't say a word, not my circus, not my monkeys. Haahaha:sHa_shakeshout:

Seemed like a quiet young fella:)

RD