Job for a commercial tow to pull him out? What an inconvenience, I'm so sorry. I hope he's not tearing up your drive in the process. Are you going to offer him coffee in the morning?

That's worse than I expected from your heading. He couldn't figure out in 3/4s mile of driveway? Wonder what he's delivering.

We have a car every couple of months or so miss the curve in the hill going down the street. They will pull into our circular drive and look surprised to find themselves in a private driveway. Our entrance is wider than a car, but its not two lane city street wide. Some will back out when reality hits, others might pull all the way through and then out, apologizing if I'm outside.

What happened Bob? Is he still there?

Wow! I'll be curious as to how this ends!

To be continued............

He really needs a commercial tow though his employer probably will not be happy. I can't imagine why he drove himself into this situation. I would also get his ID/license plate in case you have damages.

How unfortunate! So often people drive off of roads, following their GPS. I remember when we first got ours it took us down a hilly narrow, bumpy sideroad, off the highway. Dumb thing.

Let us know how it turns out Bob. Don't put a pic of his truck on social media, he's mortified as it is :-)

Sometimes even the wreckers have difficulty in close quarters.

Don't remember why now but called for a tow one time at my old place. A long curving narrow drive with a parking pad at the top of an incline where my stranded vehicle was located. After scoping things out, the tow truck driver decided he needed to back up the drive to get the car as there was not enough room for him to turn around on the parking pad to hook up the car and haul it out. He made it about half way when he drove off the side of the drive. The ground was always soggy there and he got very firmly stuck! It's not often when you see a tow truck called out to pull out another, stuck tow truck :-)

The original driver was furious.....it seems his need to be rescued would result in him buying donuts for the entire towing company crew. And no doubt opened him up to a lot of ribbing by his coworkers. And I had to wait until the following morning for my tow.

Good luck with all this. It will likely be a long drawn out process. It took about 3 hours for my relatively straightforward extraction.........I can imagine it taking quite a lot longer to maneuver an 18 wheeler out of a tight spot...........

Aww. Poor guy. At my son’s business last week they had a vendor’s 18 wheeler get stuck. He was a fairly new driver, delivering to an unfamiliar place. In the process of backing up, he eventually dropped one corner of the trailer completely off the culvert. He had to call his boss, who of course was furious. The boss arrived, demanded the truck keys and company phone from the driver, and fired him on the spot. The fella had to call his wife to come fetch him.

Aw geeze, littlebug that's sad. Unless it wasn't the first time he'd done that.

Come on Bob I've checked this thread 4 times since I first read it hoping for an update to this cliffhanger!

I have the solution. Use reverse gear and mirrors to guide truck to highway.

I'm wondering if we should be starting to worry!

GPS? Nothing wrong with a good old fashioned paper road map. So what if you can't fold it back up properly. :)

I hope that the fellow got out ok.

I hear more and more of the GPS taking people everywhere but the correct route. When my DH decided to drive to Vegas (we live in PA), we used the Walmart atlas to guide us. It showed where the rest stops were. We had no problem going cross country and had a blast doing it.

Oh no, what an unfortunate mess for you, and the driver, and whoever was expecting his delivery. I was once driving in an unfamiliar neighborhood and came "this close!" to driving up a person's driveway as if it was a road. It was dark, windy, raining, thunder & lightening, a real mess of of night. I literally had to slam on my brakes then back up a little to get going the right way. I hope today's daylight helps (helped?) resolve the situation.

Any progress to report? Now I am getting concerned. Are YOU able to get out? I don't want to think you're held hostage.

Hope some progress is being made. I imagine they will have to do something to the culvert area so he can get through there either by himself or a wrecker pulling him across and over the field to neighbors driveway. I am on a farm and in the past we have had times where something had to "rigged" up to get out of a situation.

Glad you checked in. We’ve followed our Gps to the wrong location a couple of times in our 40’ rv and luckily had a backup camera. And me. Anxious to hear the rest of your story.

In the north of Western Australia, is a LOT of wide open space, mostly dirt and a few spindly trees and bushes, and many of the major roads are dirt, because there isn't enough traffic to justify the huge expense of getting it blacktopped hundreds of miles from the nearest town. (WA is a million square miles, and most of the population lives in one city in the south.) In the wet season these dirt roads turn into quagmires. There have been entire road trains (semi trailers with multiple trailers) abandoned because they became bogged and the expense of getting them out wasn't worth it.

Hope Bob's truck gets out OK.

My DH’s first job after moving to the states was as a long haul truck driver and something like this happening to him was one of his greatest fears. OMG was I happy when he finally quit!!!

My point is that it’s really not an easy job and I can certainly understand how that poor guy feels. I sure hope his company isn’t too hard on him and the tow will be of help. Poor guy!!!

Ok, so, my wife got up much earlier than me, made the guy some coffee, and she decided that since the truck was having trouble getting back up over the "hump" between the paved parking area and the gravel drive, and was just tearing up the grass and dirt next to the driveway that she should borrow the neighbors tractor, get a scoop of gravel to try to help the driver get traction. But while she was getting the tractor, the driver decided to drive forward and ended up with the rear wheels half on the driveway and half hanging over the culvert, with the tail end of the truck firmly embedded in the gravel driveway.

I was awakened by the beep beep beeping of a giant commercial tow truck backing away from our house on our driveway. He had got all the way to the house and realized that he could turn around there either, so he backed away, past the pond and up the hill, to the one spot he could turn around, and then backed all the way to the house.

They were shaking their heads and saying "this isn't going to be just $600 like we said". They hooked the tail of the trailer, and lifted the tail out of the dirt and set the wheels back on the driveway. and then started driving off. I was afraid they thought that was good enough and they were done, but they were merely going to where they thought the next problem would occur. The tow truck drivers tried backing up the semi but also couldn't make it over the "hump" so they had to bring the tow truck back to help it over the hump. Then the tow truck driver continued driving the semi, backing it slowly down the driveway, zigging and zagging the front of the truck to keep the back end on the driveway and heading the right way. He had some trouble negotiating the curve by the pond, and needed several tries, but eventually continued backing up the hill past it. He finally made it to the new driveway for the new barn, where we found that the semi driver had driven over several bundles of T-posts that were on the ground next to the driveway, bending and breaking several of them. The tow truck driver backed past the gravel driveway drove up it as far as possible, and backed into the field across from it and managed to turn the truck around, which was good since the rest of the driveway is even narrower, with no room for the wild swings needed while backing up.

From that point the tow truck driver continued driving, with his helper in the tow truck out in front. I followed them to the end of the driveway, taking pictures of all of the places where there was new damage along the edge, and eventually caught up to them. The tow truck was at the road, partly to make sure the semi driver couldn't leave before they were sure that they were paid.

Its a good thing we didn't have anything important to do like getting ready for family who are coming in later today for the Holidays.

I'm a longtime GPS enthusiast and user (since 1999) and haven't had a car in the family garage without it in over 10 years. For me, GPS directions and maneuvers are, at best, informed and methodical choices that are usually correct and useful but not always. As with anything else, a little common sense and thought makes it better. I don't always think of truck drivers as being the Albert Einsteins of our society. Some may be clever but it's not a job needing a lot of brain power. At some earlier point this guy should have realized there was a problem with the suggested route.

Not too many years ago, we spent a number of days of a vacation trip in one of the well known wine-growing regions of France. After a day of wandering around, we went back to our hotel room (in a small town) to look through the material we had to choose a place to go for dinner. We picked a place in a neighboring town, I called and made a reservation, and we set off a bit later. Our GPS suggested what seemed to be a very direct route instead of a somewhat more circuitous path I'd expected would be needed. About 10 minutes in to the drive, the GPS routing had us making a turn onto a dirt road that went through a vineyard. Knowing that was probably not the best idea, I backtracked to our hotel and then set off on a route different from what the GPS had said but (as I suspected) in the right direction but on the circuitous path of the local roads leading to our ultimate destination. The GPS gave up its insistence on the dirt road midway and got us correctly to the restaurant. It's an experience my wife (as you'd expect) brings up periodically when we're on the road and she questions a GPS recommendation or path.

That happened to us in Cesky Krumlov , a walled, moated town in the Czech Republic. Our GPS kept trying to get us to go down a "street" that just didn't look right. In the end we turned it off and followed our instincts. The next day, we could see from the battlements that the "street" the GPS wanted us to go down, was in fact a foot path the went through a narrow archway in the castle wall, and assuming we could (just maybe) have got the hire car through it without scraping off the sides, we certainly weren't going to be able to drive it over the 3' wide footbridge that crossed the river, to our accommodation.

That truck driver doesn't sound like he was the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

The tow truck driver must have known what he was doing. My brother drives a huge wrecker that is capable of towing semis and he has been in some tricky situations but always is able to find a solution and get the job done. And yes those wrecker calls are very expensive. I-90 runs through our county and when the weather is bad there are some messy pile ups and accidents.

Our driveway is not as long as yours. We live on a dirt road & the main road turns right at the 2 mailboxes. If you go straight you will dead end to us. So up by the mail boxes we have a sign that says "Private Drive." Maybe that will help in the future.

DH was an agribusiness manager for many years and hired (and fired) many truck drivers. He paid them poorly (company policy) and had a jaded opinion of some: The one who said, “Man, last week I couldn’t even spell truck driver. Now I are one!” Or the job applicant who, when told he’d need to pass a drug test, said cautiously, “well yeah I think I can pass a drug test. Lay them out and I’ll try to name them all,” in his best Bubba Joe voice.

No offense to those who know and love GOOD truck drivers.

And yes, highly skilled tow truck drivers are invaluable and can be very pricey. Easily into 4-figures-pricey.

More than one first-time visitor staying at Kapalua in West Maui has showed up in the wee hours of the morning, shaken and exhausted after driving for hours following the GPS directions from the airport in Kahului.

There is one authorized road in and out of West Maui. It is two-lanes where it winds through the West Maui Mountains. At night, you can get to Kapalua in about an hour. It's a well maintained, lighted highway with shoulders.

There is also an old, narrow, poorly maintained, but *shorter* road that runs up the east coast over northern coast of the island. In places there is only one lane. (Some tourists ignore their rental car agreements not to use this road, and drive from Kapalua 'over the top'. They are on the *inside* of this road, hugging the mountain.

Driving this bad road at night from the airport to Kapalua puts you on the *outside* of the road, next to sheer drops into the ocean. There is no place to turn around. Tourists arriving late on Maui are already exhausted from long flights. Then GPS sends them 'the shortest route' in the pitch black Maui night.

That’s ok littlebug, for my DH it was just temporary while he acclimated to the country. With a masters in both English and Astrophysics, I’m sure he would have gotten bored pretty quick. :c)

GPS and/or Google maps are designed to take the shortest quickest route, not necessarily the safest or best.

Bob, I hope you don't have any problems getting reimbursed for damages!

Bob perhaps you should invest in a nice large sign at the beginning of the driveway!! Private drive, enter at your own risk lol

Wow, that's quite an adventure for all involved!

Do document all the damage done with pics and be sure to get the insurance info from the driver.

I had a neighbor who was getting a propane delivery. He requested their smaller truck since he had a narrow gravel driveway. They sent the larger propane truck and it got really stuck. They had to get a huge tow truck and lift it (after draining the tank into another truck).

Bob - Glad your unexpected "guest" was able to leave albeit with some help. I hope the damage is at a minimum but you have a great story to tell now.

Dang! That took some doing to get him outta there. lol

Years ago, the town was closed for a snow storm & a UPS driver tried driving up our driveway, we have a flag lot. Slid backwards whipping a U until he was lodged sideways, hanging across, with a ravine on either side.

Littlebug, there have been a rash of car/truck, or just single truck collisions lately. A lot of new drivers think it's cool to text while handling a rig. Also, the driver-training courses are quick......just a few short weeks and you're hauling a 32-ton trailer to the states.

Just last week the cops pulled a truck over, and the driver (24) was watching a movie on his tablet.

I have a huge respect for drivers, everything I eat and sit on and wear was brought via truck, but with all these ego-inflated newbies, they scare the heck out of me. Now I look in my rear-view mirror to make sure one isn't barreling down on me, if I have to slow down.

There's a saying something like "he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer" i think the semi driver was not even the sharpest spoon in the drawer. He kept saying he was trying to get to "Home Foods". We thought he might have meant "Whole Foods" however when we looked at the paperwork it clearly said "Home Goods" which is about 4 miles away, just off the busiest road in the area, in a giant shopping center. I can't imaging anyone looking at our driveway a thinking I bet there is a giant shopping center there. In fact some of our AirBNB guests have driven halfway down our driveway and turned around and went back to the road and texted us to make sure they weren't in the wrong place.

Home Goods' address is 300 Twentyninth Pl Ct and our address does start with the digits "29" and the zip code is the same, but that is about all there is in common. Its especially puzzling that his GPS would send him here, when about half of the people trying to get here end up going down the neighbor's driveway.

Fortunately the tow truck operator was a very skilled truck driver, he was the one who actually backed the truck out to where it could be turned around. The semi driver's one attempt at backing up on the relatively straight section near the house resulted in him being 4 feet off the driveway, and when he pull forward to straighten out he went too far, by 100 feet, back onto the gravel section and then couldn't quite manage to figure out the brake, the clutch and the gas and rolled forward further and further until he was stuck for the night. If he had managed to get further I'm sure he would have ended up backing into the pond or rolling over to the bottom of the dam.

A guy who has done various exterior jobs for us and the previous owners happened to be at the neighbor's house this morning. So he stopped by when he was down there, and just on the short gravel segment with the culvert where the semi got stuck he estimated $250 in materials and $350 in labor to make it right. Plus the 4 bundles of metal T-posts he drove cost $250, we still need to figure out how many are damaged. And there was still more damage to edges of the asphalt along the the pipestem leading out to the road.

If you do put up a sign, merely state, "Private Driveway". Do not add the words, "Enter at your own risk" as this an invite for the more adventurous to try and it defeats the message that this is a private drive that others should avoid.

Gee, Bob, what a nice Christmas “present.” I hope you receive full restitution for the damage.

Jasdip, your post reminds me of the FedEx semi truck I saw the other day on the freeway. We were in the middle of a snow storm dropping 2 inches an hour, icy roads and this guy was literally up the tail end of a one of those little tiny Honda Fits in the slow lane! There wasn’t even the length of an average sized car between them. Scared the bejeepers out of me two lanes over, so I can only imagine how the guy in the Fit felt!

Obviously, I have seen too many movies. I feared a clever bunch of thieves hiding in the 'stuck truck', who would wait until dark, then break in and cart away your furnishings. (The Trojan Horse story, with a modern twist.)

OMG Bob, you really gave me a laugh. Sorry it happened though, wasn't good in any way.

It would have been fun to see a picture of the truck stuck. Are you getting together with family for Christmas, Bob? Great story to tell!

May be it's time for a circular driveway? :-) Put up a sign should help.

Pictures:

Panorama side view

Hanging off the driveway:

Tow truck:

Backing down driveway:

Turning around:

Cool pictures! Your countryside looks like mine.

Ever shoot anything out of that treestand?

It's not a treestand, it is a ladder to climb up to use a zipline that goes over the pond.

Ah. I see now. What fun!

Bob, I've never heard of anyone having and using a zipline on his/her property. How very fun!

Poor guy, I feel bad for him. He must have been embarrassed and worried about how his employer would react. Yea, he should have realized the GPS was giving him bad directions, but I still feel sympathy for him.

The photos really helped me understand how he got stuck. That drainage looks like a big part of the problem in that his trailer couldn't clear it and then the narrow road. That is no place for a semi to be!

This thread reminds me of the time a Fed Ex truck got stuck in our yard. For some reason, she thought our front yard was a road that passed within three feet of our front door and went flying by at a high rate of speed. Once passed the front door, she became stuck in the gravel behind the house (part of our fire break). Her truck cleared the underside of our deck by less than two inches. Hubby had to pull her out with his backhoe.